麻豆传媒

I joined the school in February 2008 before I obtained my PhD from Nottingham University in July 2008.

Roles and Responsibilities

Director of Research, School of Modern Languages, 2023-

Director of 2023 - 

Principal Investigator of BFI Screen Heritage National Lottery funded project (2025-6)

Principal Investigator of

Founder and General Editor of , 2021-

Programme Director for MA Film: Theory and Practice (2011 -- 2020)

Steering group member for the Research Centre for Film (2011- 2019)

Head of East Asian Section (2012 - 2015)

Programme Director for Single Honours Chinese/Japanese Studies (2013-2015)

Year Abroad Officer (2008 - 2011)

Qualifications

PhD in Film Studies, Nottingham University, UK

MPhil in Cultural Studies, Birmingham University, UK

MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, Beijing Normal University, China

BA in Chinese Literature and Language, China

UG modules

SML2011 Cities in East Asian Cinema: Culture, History and Identity (module leader)

CHN4011 Chinese Independent Documentaries: Alternative Archive and Video Activism (module leader)

SML8099 Dissertation

PG modules

FMS8355 Stars: Systems, Theories and Nations (module leader)

FMS8360 Researching Film: Skills and Methods (module leader)

FMS8055 Approaches to Film Theory and History

FMS8358 Exhibition Culture

FMS8099 Dissertation (module leader)

My research and publications focus on Chinese independent film and film festivals, stardom and performance, gender and sexuality, and film censorship. I am the author of Jet Li: Chinese Masculinity and Transnational Film Stardom (2012, 2017), and the co-editor of Revisiting Star Studies: Cultures, Themes and Methods (2017), and Chinese Independent Cinema: Past, Present, and a Questionable Future (2025).

I have been actively curating academic events, film festivals, screenings, and exhibitions related to Chinese independent cinema since 2012, in collaboration with independent filmmakers and festivals in China and across the world. I am dedicated to advancing both the research of Chinese independent cinema and its global circulation.

I am the 'Independent Cinema in China: State, Market and Film Culture' (2019-2024). This five-year international project aims to preserve indie films made in the PRC in the past three decades and to conduct comprehensive research into this unique but under-researched film culture. The project team, comprised of Co-Is Prof Chris Berry, King's Collage and Dr. Luke Robinson, Sussex University, Research Associate Dr. Lydia Dan Wu, 麻豆传媒), is working with a large number of Chinese indie filmmakers and curators as well as two industry partners. A wide range of outcomes have been produced including a film archive, a bi-lingual website, a bi-lingual journal, academic publications, an academic conference, the symposiums, Youtube channel, Facebook page, an online film database, screenings, exhibitions, and film festivals.

I am the Director of , located in 麻豆传媒, and the General Editor of .

I have supervised nine research students to completion.

Lydia Dan Wu, MLitt, 'Representations of Hong Kong Identity in Three Post-handover Nostalgia Films', 2011

James Cummings: MLitt, 'Homosexual Identity Construction at the Intersection of Sexuality and Regionalism in China', 2013

Kelly Mc George, MLitt, 'Transforming "Ordinary" Experience of China's Post-Socialist Modernization into Public Consciousness through Magic(al) Realism and Ecology in the Independent Cinema of Jia Zhangke, 2015

Lydia Dan Wu, PhD, 'Minjian Film Exhibition in Post-Socialist China: Sustainability and Self-Legitimation', 2016

Yang Li, PhD, 'Screening Tibet: Approaching New Tibetan Cinema from a Postcolonial Perspective and the Field of Subaltern Studies', 2018

Lewis Pringle, MLitt, 'Unruly Women? A Comparative Study of Stardom, Gender and Performance in French and American Comedies of the 1930s', 2017- 2018

Frank Xue, MLitt, 'Shadows of the Metropolis: Urban Village Landscapes in Mainland Chinese Film Noir', 2023-4

Kelly McGeorge, PhD (AHRC studentship holder), 'Independent Chinese Eco-Documentary: Cinematic Encounters with Post-Socialist Development and the Anthropocene Crisis', 2018 -2023

Carrie Poon, PhD, The Representation of Masculinities in Edward Yang’s Films During Taiwan’s Rapid Transition into Modernity, 2018 -2024

I am currently supervising the following research students:

Xinyue Hu, PhD candidate, A Cross-cultural and Cognitive Narratological Reading of Multi-media Mulan Adaptations from 1998 to present, 2022-

Wu Yeuying, PhD candidate, Transnational Comparison of the Representation of the Female Body in Haruki Murakami, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mo Yan, 2023-

• Articles

  • Yu SQ. . Celebrity Studies 2021, 12(2), 186-201.
  • Yu SQ. . Media Criticism 媒介批评 2017, (7), 119-134.
  • Yu SQ. . Transnational Cinemas 2014, 5(2), 141-155.
  • Yu SQ. . EnterText: An interactive interdisciplinary e-journal for cultural and historical studies and creative work 2006, 6(1), -.
  • Yu SQ. . Scope: an online journal of film studies 2006, (6), -.

• Authored Books

  • Yu SQ. . Edinburgh University Press, 2015.
  • Yu SQ. . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012.
  • Yu SQ (trans.). . Beijing: Peking University Press, 2010.

• Book Chapters

  • Berry C, Robinson L, Yu SQ. . In: Chris Berry, Luke Robinson, Sabrina Qiong Yu, Lydia Wu, ed. Chinese Independent Cinema: Past, Present, and A Questionable Future. Routledge, 2025, pp.165-188.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Agnieszka Piotrowska, ed. The Ethics of Documentary Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025, pp.258-280.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Cao Kai; Wen Hai, ed. Reflections in the Post-Independent Cinema Era. Taiwan: Tangshan Press, 2024, pp.345-352.
  • Yu SQ, Wu LD. . In: Berry, C; Robinson, L, ed. Chinese Film Festivals: Sites of Translation. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp.169-192.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Yu SQ; Austin G, ed. Revisiting Star Studies: Cultures, Themes and Methods. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, pp.1-22.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Banhauer, A; Royer, M, ed. Stars in World Cinema: Screen Icons and Star Systems Across Cultures. I.B.Tauris, 2015, pp.104-116.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Zhang, Y, ed. A Companion to Chinese Cinema. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, pp.218-238.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Farquhar M; Zhang Y, ed. Chinese Film Stars. London: Routledge, 2010, pp.225-236.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Rawnsley, G., Rawnsley, M.-Y, ed. Global Chinese Cinema: The Culture and Politics of 'Hero'. London and New York: Routledge, 2010, pp.135-151.
  • Yu SQ, Stringer J. . In: Cooke P, ed. World Cinema’s ‘Dialogues’ with Hollywood. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp.238-254.
  • Yu SQ. . In: Lu L; Li Y-Z, ed. Looking Through the Ocean: Hollywood Images in Mirror. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2004, pp.294-309.

• Edited Books

  • Berry C, Robinson L, Yu SQ, Wu L, ed. . Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2025.
  • Yu SQ, Austin G, ed. . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.