Dr. Tommy Tse is Associate Professor in the Television and Cross-Media Culture (TVCMC) program at the Media Studies Department, University of Amsterdam. He is also affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), the HKU Global China Social Research Hub, and the Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University as an Honorary Associate Professor (2022 – 2025). He specialises in East Asia’s media and cultural industries, creative and platform work, consumer culture, and sociology of fashion. In 2022, Tse received the prestigious European Research Council's Consolidator Grant (ERC CoG) (2 million Euro) for his 5-year multi-sited ethnographic project entitled "China Fashion Power - Fashioning Power through South-South Interaction: Re-thinking Creativity, Authenticity, Cultural Mediation and Consumer Agency along China-Africa Fashion Value Chains".

Tse completed his Bachelor of Arts (Hon) degree in Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong, followed by his MPhil study in Gender, Literature and Film in the same department. After graduation, Tse first worked in various media and creative companies, including Art Map Ltd., ADO and TBWA\ (4As ad agency), and then decided to pursue a PhD degree at the Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong, conducting ethnographic research on the intricate production and mediation of fashion as a symbolic and cultural product in and through various institutions in Hong Kong and across Asia.

Before joining UvA, Tse taught at six different institutions: the Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong; Faculty of Social Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong; School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University; Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London; the Culture and Media Domain, HKU SPACE CC; and Hong Kong Design Institute. Over the years, Tse also worked as a project-based copywriter for various global fashion, luxury and pharmaceutical brands.

In 2015, Tse was the Visiting Scholar at the National Center for Radio and Television Studies, Communication University of China, Beijing, and at the Fashion Institute of Design, Donghua University, Shanghai. Among hundreds of applicants around the world, Tse was shortlisted as one of the 30 "Dreamers" participating in the Alibaba Global Dreamers Programme in Hangzhou, China in Summer 2018. In Fall 2018, he was a Visiting Scholar/Research Associate at University College London (Anthropology Department) and London College of Fashion (Social and Cultural Studies). He was an elected member of the Amsterdam Young Academy (2020 - 2024), and he serves the Editorial Board of Fashion, Style and Popular Culture (2023 – 2026), International Journal of Fashion Studies (2021 – 2026) and Work, Employment and Society (2021 – 2024; 2019 - 2021 in the Associate Board). Since 2024, Tse has also become a Board Member of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) (2024 - 2027). His work has appeared in top-tier peer-reviewed journals such as European Journal of Cultural Studies (Sage), Information, Communication and Society (Taylor & Francis), International Journal of Cultural Studies (Sage), Journal of Consumer Culture (Sage), Journal of Cultural Economy (Taylor & Francis), New Media & Society (Sage), Sociology (Sage) and Work, Employment and Society (Sage), in addition to his co-authored book Celebrity Culture and the Entertainment Industry in Asia: Use of Celebrity and Its Influence on Society, Culture and Communication (Intellect Books).                                          

For details, see Tse's personal website: https://www.tommyhltse.com

Research Agenda

My scholarship has focused on three intertwined areas which are prominent in media and cultural studies, namely (i) cultural production and mediation, (ii) creative labour studies and (iii) consumer culture. As a practitioner-turned-sociologist, I have extended the traditional research agenda by bringing together the seemingly disparate worlds of culture and commerce and theorising their convergence in the globally surging cultural and creative industries. My study of cultural economy originally and distinctively reforms and refines core social and cultural theories to illuminate how divergent types of “cultural professionals” systematically co-create, commercialize and mediate cultural goods in contemporary East Asian societies, (re)shaping our sense of value, social relations and meanings of life in unprecedented ways. In particular, my research unpacks and conceptualises the nuances and contradictions behind the meteoric rise of Korea’s and China’s media and creative industries and popular culture.

As an insider-ethnographer, I have extended the research agenda to the intricate inner working of cultural production and generally “hard-to-reach” cultural producers/labourers, providing a distinctive conceptual understanding of their social lives and the new meanings of creative labour through “walking their walks, talking their talks”. Over the years I gained rare access to the fashion, advertising, media and entertainment sectors in Hong Kong, China, Korea and Africa conducted interviews with over 200 creative industry professionals. The sociocultural specificity of my research fills a significant research gap between theory and practice of the predominantly ‘Western-centric’ studies of cultural production, mediation and consumption. Through rethinking the social and cultural milieus of East Asia in a global context, my research program reconceptualises key social and cultural theories that have been primarily developed from Euro-American experiences (e.g. “cultural intermediaries”, “prosumption”, "authenticity", "creativity", "data colonialism") and facilitates intellectual dialogues in a global, decolonial and/or “ex-centric” perspective.

