Rate My Professor Danny Boey

Danny Boey Boon Kiat, known professionally as Danny Boey, is a sessional academic at Curtin University Singapore, affiliated with the Department of Communication and Cultural Studies at Curtin University in the Faculty of Humanities. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Queensland University of Technology, completed in 2012. His doctoral thesis, titled "The National Specificity of Horror Sources in Asian Horror Cinema," was supervised initially by Gary MacLennan and later by Terry Flew, with additional input from Christy Collis and Alan McKee. The work explores the relationship between horror films and their national contexts in Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand, analyzing sources from religion (Buddhism and Taoism), mythology (priesthood, shamanism, superstitions), and literature (Pu Song Ling’s Liaozhai Zhiyi and Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan). Boey identifies shared pan-Asian elements and national specificities shaped by cultural heritage, folklore, socio-political factors, and genre developments.

In his thesis, Boey outlines ten recurring archetypes: vengeful female ghost, tianshi, diviner, substitute-seeking ghost, jiangshi, the possessed, demon, spirit, scholar, unsettled ghost, and spirit of nature/kami. Case studies detail Japan's J-horror with grudge culture and post-WWII modernization conflicts, Hong Kong's hybrids of reincarnation, kung fu, and comedy featuring jiangshi amid post-1997 identity crises, and Thailand's vengeful spirits and black magic rooted in folklore and social marginalization. He examines Hollywood remakes such as The Ring, The Eye, and Shutter to assess cultural transportability versus specificity. Boey's earlier degrees include a Master of Arts in English Studies, Bachelor of Arts in Cinema Studies, Bachelor of Communications (Top-Up), and Diploma of Arts and Creative Industries. He authored the book "Aesthetics of Horror: Constructing Horror in the Horrifying Cinema" in 2009. At Curtin Singapore, Boey teaches courses including Media, Culture and Consumption (COMS2000), News Writing and Reporting, Radio News, The Digital Economy, and MKTG1000.