Yongkang Chen

Yongkang studies modern Japanese literature, with a particular focus on postwar literature and cinema from the Okinawan Islands. He received his B.A. from Duke Kunshan University and Duke University in 2023 and his M.A. from Duke University in 2025. His research examines how memories of war are inherited, transcribed, and revalued in modern literary and artistic works. He is also interested in the concept of the “archipelagic narrative,” exploring how Okinawa can be repositioned within a broader transpacific context, in dialogue with Hawai’i, the Caribbean, and South America.