Building on my strong, focused research program in Hong Kong, China and Korea, I have now expanded my multi-sited ethnography to cover the cultural economies of and the transnational cultural flows between various Global South countries (the “South-South interactions”), including Africa. Another line of research enquiry would be the investigation of how urbanization, technology and the rise of sharing/gig economy change the nature of work and workers’ wellbeing in cities across the global North and South. 

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Tse, T., Zhang, Y. & Van Noord, N. (2024) “China as data coloniser? Rethinking cultural production, cultural mediation, and consumer agency on Kenyan and Chinese e-commerce platforms”, International Journal of Cultural Studies (Sage). https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241292077

Poell, T., Duffy, B.E., Nieborg, D., Mutsvairo, B., Tse, T., Arriagada, A., de Kloet, J., & Sun, P. (2024). “Global perspectives on platforms and cultural production”, International Journal of Cultural Studies (Sage).  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13678779241292736

Poon, H. & Tse, T. (2024). "Enacting cross-platform (buy/boy)cotts: Yellow Economic Circle and the new citizen-consumer politics in Hong Kong", New Media & Society (Sage).      https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448221097305

Rahbari, L., Kramer, D., Deserno, M., Tse, T., & Matos, T. R. (2024). "Activism and academia: an interdisciplinary dialogue on academic freedom and social engagement", Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management (Taylor & Francis). https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2024.2390197

Tse, T., & Pun, N. (2024). "Infrastructural capitalism in China: Alibaba, its corporate culture and three infrastructural mechanisms", Global Media and China. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241226846

Tse, T., Semerene, D., & Kurkdjian, S. (2024). "B(l)ending research methods: Reimagining a theoretical turn in fashion scholarship", International Journal of Fashion Studies (Intellect).  https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/infs_00106_2

Tsang, L.T., Li, X., & Tse, T. (2024). "Pluralising China as Method: Between exceptionalism and universalism", Global Media and China (Sage).   https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241235421

Kofman, E., Lee, M. & Tse T. (2023) "China and the internationalisation of the sociology of contemporary work and employment", Work, Employment and Society (Sage).   https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211059420

Li, X., Tsang, L. T. & Tse, T. (2023). "Pluralising China as Method: Decolonising cultural mediations in the global South", Global Media and China (Sage).  https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231216265

Tse, T. & Von Pezold, J. (2023). “Memories reminisced, reconciled, renewed: Hong Kong male consumers’ wardrobes and their search for a congruent self”, Journal of Consumer Culture (Sage).  https://doi.org/10.1177/14695405221149098

Tse, T. & Li, X.T. (2023). “Recoupling corporate culture with new political discourse in China’s platform economy: The case of Alibaba”, Work, Employment and Society (Sage).  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170221083106

Tse, T. & Gheorghiu, I. (2023). "The good life as accountable: Moralities of dress consumption in China and Romania", Journal of Consumer Culture (Sage). https://doi.org/10.1177/14695405221141951

Von Pezold, J. & Tse, T. (2022). “Luxury consumption and the temporal-spatial subjectivity of Hong Kong men”, Consumption Markets and Culture (Taylor & Francis). https://hdl.handle.net/11245.1/2d53b888-7328-4d1a-8ac4-aac0c1c0c77c

Tse, T. & Shum, H. (2022). "Platforms, politics, and precarity: Hong Kong television workers amid the new techno-nationalist media agenda*", European Journal of Cultural Studies (Sage).  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13675494221105534

    *Winner, The Academy of Hong Kong Studies Outstanding Paper Awards 2022/2023.

Tse, T. (2022). “Work faster, harder, cheaper? Global, local and sectoral co-configurations of job insecurities among Hong Kong creative workers*”, Critical Sociology (Sage). https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221087345

   *shortlisted in Top 5, ICAS Best Articles on Global Hong Kong Studies 2023 (Social Sciences Category).

Tse, T. & Tsang, L.T. (2021). “Reconceptualising prosumption beyond the ‘cultural turn’: Passive fashion prosumption in Korea and China”, Journal of Consumer Culture  (Sage), 21(4): 703-723.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540518804300

Tse, T., Shin, V. & Tsang, L.T. (2020). “From Shanzhai chic to Gangnam style: Seven practices of cultural-economic mediation in China and Korea”, Journal of Cultural Economy (Taylor & Francis), 13(5): 511–530.   https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2020.1719867

Pun, N., Tse, T., Shin, V. & Fan, L.L. (2020). “Conceptualising socio-economic formations of labour and workers’ power in global production networks”, Sociology (Sage), 54(4): 745–762.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520908779

Shin, V., Tsang, L.T. & Tse, T. (2020). “Bridging structural and micro-level factors in cultural labour studies: A multilevel analysis of performing arts administration professionals in Hong Kong”, Social Transformations in Chinese Societies (the official journal of The Hong Kong Sociological Association): 16(1): 15–37.   https://doi.org/10.1108/STICS-03-2019-0007

Iaquinto, B., Kim, J.E., Serban, F. and Tse, T. (2019). “Worlds of work: Implications of urbanisation, technology and sustainability”, The International Sociological Association E-Symposium (Sage), 9(3): 1–6.

