Date: 4 August 2026 (Tuesday)

Time: 12:30–14:00

Venue: Room 505, Esther Lee Building,CUHK (with Zoom Livestream)

Speaker: Dr Heidi Huang (Lecturer, General Education China Programme)

Language: English (supplemented by Putonghua and Cantonese)

Free registration: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13737356

About the Lecture:

In recent years, the figure of the “middle-aged girl” (中年少女) has emerged as a popular cultural phenomenon in China, appearing in memoirs, essays, diaries, and autobiographical fiction. While these narratives focus on midlife women, they also reveal broader social anxieties and aspirations surrounding youth, aging, gender, and selfhood. Drawing on Yuriko Saito’s concept of the “aestheticization of transience,” this talk examines how contemporary Chinese women writers narrate the experience of aging and life transition, arguing that the popularity of “middle-aged girl” narratives reflects changing understandings of the life course in contemporary China. By exploring how women imagine life after youth, these texts offer valuable insights into intergenerational dialogue, gender awareness, everyday well-being, and the cultural meanings attached to youth and aging. The phenomenon also invites young people to reconsider dominant ideals of success, beauty, and self-development across different stages of life.

About the Speaker:

Joined the General Education China Programme of the Office of University General Education and CW Chu College in August 2025. She received her MA and PhD in Transcultural Studies from the University of Lyon (L’Universit? Jean Moulin Lyon III) and conducted her postdoctoral research at the City University of Hong Kong. Her wide research interests include comparative literature and world literature, Sino- European Transcultural Encounters, Chinese literature and culture in global contexts.