Xin Peng

Dr Xin Peng

BA MA PhD

Xin Peng works at the intersection of American film history, media technologies, and Asian racial formation.

Xin Peng

Dr Peng has written on talkies and early Asian American movie stars, Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa (published in Camera Obscura); early Technicolor and Hollywood Orientalism (appeared in Screen); and 1930s Busby Berkeley musical and racial capitalism. She is now writing a book-length media history of San Francisco’s Chinatown telephone exchange (c. 1901-1949) and its women operators. Other miscellaneous writings (reviews, encyclopedic entries, short research essays) can be found in Technology and Culture, ASAP/JWomen Film Pioneers Project, and New Review of Film and Television Studies.

Dr Peng is the current book reviewer's editor of Early Popular Visual Culture, having previously served as the managing editor for Feminist Media Histories and assistant editor for the Journal of Chinese Cinemas. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington. Before Seattle, she studied for an MA at the University of Chicago and a BA at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

What's on

A tree-lined campus walkway covered in golden autumn leaves leads toward a building, creating a vibrant canopy with a few people walking along the path.

Open Cambridge - Tree Trail

11/09/2026 at 10.00

A self-guided Tree Trail taking you through the beautiful and varied gardens of Wolfson College.

Abstract painting featuring a simplified yellow outlined figure beside a faint sepia-toned face rendered on textured canvas.

Art Exhibition: 'Images and Other Conversations'

12/09/2026 at 10.00

Visit Wolfson's latest exhibition 'Images and Other Conversations', featuring work by artists Suleman Aqeel Khilji and Charlotte Winifred Guérard, winners of the Wolfson Royal Academy Schools Graduate Prize.

A tall, narrow black sculpture made of stacked horizontal layers stands on a grassy lawn in a landscaped courtyard, with trees and brick buildings in the background.

Wolfson College Sculpture Trail: Richard Bray

12/09/2026 at 10.00

Wolfson College is delighted to showcase the work of acclaimed Cambridgeshire-based artist and sculptor, Richard Bray MRSS. 

A person wearing gloves and a lab coat adjusts a microscope while examining a clear cell culture dish in a laboratory.

Virtual Open Evening: Graduate Course in Medicine

17/09/2026 at 18.00

Join the Cambridge Graduate Course in Medicine team for an online open evening.

An older adult wearing an orange quilted vest examines historical documents displayed on a table in a library or archive exhibition.

Open Cambridge - Everyday Histories in Wolfson’s Cambridge Collection

18/09/2026 at 11.00

Drop in to our Library to browse this exhibition about life in Cambridgeshire over the last 200 years.

News