Tse, T. (2019). “Chinese styles in pluralities: Destabilising the Western-centric fashion discourse in ‘multiple China(s)’ [Book review: Fashion in Multiple Chinas: Chinese Styles in the Transglobal Landscape (by Wessie Ling and Simona Segre-Reinach, 2018)]”. China Quarterly. [ISSN: 0305-7410]

Tse, T., Leung, V., Cheng, K. & Chan, J. (2018). “A clown, a political messiah or a punching bag? Rethinking the performative identity construction of celebrity through social media”, Global Media and China (Sage), 3(3): 141–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059436418805540

    *Winner, Best Poster Award of the 2017 International Conference on Social Media+Society.  

Leung, V., Cheng, K. & Tse, T. (2018), “Insiders’ views: The current practice of using celebrities in marketing communications in Greater China”, Intercultural Communications Studies. 27(1): 96–113. [ISSN: 1057-7769]

Pun, N., Tse, T. & Ng, K. (2017). “Challenging digital capitalism: SACOM’s campaigns against Apple and Foxconn as monopoly capital”, Information, Communication and Society (Taylor & Francis), 22(9): 1253–1268. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1414290

Chan, K., Tse, T., Tam, D. & Huang, A. (2016). “Perception of healthy and unhealthy food among Chinese adolescents”, Young Consumers. 17(1): 32–45. [ISSN: 1747-3616]

Tse, T. (2016). “Consistent inconsistency of fashion magazines and the socialization of fashionability in Hong Kong”, The Journal of Business Anthropology (CBS), 5(1): 154–179. https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v5i1.5221 

Tse, T. (2016). “Four myths of fashion—An ethnographic research on the fashion media industry in Hong Kong & China”, International Sociological Association E-Symposium (Sage), 6(1): 1-16.   https://www.isaportal.org/resources/resource/four-myths-of-fashion/

Tse, T. (2015). “Two different tales of fashion media industry development in Mainland China and Hong Kong”, Clothing Cultures (Intellect), 2(3): 257–274. https://doi.org/10.1386/cc.2.3.257_1

Tse, T. (2015). “An ethnographic study of glocal fashion communication in Hong Kong and Greater China”, International Journal of Fashion Studies (Intellect), 2(2): 245–266.   https://doi.org/10.1386/infs.2.2.245_1

Tse, T. (2014). “Fashion media communication in Hong Kong”, International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education (Taylor & Francis), 7(2): 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/17543266.2014.921244

Tse, T. (2014), “Negotiations between fashion marketers and journalists in Asia”, Asian Journal of Business Research. 4(1): 30–42. [ISSN: 1178-8933]

Book

Leung, V., Tse, T. & Cheng, K. (2017), Celebrity Culture and the Entertainment Industry in Asia: Use of Celebrity and Its Influence on Society, Culture and Communication. Bristol, UK: Intellect.

Book chapters (selected)

Tse, T. & Lam, G. (2022). “KPI-chasers, content farmers and ‘slashers’: New challenges to Hong Kong fashion journalists in the digital age” in Insights on Fashion Journalism. Edited by Rosie Findlay and Johannes Reponen, London, UK: Taylor & Francis.

Tse, T. & Tsang, L.T. (2020). “Reconceptualising prosumption beyond the ‘cultural turn’” (reprinted) in Fashion Theory: A Reader (2^nd edition). Edited by Malcom Barnard. Oxon, UK; New York, USA: Routledge.

Tse, T. & Tsang, L.T. (2017). “From Clicks-and-Bricks to Online-to-Offline: The Evolving E-tail/Retail Space as Immersive Media in Hong Kong and Mainland China” in Retail Design: Theoretical Perspectives. Edited by Anthony Kent & Ann Petermans, Oxford, UK: Routledge, 87–113.

Tse, T. (2015), “Beyond Freudian narcissism and the cowboy myth” in Ways of Queering, Ways of Seeing, Edited by Jo Grzelinska & Jill Cox, Oxford, United Kingdom: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 205-224.

Tse, T. & Wright, L.T. (2014). “Luxury brands and deriving fashion meanings in a media context in Hong Kong” in Luxury Brands in Emerging Markets. Edited by Glyn Atwal and Douglas Bryson, London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 155–165.

Tse, T. (2014). “Fashion communication in Asia: Participant observation and qualitative interview with media personnel at MILK X Monthly” in Fashion and Its Multi-Cultural Facets. Edited by Patricia Hunt-Hurst & Sabrina Ramsamy-Iranah, Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 221–232.

