HANYIN XU is a PhD candidate in Fine Arts at Universiti Malaya. Her research explores the intersection of urban art practices, cultural identity, and social transformation, focusing on how street art, graffiti, and public muralism articulate individual and collective voices within rapidly shifting urban landscapes. Working through an interdisciplinary lens that integrates art history, cultural sociology, and critical theory, she examines how visual expression negotiates power, memory, and belonging in contexts of globalization, political change, and cultural hybridity.

Xu holds an MFA in Art Education from Wenzhou University and a BFA in Oil Painting from the Chengdu Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan Conservatory of Music. She has presented at international conferences including ASEAS 2025 (University of Cambridge), the Cultural Studies Association (California Institute of the Arts), and Charles University in Prague.

Beyond academia, Xu serves as Editor-at-Large at ARTMAP Hong Kong, fostering cross-regional dialogues in art criticism and curatorial practice. Her writing has appeared in ART RESEARCH, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and Fleurs des Lettres, among others. As an artist, she has exhibited in China, Russia, and Malaysia, and received the HK·CACR Contemporary Art Award in 2023.