Hua Hsu

A second generation Taiwanese American, Hsu was born in Illinois before moving to Plano, then Richardson, Texas.[1] His family then moved to southern California,[1] then ultimately Cupertino, California,[2] where his father was an engineer; his mother stayed at home with Hua.[1] The family lived in Cupertino from about the time Hua was nine to 18, though his father moved to Taiwan to pursue work and Hua often spent summers and other school vacations there.[3] In Cupertino, Hsu attended high school with Ben Cho, who went on to become a fashion designer.[4]

Hsu attended college at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied political science.[1] He graduated in 1999.[1] He next attended Harvard University to study Asian-American literature in graduate school,[1] earning a PhD in the History of American Civilization department (American Studies) in 2008.[5] Louis Menand advised his dissertation,[6] entitled "Pacific Crossings: China, the United States, and the Transpacific Imagination."[5]

Hsu is a tenured associate professor of English and director of American Studies at Vassar College[7] and contributor to The New Yorker. His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as well as public perceptions of diversity and multiculturalism. Other research work and interests include studies of literary history and arts criticism.[8]

Hsu has been a fellow at New America, a public policy think tank and a contributor to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate, and The Wire.[9][10][11] He is a board member of the Asian American Writers' Workshop.[12] His book, A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific,[13] was published in June 2016 by Harvard University Press.[14]

In 2017, Hsu became a staff writer at The New Yorker.[15]

Hsu lives in Brooklyn.[16] He is married with a son.[1]

• The Hanging on Union Square by H. T. Tsiang, whom Hsu refers to in A Floating Chinaman.