Completed and ongoing competitive research grant projects

2023-2028     Co-PI/International Advisor, The Cultural and Creative Industries and Youth Development in the Greater Bay Area, Lingnan University Creative and Cultural Innovation Research Institute (Qianhai, Shenzhen, China). Funded by Lingnan University and the Authority of Qianhai, Shenzhen, China.

2022–2027    PI, China Fashion Power: Fashioning Power through South-South Interaction: Re-thinking Creativity, Authenticity, Cultural Mediation and Consumer Agency along China-Africa Fashion Value Chains. ERC Consolidator Grant (CoG) 2021, European Research Council.

2020–2021    PI, De-Westernising Fashion: An Ex-centric Perspective on Creativity, Authenticity, Cultural Mediation, and Consumer Agency along Chinese-African Fashion Value Chains. HKU Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research. (Co-I: Dr. Sérgio Inácio Chichava [Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Economicos (IESE), Maputo], Dr. Jacqueline Kisato [Kenyatta University], Prof. Charles Nzioka [University of Nairobi] and Dr. Nina Sylvanus [Northeastern University]). 

2020–2021    PI, Migrant Integration in China, Vietnam and Myanmar: Case Studies and Experience Exchange. Oxfam Hong Kong/China Project Fund. (Co-I: Prof. Pun Ngai and Dr. Debby Sze-Wan Chan [University of Hong Kong]. 

2019             Co-I, Creative Workers Participated in 2019 Hong Kong Protests: A Critical Investigation of the Causes, Motivations and Relations between Socio-Economic Factors and Political Participation. Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR). (PI: Prof. Pun Ngai [University of Hong Kong]; Co-I: Prof. Jack Qiu [Chinese University of Hong Kong]) 

2019–2020    PI, Working in/out the Automated ‘Smart’ Cities: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese Media Professionals’ Psychological Wellbeing. HKU Faculty of Social Sciences Strategic Research Clusters Seed Funding. (Co-I: Dr. Christian Chan, Dr. Byrant Hui, Dr. Li-Fung Cho [University of Hong Kong] and Dr. Yimei Zhu [University of Leicester]) 

2018–2019    PI, Food for Thought, Food for Globe – Reduction of Meat Consumption in Hong Kong’s Schools. HKU Knowledge Exchange Project Fund. (Co-I: Dr. Carmen Tong    [Sociology, HKU]; Dr. Christelle Not [Earth Sciences, HKU]). 

2017              PI, Cultural/Creative Labour and ‘Neo-Precarity’: Emerging Challenges and Responses of Precarious Workers in Chinese Cultural and Creative Industries. HKU Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research. (Co-I: Prof. Anthony Fung [Chinese University of Hong Kong] and Prof. Chris Smith [Royal Holloway, University of London]) 

2017–2018    PI, Green a Difference – Reduction of Animal Consumption in Hong Kong. HKU Knowledge Exchange Project Fund. (Co-I: Dr. Carmen Tong [Sociology, HKU]; collaborating partner: Green Monday Hong Kong). 

2017–2018    Co-I, Sustainable Sunday Couture: Domestic Workers and Upcycling Designers. HKU Knowledge Exchange Project Fund. (PI: Dr. Julie Ham [HKU]) 

2016–2017    PI, Creative Industries in Flux: A Critical Investigation into the Challenges, Agency and Potential of Cultural and Creative Workers in Hong Kong. Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR). (Co-I: Dr. Anne Peirson-Smith [City University of Hong Kong]). 

2016–2017    PI, Size Does Matter: Reflecting Our Attitudes and Knowledge about Non-Human Animals in Urban Hong Kong. Interdisciplinary Knowledge Exchange Project Fund. (Co-I: Dr. Benoit Guénard [Biological Science, HKU] & Dr. Carmen Tong [Sociology, HKU]). 

2015–2017    PI, Co-creating Fashion in the Post-Industrial Society: A Comparative Analysis of Creative Industries in China and South Korea. Funded by Early Career Scheme (ECS), University Grants Council. (Co-Is: Dr. Solee Shin [National University of Singapore], Dr. Pan Lu [Hong Kong Polytechnic University] and Dr. Jana Hajzlerova [Charles University in Prague]) 

2014–2015    PI, A Comparative Analysis of Creative Industries in Greater China and South Korea – Fashion as Case Study. HKU Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research for New Staff (and Departmental Matching Fund) 

