Dr. Xi Xu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Art History, Free University of Berlin. She received her PhD from China Academy of Art in 2023. Prior to joining the Free University of Berlin, she worked at the College of Arts, Sichuan University and was granted a Postdoctoral Fellowship from China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. From 2020 to 2022, she was a visiting PhD student at Hamburg University and Free University of Berlin funded by the China Scholarship Council.

Dr. Xu’s research interests include Chinese art history in the 20th century and transcultural art communication. Her PhD thesis, The Needed Satire: Manhua Magazine in the Period of Shanghai from 1950 to 1955, investigated the history of Manhua (cartoons) magazine and the interaction of its editors with the cartoonists, readers, administration, and political movements. Her Master’s thesis, Peace Dove’s Journey to China: the Thought and Symbol of Peace in Chinese Art History, examined how the symbol of peace doves was introduced, recognized and adapted in the art creation in China.

• “Chang Shu-chi yu Baige tu: Zhongmei wenhua waijiao zhong de yiye” [Chang Shu-chi and A Hundred Doves: A story in Sino-American Cultural Diplomacy], in: Yishu guandian ACT/Art Critique of Taiwan Vol. 98 (2024): 62-71. 

• “Specialization and Popularization: ‘Cartoon Classroom’ of Manhua Magazine in the 1950s of China,” in Caricatures en Extrême-Orient: Origines, rencontres, métissages, eds. Laurent Baridon and Marie Laureillard, Hémisphères Editions, 2024: 349-360. 

• “Hepingge tuxiang zai xinzhongguo tiren yu chuangzuo” [The Reception and Artistic Creation of ‘Peace Dove’ Images in the New China], in: Xin Meishu/New Arts: Journal of the National Academy of Arts Vol. 42 (2021): 130-139. 

• “Shanghai gongren manhua chuangzuo: 1950-1955 nian de manhua yuekan” [Workers’ Cartoon Creation in Shanghai from 1949 to 1955: A Study based on Manhua Magazine], in: Meishu Xuebao/Art Journal No. 133 (2022): 24-31. 

• “20 shiji shangbanye hepingge tuxiang de chuanbo yu jieshou” [The Communication and Acceptance of the “Peace Dove” Images in the First Half of the 20th Century], in: Hubei Meishu Xueyuan Xuebao/Hubei Institute of Fine Arts Journal No. 88 (2020): 60-64.