Dr Lisha Xu

  • Lecturer (Translation Studies with Chinese Mandarin) (Translation studies)

Biography

Lisha Xu is a Lecturer in Translation Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. She obtained her PhD in Translation from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2021. Before she joined UoG, she worked as a Teaching Fellow in Chinese and Translation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. 

 

 

Research interests

Her research involves audio-visual translation in theatre and literature, translation and advocacy, and on how to ensure accessibility for a wider audience in the theatre. Her current research is focused on translating Classical Chinese Opera (xiqu) for the Anglophone stage and the study of Chinese translators of the early 20th-century diaspora.

Her own PhD research looked at how Peking Opera, one of the most widely-staged forms of Classical Chinese Opera in China today, might be translated for performance in the English-speaking world. Her thesis analysed the first English-language production of Peking Opera on the London stage (1934) by a Chinese translator (S.I. Hsiung). Her case study analysed Hsiung’s strategies for negotiating the formal and narrative codes that bind Peking Opera performance into its characteristically unified harmonious aesthetic. Translation for performance is considered in her research as a form of writing that both recognizes the demands of spectatorship, as well as the rights and interests of the original.

She is now working on a book about Classical Chinese Opera (xiqu) Translation. 

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024
Number of items: 6.

2025

Xu, L. (2025) Re-assembling fragments across time and space: the translation of folk narrative in Lady Precious Stream. In: Ward, J.P., Chan, K.K.Y. and Garfield Lau, C.S. (eds.) The Myriad Faces of Heroes and Heroines. Series: Asia in transition (vol 28). Springer: Singapore, pp. 73-91. ISBN 9789819789580 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-8959-7_5)

Xu, L. (2025) Feminism and androgyny: Gender politics in contemporary classical Chinese opera. Journal of Specialised Translation(43), pp. 12-25.

Xu, L. and Johnston, D. (2025) Not outraged? Are you sure you’re paying attention? Journal of Specialised Translation(43), pp. 2-11.

2024

Xu, L. (2024) The affordance of feminism: Amy Ng's translation of Guan Hanqing's Rescuing One's Sister in the Wind and Dust. Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities, 55, pp. 121-147.

Xu, L. (2024) Advocacy and recognition. In: Boyle, Catherine and Maitland, Sarah (eds.) Translation as Advocacy: Perspectives on Practice, Performance and Publishing. Series: Language acts and worldmaking. John Murray: London. ISBN 9781399816144

Xu, L. (2024) The anxiety of representation: translation studies in China. In: Bassnett, Susan and Johnston, David (eds.) Debates in Translation Studies. Routledge (Taylor & Francis). ISBN 9781003104773 (doi: 10.4324/9781003104773-9)

This list was generated on Sun Apr 20 10:27:15 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Book Sections
Number of items: 6.

Articles

Xu, L. (2025) Feminism and androgyny: Gender politics in contemporary classical Chinese opera. Journal of Specialised Translation(43), pp. 12-25.

Xu, L. and Johnston, D. (2025) Not outraged? Are you sure you’re paying attention? Journal of Specialised Translation(43), pp. 2-11.

Xu, L. (2024) The affordance of feminism: Amy Ng's translation of Guan Hanqing's Rescuing One's Sister in the Wind and Dust. Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities, 55, pp. 121-147.

Book Sections

Xu, L. (2025) Re-assembling fragments across time and space: the translation of folk narrative in Lady Precious Stream. In: Ward, J.P., Chan, K.K.Y. and Garfield Lau, C.S. (eds.) The Myriad Faces of Heroes and Heroines. Series: Asia in transition (vol 28). Springer: Singapore, pp. 73-91. ISBN 9789819789580 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-8959-7_5)

Xu, L. (2024) Advocacy and recognition. In: Boyle, Catherine and Maitland, Sarah (eds.) Translation as Advocacy: Perspectives on Practice, Performance and Publishing. Series: Language acts and worldmaking. John Murray: London. ISBN 9781399816144

Xu, L. (2024) The anxiety of representation: translation studies in China. In: Bassnett, Susan and Johnston, David (eds.) Debates in Translation Studies. Routledge (Taylor & Francis). ISBN 9781003104773 (doi: 10.4324/9781003104773-9)

This list was generated on Sun Apr 20 10:27:15 2025 BST.

Prior publications

Book Section

Lisha Xu (2025) Eking out comedy Crossref. (doi: 10.4324/9781003547006-13)

Article

Lisha Xu, David Johnston (2025) Not outraged? Are you sure you’re paying attention? Crossref. (doi: 10.26034/cm.jostrans.2025.6937)

Lisha Xu, David Johnston (2022) Between safeguarding and translating: Chinese classical opera and Spanish Golden Age theatre Crossref. (doi: 10.1080/14781700.2022.2120906)

(2021) Ecologies of translation: Chinese Classical Opera and Spanish Golden Age Theatre LISHA XU. (doi: https://doi.org/10.55422/bbmp.441)

Supervision

Principal Supervisor: Revisiting The Third Space: translation and adaptation of contemporary graphic novels as diasporic Chinese YA literature in the Anglophone world, Di Yang, October 2025 Entry

Co-Supervisor: Cross-Cultural Beauty Advice: Understanding Politeness Strategies on RED and Instagram, Kexin Cao, October 2025 Entry

  • Yang, Hanru
    Unnatural Narrative in Translating Novels and Short Stories

Teaching

Translation Studies MSc:

Translation Studies: Theory and Practice

Translation of Literature and Culture

Approaches to Translation and Professional Environment

Mandarin Advanced and Language Study

 

 

 


Dr Lisha Xu on Twitter