Visiting fellowship, awards and nominations

2024              Winner, The Academy of Hong Kong Studies Outstanding Paper Awards 2022/2023.

2024              Shortlisted in Top 5, ICAS Best Articles on Global Hong Kong Studies 2023 (Social Sciences Category)

2022              Nominee, UvA Lecturer of the Year, University of Amsterdam

2022              Nominee, UvA Faculty of Humanities Education Award 2022, University of Amsterdam

2020              Dean’s list (UvA Humanities) for the Fellowship of Amsterdam Young Academy (AYA)

2019              Awardee, The Social Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Hong Kong

2019              Shortlisted Finalist, HKU Outstanding Teaching Awards, University of Hong Kong

Fall 2018      Visiting Scholar, Department of Anthropology, University College London (UCL)

Fall 2018      Visiting Scholar, School of Media and Communication, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London (UAL)

Aug 2015     Visiting Scholar, Fashion Institute of Design, Donghua University, Shanghai

Jul 2015       Visiting Scholar, National Center for Radio and Television Studies, Communication University of China, Beijing

Invited lectures (selected)

Sep 17, Speaker, "Real, touch & feel: the multi-layered authenticity, originality and creativity of fashion in Kenya", KWI Essen Public Seminar Series: Embodied Ethnography in the Global Cultural Economy, KWI Essen Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen, Germany. 

Aug 22, Speaker, "China as Data Coloniser? Rethinking Cultural Production, Cultural Mediation, and Consumer Agency on Kenyan and Chinese E-Commerce Platforms", Mapping Asia-Africa Connections in a Changing World Order: International Workshop, Centre for Asian Studies in Africa, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

May 31, Speaker, "China as data coloniser? Rethinking cultural production, cultural mediation, and consumer agency on Kenyan and Chinese e-commerce platforms", Basel Workshop: Transnational Trade in a Post-Pandemic World: Connections between Africa, China, and Beyond, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. 

May 22, Speaker, "China Africa Fashion Power: Rethinking “circular economy” of fashion and its consumption practices in kenya and Mozambique", Chinese Fashion in Africa Workshop, School of Communications and Arts, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique.  

May 21, Speaker, "Everyday Dressing Practices – different (Global South) understandings", Ties that bind Symposium, State of Fashion Biennale 2024, Arnhem, the Netherlands.

Mar 7, 2024, Speaker, "Platforms, Politics and Precarity: Hong Kong Television Workers amid the New Techno-Nationalist Media Agenda", 2022/2023 Hong Kong Studies Annual Conference, The Academy of Hong Kong Studies (AHKS), The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Sep 14, 2023, Speaker, "I’m a Barbie girl, in the AI world: Artful, artificial, affective…", Faculty opening academic year 2023-2024 Theme: Kunst(mat)ig (Artificial), De Rode Hoed, Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Aug 13, 2023, Panel Speaker, "Module I: Global Capitalism and Technologies of Governance: Problematising the Emerging Techno-Capitalism in China", ACS Institute 2023 (Association for Cultural Studies): Decolonization in the 21st century, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.

May 3, 2023, Speaker, "China Fashion Power: Fashioning Power through South-South Interaction”, The LIAS China Seminar series, Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Mar 25, 2023, Panel Speaker, "China-Africa Fashion Value Chain", the China-Africa Shanghai International Network (CASIN) Salon: Crossing Oceans and Breaking Ice. Co-organized by Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tongji University, Shanghai, China. [English podcast available]

Mar 21, 2023, Speaker, “China Fashion Power: Fashioning Power through South-South Interaction”, the African Communication Research Center (ACRC), Communication University of China, Beijing, China.

Feb 17, 2023, Panel Chair, “Future Materiality: Synergising Intelligence, Technology, and Design ”, Fashion X AI: 2022-2023 International Symposium, the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design (AiDLab), School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. [video record available]

Feb 8, 2023, Speaker, “China Fashion Power: Fashioning Power through South-South Interaction”, HKU Global China Social Reseach Hub Seminar, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. [video record available]

Nov 23, 2022, Panel speaker, “Fieldwork”, ASCA Annual Conference, Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA), Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Nov 14, 2022, Speaker, “Memories reminisced, reconciled, renewed: Hong Kong male consumers’ wardrobes and their search for a congruent self”, Department of Media Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.

