Research
Examining how philosophies in non-western cultures and approaches in other disciplines enhance our understanding of global cinema, her researches, in theory and practice, are often interdisciplinary and echo the ethos of decolonising film studies.
Kiki works on two strands: one area is documentary image and nonfiction film, especially on the social, ethical and aesthetic aspects of first person expression, the essayistic nonfiction in non-western cinemas, amateur cinema, the political economy of international co-productions. The other area is cinema and artists moving image in China and East Asia, especially in relation to eastern philosophies and aesthetics, on women’s cinema, ‘image-writing’ practice, and independent cinema culture.
Investigating filmmaking as social practice through cultural-sociological perspective, Kiki’s first monograph ‘My’ Self on Camera: First Person Documentary Practice in an Individualising China (EUP, 2019a) is the first study on the subject, which argues that the Confucian concept of the relational self still largely underpins how individuals understand the self, and analyses how filmmakers make socially and culturally rooted ethical and aesthetic choices. On the strength of her research, she was invited to present a keynote address at European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS) annual conference 2018. Her speech “Self Expression on Non-western Screen” has been published in an edited collection Creative Practice Research (2020). This research strand on non-western personal cinema is also demonstrated through her edited collections including the widely cited China’s iGeneration: Cinema and Moving Image Culture for the 21 Century (2014) and a special issue of Studies in Documentary Film - "Feminist Approaches in Women’s First Person Documentaries from East Asia" (2020 14:1).
Kiki is currently working on her project 'Daoism and Cinema'.
Research
Kiki is Senior Lecturer in Film at Queen Mary University of London. She is committed to advancing global film and moving image theory and research-led practice. Her received international recognition and praise through awards, invited keynotes and talks. Her books include ‘My’ Self on Camera: First Person Documentary Practice in an Individualising China (Edinburgh University Press, 2019), China’s iGeneration: Cinema and Moving Image Culture for the 21 Century (Bloomsbury 2014) and the special issue of Studies in Documentary Film “Feminist Approaches in Women’s First Person Documentaries from East Asia” (2020 14:1).
Kiki’s research include three strands:
The first area is cinema and moving images through eastern philosophies. Kiki is currently working on her “Daoism and Cinema” project. Situating global cinema and artists’ moving images within contemporary debates of Daoist philosophy, political ecology, East Asian art history and decoloniality, this project aims to build a new theoretical framework to understand cinema and film practice through Daoist correlative and transformative cosmology. Intervening the western centred posthumanist theorisation of cinema and culture, and critically engaging with Chinese schools of thought, it seeks to reformulate what cinema is and what cinema can do through a Daoist cosmological approach, shedding new lights on how to reconceive humans’ relationship with cinema, and how to make sense of the existence of things through cinema.
The second area is documentary image and nonfiction film, especially on personal documentary, essay film, amateur cinema, production culture and sustainable filmmaking.
The third area is women’s cinema and localised feminism, artists moving image, and independent cinema culture, with a focus on China and Asia at large (East, South, Southeast, Central and West Asia).
Kiki was invited as a keynote speaker at European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS) annual conference 2018, and she is also a founding co-convener of BAFTSS East Asian Screen Cultures Special Interest Group.
Kiki’s first monograph ‘My’ Self on Camera: First Person Documentary Practice in an Individualising China (Edinburgh University Press, 2019a) investigates filmmaking as social practice through cultural-sociological perspective. It argues that the Confucian concept of the relational self still largely underpins how individuals understand the self, and analyses how filmmakers make socially and culturally rooted ethical and aesthetic choices. She also co-edited China’s iGeneration: Cinema and Moving Image Culture for 21st Century (Bloomsbury, 2014), and ‘Women’s First Person Documentary in East Asia’ a special issue of Studies in Documentary Film (with Alisa Lebow, 2020).