Xincheng Hou

Xincheng Hou is a history PhD student in the field of East Asian history. He is particularly enthusiastic about urban history, public health history, the history of everyday lives, and spatial history. Driven by these interests, his current research focuses on the history of public toilets in Beijing – his home city – throughout the twentieth century. The project will examine public toilets’ association with the city’s spatial politics, different historical agents’ living experiences, and the sociocultural tension between “public” and “private” in modern China.

Before coming to Stanford, Xincheng studied at St Andrews William & Mary Joint Degree Programme and received two bachelor’s degrees in history from both universities in 2024. In the Programme, he had the opportunity to explore different historical topics and acquire interdisciplinary academic methodologies and skills, including interviews, digital history, and GIS. He aims to integrate this knowledge and abilities in his future research projects to present the past in more diverse platforms that are approachable to not only academics but also the public.