Oct 31, 2022, Panel speaker, “On platforms and cultural production in East Asia”, Global Digital Cultures Soiree, Media Studies Department, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Sep 18, 2022, Speaker, “Fashioning power through South-South interaction: Rethinking creativity, authenticity, cultural mediation and consumer agency along China-Africa fashion value chains”, Sino-Africa International Symposium for Textile and Apparel & Sino-Africa Cultural Exchange Forum, Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai, China. [via Zoom]

Jul 6, 2022, Speaker, “Fashioning power through South-South interaction: Rethinking creativity, authenticity, cultural mediation and consumer agency along China-Africa fashion value chains”, Global Fashion and Social Change Symposium, The Institute for Media and Creative Industries, Loughborough University London Campus in Hackney, London, United Kingdom. [via Zoom]

Jun 1, 2022, Speaker, “Plenary Conversation 1: Markets and infrastructures”, Global Perspective on Platforms and Cultural Production Conference 2022, Global Digital Cultures (UvA Research Priority Area), Media Studies Department, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Feb 11, 2022, Speaker, “Work faster, harder, cheaper? Global, local and sectoral co-configurations of job insecurities among Hong Kong creative workers”, Critical Sociology Special Issue Symposium, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. [via Zoom]

Jun 18, 2021, Speaker, “Public Forum: Mirror & Error – Why are they so popular?”, Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. [via Zoom/Facebook Live, 300+ audiences; podcast by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)]

May 12, 2021, Speaker, “From Shanzhai chic to Gangnam style: Seven practices of cultural-economic mediation in China and Korea”, MA International Fashion Management, School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. [via Zoom]

Oct 25, 2019, Speaker, “From Shanzhai chic to Gangnam style: Seven practices of cultural-economic mediation in China and Korea”, Media@Sydney Research Seminar Series, Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney, Australia.

Oct 24, 2019, Speaker, “Reconceptualising prosumption beyond the ‘cultural turn’: Passive fashion prosumption in Korea and China”, Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney, Australia.

Nov 28, 2018, Speaker, “Reconceptualising prosumption beyond the ‘cultural turn’: Passive fashion prosumption in Korea and China”, Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King’s College London (KCL), UK.

Nov 14, 2018, Speaker, “Reconceptualising prosumption beyond the ‘cultural turn’: Passive fashion prosumption in Korea and China”, School of Media and Communication, London College of Fashion (LCF), University of the Arts London, UK.

Nov 7, 2018, Speaker, “The rise of the ‘neo-precariat’? The emerging precarious challenges for and responses of formal creative labour in advertising and public relations industries”, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK. 

Nov 6, 2018, Speaker, “From Shanzhai chic to Gangnam Style: Can the new practices of cultural mediation in China and Korea counter the asymmetrical global flows of fashion?”, Global Media & Communications, Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies, University of Warwick, UK.

Oct 24, 2018, Speaker, “The rise of the ‘neo-precariat’? The emerging precarious challenges for and responses of formal creative labour in advertising and public relations industries”, School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, UK.

Oct 17, 2018, Speaker, “From Shanzhai chic to Gangnam Style: Can the new practices of cultural mediation in China and Korea counter the asymmetrical global flows of fashion?”, Arts and Cultural Enterprise Programme, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK. [video record available]

Oct 15, 2018, Speaker, “Global fashion: East-West internationalisation”, Oxford China Forum, China Centre, University of Oxford, UK. 

Sep 9, 2016, Speaker, “Fashion as a social field: Global diffusion of Chinese and South Korean fashion as counter-cultural imperialism?” Fashion Research Network and Coventry University London Campus (CULC), London, UK.

Jul 14, 2015, Speaker, “Co-creating fashion in the post-industrial society: Creative industries in Mainland China and South Korea.” Peking University, Beijing, China.

Workshops

Sep 26 - 27, Moderator & Speaker, Fashion, Beauty & Creativity (Un)bound: China, Africa and the Multiple Souths - International Workshop (sponsored by ERC Project "China (Africa) Fashion Power"). Nairobi Garage Spring Valley, Nairobi, Kenya.

Jun 5, Moderator & Speaker, International Journal of Fashion Studies SI 11.1 launch event: B(l)ending research methods: Reimagining a theoretical turn in fashion scholarship. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Apr 24, Organizer & Moderator, Sustainable Fashion Stories: New Convergences Workshop Part 2 (sponsored by ERC Projects: "Beauty and Inequality" (led by Prof. Giselinde Kuipers) and "China (Africa) Fashion Power" led by me). University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Apr 19, Moderator & Speaker, International Journal of Fashion Studies SI 11.1 launch event: B(l)ending research methods: Reimagining a theoretical turn in fashion scholarship. City, University of London, London, UK.  

Jan 17, 2024, Moderator & Speaker, "'China as method' as an epistemological approach?", Pluralising China as Method: Decolonising Cultural Mediations in the Global South, Global Media and China Double Special Issue Launch Event. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Dec 18-19, 2023, Speaker, "A different throw-away society? Rethinking 'circular economy' of fashion and its consumption practices in Kenya", Sustainable Fashion Stories: New Convergences Workshop (sponsored by ERC Projects: "Beauty and Inequality" (led by Prof. Giselinde Kuipers) and "China (Africa) Fashion Power"). KU Leuven, Belgium.

