Xueyan Cheng, a teacher at the Department of Journalism and Communications, Communication University of Shanxi, conducted two lectures about her research topic “Cinematic Representations of Homeland and Diaspora in Independent Border-Crossing Chinese Cinema”. After the two lectures, she conducted two film-watching salons, focusing on films made by the Burmese-Taiwanese director Midi Z, and the London-based Singaporean director Anthony Chen.
During the activities, the students discussed the artistic styles of the main Chinese diasporic/immigrant filmmaker, the meaning of accented cinema, as well as the heterogeneous cultural identities of “Chineseness”.
Through these thought-provoking activities, the students learnt about the power of representation, and the value of storytelling. To move on with courage and to participate in conversations, that is the main power of storytelling and transcultural cinematic representations.
Xueyan Cheng reflected on the experience:
For me, the scholarship of no travel grant provides me with fantastic opportunities to pass on the valuable studies to young students, making them realize the power of representations. Thank you again for the no travel grant!
More importantly, thank you so much for holding and organizing IAMCR conference in such a difficult time period. It provides us with a wonderful stage to express ourselves, to exchange our ideas, to learn from each other and embrace each other.