Biography
Xiaorui Zhou is currently studying history and Middle Eastern studies in a double degree program at the National University of Singapore and the Institut D'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). Her family migrated from Chutang, a village in Hunan province, to Yueyang City, where she was born and raised. At NUS, she received the NTUC gold medal for top student in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the George E. Bogaars Memorial Prize for top student in history. She co-founded Project Initium, a free liberal arts initiative for high school graduates from rural counties in Hunan, where she led seminars on history and gender. She is also an accomplished Yangqin (Chinese Dulcimer) player, with a broad interest in 'Silk Road' instruments. Xiaorui aspires to be a scholar and writer of modern China, centring her accounts on ordinary people's lived experiences and the invention(s) of gender categories since the 1800s.