Sep 21, 2023, Moderator, ASCA New Research Group Global Africa Launch Event (sponsored by ERC Consolidator Grant 2021 research and innovation programme; grant agreement no.: 101044619). University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Jun 30, 2023, Speaker, "China as data coloniser or white knight? Rethinking cutural production, cultural mediation and consumer agency on Kenyan and Chinese e-commerce platforms”", International Journal of Cultural Studies Double Special Issue Workshop (sponsored by UvA Global Digital Cultures), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

May 25, 2023, Organiser & Speaker, "B(l)lending Research Methods in Fashion Scholarship", ASCA X International Journal of Fashion Studies (INFS) Workshop (sponsored by ERC Consolidator Grant 2021 research and innovation programme; grant agreement no.: 101044619), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Peer-reviewed conference presentations (selected)

Tse, T. (2024) "Real, touch & feel: the multi-layered authenticity, originality and creativity of fashion in Kenya", 16th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. 27 - 30 Aug, 2024.

Tse, T. (2024) "Real, touch & feel: the multi-layered authenticity, originality and creativity of fashion in Kenya", ICAS 13 Conference-Festival, University Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia. 28 Jul - 1 Aug, 2024.

Tse, T. (2023) “China as data coloniser or white knight? Rethinking cutural mediation and consumer agency on Kenyan and Chinese e-commerce platforms”, European Conference on African Studies (ECAS): African Futures Cologne 2023, University of Cologne, Germany. 30 May – 3 Jun, 2023.  

Tse, T. (2022) “The emerging infrastructural capitalism in China: Alibaba and its three infrastructural mechanisms”, Global Perspectives on Platforms and Cultural Production Conference, Media Studies Department, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 1 – 2 Jun, 2022.  

Tse, T. & Shum, H. (2022) “Platforms, politics, and precarity: Hong Kong television workers amid the new techno-nationalist media agenda”, 72^nd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference: One World, One Network? Paris, France. 26 – 30 May, 2022.

Tse, T. & Von Pezold, J. (2021). “Rediscovering memories and emotional functions of fashion in the ‘affective’ turn: Hong Kong male consumers’ wardrobes”, Responsible Fashion Series, Antwerp Management School, University of Antwerp, Belgium. Oct 20 – 22, 2021.

Kofman, E., Lee, M. & Tse, T. (2021). “China and the internationalisation of the sociology of contemporary work and employment”, The 2021 British Sociological Association’s Work, Employment and Society (WES) Conference, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, North Rd, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. Aug 25 – 27, 2021. [via Zoom]

Tse, T. & Li, X.T. (2021). “Engineering corporate culture in the Chinese tech world: The case of Alibaba”, The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (IACSS) Main Conference 2021, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Jul 28 – 30, 2021. [via Zoom]

Tse, T. & Von Pezold, J. (2021). “Rediscovering memories and emotional functions of fashion in the ‘affective’ turn: Hong Kong male consumers’ wardrobes”, The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (IACSS) Main Conference 2021, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Jul 28 – 30, 2021. [via Zoom]

Tse, T. & Von Pezold, J. (2021). “The nexus between capitalism and sustainability in fashion consumption: Affect, memories, and human relationships”, Fashion Tales – International Conference 2020+1: Politics through the Wardrobes, ModaCult – Centre for the Study of Fashion and Cultural Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy. Jun 17 – 19, 2021. [via Zoom]

Tse, T. (2020). “From Shanzhai chic to Gangnam style: Seven practices of cultural-economic mediation in China and Korea”, Fashion at the Periphery by Chicago Fashion Lyceum – Conference and Festival, Chicago, USA. [via Zoom]

Tse, T. & Gheorghiu, I. (2020). “The untenable flatness of practice: Moralising dress consumption in post-socialist China and Romania”, Critical Fashion Studies Conference, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Australia. Feb 27–29, 2020.

Tse, T. (2019). “Dream a different dream of Xi: How Alibaba’s workers make sense of their clashing goals”, The 2019 HKU-WES International Symposium: Worlds of Work: Urbanisation, Technology and Sustainability, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Sep 9–11, 2019.

Tse, T. (2019). “Dream, dream, dream: The interwoven national, organisational and individual goals of workers in China's​ technology sector”, HKU-USydney Symposium: Cross-border Media Flows, Infrastructures and Imaginaries in a Changing Asia-Pacific, Department of Sociology, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Aug 30, 2019.

Tse, T. & Wong, E. (2016). “Transnational fashion media communication and Consumption in China and South Korea.” The 2016 International Conference on Design History and Design Studies, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan. Oct 26–28, 2016.

Shin, S. & Tse, T. (2016). “Developing a base for global fashion in Korea: How a budding fashion industry emerged from a big business-driven economy”, The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2016 Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington, United States. Mar 31–Apr 3, 2016.

