
Photography by Daniel Waqar
Scholar | Artist | Teacher
Wenxuan 文轩
means vehicle of knowledge
in Mandarin Chinese
Wenxuan Xue is a performance artist, curator, dramaturg, and PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at Tufts University. They teach and research in Asian American studies, queer of color performance, and transpacific/decolonial ecologies.
They are currently working on their dissertation project, tentatively titled Nonbinary Ancestors: Performing Fabulation and Porous Queer Asian Diasporas. This project attends to contemporary performances created by queer Asian diasporic artists in which they fabulate (imagine) ancestors, martyrs, goddesses, and spirits. They embody and enliven these ancestors to survive the racial and gendered violence that attempts to erase their existence. By honoring how artists transgress the gender binary within their diasporic lineage, this research offers more capacious ways of imagining queerness.
Wenxuan's artistic process centers on nurturing and awakening “the inner child,” who always sees love, tenderness, and kindness in the darkest corners, who is so curious, open, and playful about the world’s beautiful messes, and yet undisciplined to be ruled by norms of gender, borders, and adulthood. As a dramaturg, they were part of the 2022-2023 Volt Lab at Company One Theatre. They had the honor of working with people, artists, and workers from ArtsEmerson, CHUANG Stage, Central Square Theater, Gung Ho Projects, The Lark, New York Stage and Film, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and Ping Pong Productions.