Tse, T., Shin, S., Hajzlerova, J., & Pan, L. (2015). “Co–creating fashion in the post-industrial society: A comparative study of creative industries in China and Korea”. Fashion Tales – International Conference 2015, ModaCult – Centre for the Study of Fashion and Cultural Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy. Jun 18–20, 2015.

Tse, T. (2014). “A myth of fashion media: A rising country makes a dwindling city?”. Fashion Thinking – Theory, History, Practice Conference, Design School Kolding, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark. Oct 30–Nov 1, 2014.

Tse, T. (2013). “Fashion communication in Asia”. 5^th Global Conference: Fashion, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Sep 9–12, 2013.

Research and supervision interests: Fashion, Media and Cultural Studies, creative work, platform & creator economies, consumer culture, sustainability, ethnography, wardrobe study, East Asia, and Africa. 

I am currently co-supervising 8 PhD students (University of Amsterdam):

1. Ms. Shao, Shao (PhD [2021 – 2025]; co-supervisor: Prof. Esther Peeren). Topic: Rural Wanghongs on Chinese Digital Platforms: Gender Politics, Urban-Rural Power Dynamics, and Technological Affordances

2. Ms. Song, Jialing (PhD [2022 – 2026]; China Scholarship Council’s (CSC) 4-year Full Overseas PhD Scholarship awardee; co-supervisor: Prof. Jeroen de Kloet). Topic: Gendering Digital Cultural Production in Chinese Platform Economy: RED (Xiaohongshu) as Case Study

3. Mr. Feng, Qidi (PhD [2023 – 2027]; ERC CoG 4-year Full PhD Scholarship awardee; co-supervisor: Prof. Jeroen de Kloet). Topic: Wig Is Fake Until You Make It Real: Multiple Authenticities in Wig Business

4. Ms. Fairuzah Atchulo (PhD [2023 – 2027]; ERC CoG 4-year Full PhD Scholarship awardee; co-supervisor: Prof. Patricia Pisters). Topic: Foreign, Standard, Marginalisation: Examining Passive Neo-Colonialism in Global Size Systems and Its Effect on Kenyan Consumers                                                  

5. Mr. Zhu, Andy (PhD [2024 – 2028]; ERC AdV 4-year Full PhD Scholarship awardee; co-supervisor: Prof. Jeroen de Kloet). Topic: High-Seas Cruise and Queer Activism in China: The Documentary Journey of Rainbow Cruise 2019

6. Ms Lingyu Li (PhD [2023 – 2027]; CSC PhD Scholarship awardee; co-supervisor: Prof. Mark Deuze). Topic: Balancing Act: Chinese Journalists’ Boundary Work and Well-Being in Everyday Media Life

7. Ms Zhou, Wanying (PhD [2023 - 2027]; ERC AdV 4-year Full PhD Scholarship awardee; co-supervisor: Prof. Giselinde Kuipers (KU Leuven Sociology]). Topic: Self-transformation, Self-presentation, and Symbolic Boundary Drawing through Beauty in Hong Kong

8. Ms. Tu, Jiaying (PhD [2025-2029]; CSC PhD Scholarship awardee; co-supervisor: Prof. Jeroen de Kloet). Topic: Rethinking Fashion and Sustainability from Africa (Rwanda and Ghana): Second-hand Clothes Consumption and the Experiment of “Made in Africa, with China”

Former PhD supervisees (University of Hong Kong):

1. Dr. Li, Xiao-tian (PhD [2018-2023]; HK PhD Fellowship Scheme awardee; co-supervised by Prof. Victor Shin). Topic: Gendered Labour Process in the Chinese Internet Industry

2. Dr. Von Pezold, Johanna (PhD [2018-2023]; HK PhD Fellowship Scheme awardee; co-supervised by Prof. Karen Joe Laidler). Topic: Creating Fashion through South-South Interaction: Value, Creativity and Fashionability along Chinese-Mozambican Commodity Chains

3. Dr. Kwan, Hiu-lap (PhD [2019-2024]; co-supervised by Prof. Maggy Lee & Prof. Ngai Pun). Topic: Exploring Female Platform Workers’ Lived Experiences: Gendered Precarity, Intersectional Vulnerabilities, and Women’s Solidarity on China's Ride-Hailing Platforms

4. Dr. Shum, Hoi-Ki Holy (PhD [2019-2024]; co-supervised by Prof. Tom McDonald). Topic: Theorising ‘Arts Tech’: Mediations between Art Objects, People and Policy in Hong Kong’s Creative Industry

5. Mr. Bai, Pengze, (PhD [2020-2025], co-supervised by Prof. Paul Joose). Topic: A Decolonial Fashion Discourse Analysis of Chinese Lolita Dressing Practice