Dr Lin Feng

I received my PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2010. Before I joined University of Leicester in 2017, I taught at the University of Hull and served as the founding programme director of Chinese Studies. I am currently serving as Director of Studies of History of Art and Film. I am senior fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and co-convenor of BAFTSS (British Association of Film Television and Screen Studies)'s East Asian Screen Cultures SIG. My research lies in the fields of Chinese and transnational cinemas. I have broad interests in genre studies, cinematic cities, star studies, representation and reception of East Asia in Anglophone cinema, and diasporic filmmaking. 

I have a broad range of research interests on Chinese-language cinemas (mainland China Hong Kong and Taiwan) East Asian film history cinematic cities star studies genre studies transnational popular screen cultures film censorship and governance and cinematic representation and reception of gender and race. Currently I am working on two articles, one on Taiwan martial arts cinema and the other on Hong Kong stardom. Then I will focus on my new book-length project on female stardom in Shanghai's post-war cinema during the Mao era. 

Books

• Renegotiating Film Genres in East Asian Cinemas and Beyond, co-edited with James Aston (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). 
• Chow Yun-fat and Territories of Hong Kong Stardom (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017) (monograph).

Journal articles

• "Online Video Sharing, an Alternative Channel for Film Distribution? Copyright Enforcement, Censorship, and Chinese Independent Cinema", Chinese Journal of Communication (November 2016): 1-16
• '''I’m Ugly but Gentle': Performing Xiaorenwu in Chinese Comedies during the Post-Mao Era", Transnational Cinemas 5.2 (2014): 127-140.
• "Globalising Chinese Stardom: Internet Publicity and the Construction of Chow Yun-fat’s Transnational Stardom', Transnational Cinemas 2.1 (2011): 77-91
• 'Star Endorsement and Hong Kong Cinema: The Social Mobility of Chow Yun-fat 1986-1995' Journal of Chinese Cinemas 5.3 (2011): 269-281

Book chapters

• "The Sound of Chinese Urban Cinema: Multilingualism and the Re-Globalization of Shanghai in the 1990s" in Chinese Cinema: Identity, Power, and Globalization, ed. Jeffrey Kyong-McClain, Jingjing Chang and Russell Meeuf (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2022): 131-51
• "Old Shanghai and Film Noir Cross Over", in Renegotiating Film Genres in East Asian Cinemas and Beyond, ed. Lin Feng and James Aston. (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 217-246
• "Translocal Imagination of Hong Kong Connections: The Shifting of Chow Yun-fat’s Star Image Since 1997" in East Asian Film Stars, ed. Andy Willis and Leung Wing-Fai (Palgrave, 2014): 113-137
• "The Good, Bad and Ugly: Performing Whiteness in the Chinese Propaganda Cinema 1949-1976" in Image of Whiteness, ed. Clarissa Behar and Anastasia Chung (Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2013): 55-65.
• "Chow Yun-fat: Hong Kong's Modern TV Xiaosheng" in Chinese Film Stars, ed. Yingjin Zhang and Mary Farquhar (Routledge, 2010): 196-206.
  

Reports, film reviews, and press articles

• "Sketching a Dazzling Sun: A Film Review of Maples (dir. Zhang Yi, 1980)", Chinese Independent Cinema Observer. Issue 2: "Pre-History of Chinese Independent Cinema", edited by Sabrina Yu and Wang Xiaolu, November 2022, 268-273.
• "The Development and Planning of Filmic Tourism" [in Chinese] The Paper, co-written with Jiaying Cai, July 2019, Available at: https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3937887 [excerption from a cultural policy report 'The Development of Shanghai’s Cultural Industry: Learning from New York’s Urban Culture Experience']
• "Making Them English: The Screen Charisma of British Male Stars and Discourse of Social Class" [in Chinese], Iris, no.104, December 2017, 4-13.

Book reviews

• "Transnational Stardom: International Celebrity in Film and Popular Culture, ed. Russell Meeuf and Raphael Raphael (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)", Celebrity Studies (2016): 1-3
• "Lost in Translation: Orientalism, Cinema, and the Enigmatic Signifier, by Homay King (Duke University Press, 2010) and Theorizing Bruce Lee: Film-Fantasy-Fighting-Philosophy, by Paul Bowman (Rodopi, 2010)", Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies, issue 24 (2012)
• "Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting’s An Autumn’s Tale, by Stacilee Ford (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008) and John Woo’s The Killer, by Kenneth E. Hall (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009)", Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies, issue 20 (2011)
• "Yellow Future: Oriental Style in Hollywood Cinema, by Jane Chi Hyun Park (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010)", Journal of American Studies, 45.2 (2011): 404-405.

Reference entries

• "Crossroads" in Directory of World Cinema: China 2, edited by Gary Bettinson (Bristol: Intellect, 2014), 124-128.
• "Chow Yun-fat" in Directory of World Cinema: China, edited by Gary Bettinson (Bristol: Intellect, 2012), 34-38.

I welcome inquiries and proposals from prospective PhD students in any areas related to my research interests. This includes but is not limited to:

* History of Chinese-language cinemas
* Film politics and policies of Chinese-language cinemas
* Diasporic and Sinophone cinemas
* International filmmaking and coproduction
* Cinematic cities
* Star studies
* Genre studies
* Representation and reception of East Asian in Anglophone cinemas
* East Asian popular cinemas and film culture

I am currently supervising following PhD students:
Chang Xu, Female Filmmakers and the Representation of Chinese American in American Studio Independent Fictional Films.
Zhiyao Liu, Authorship and Contemporary Hollywood Franchise Cinema.

I am on sabbatical leave in the first semester of 2022/23.

Previously I have convene, taught,  and contributed to following modules:

• HA1007 Reading Film
• HA1115 Film and Art: The Academic Study and Workplace
• HA1201 Introduction to Film History I
• HA1224 and HA1324 American Film and Visual Culture
• HA2429 Film Production (module leader)
• HA2433 Film, Reception and Consumption (module leader)
• HA2030 and HA2330 Researching World Cinema
• HA2334 and HA2434 Documentary Film and Television
• HA3427 New Chinese Cinemas.(module leader)
• HA3436 Stardom and Identities in Chinese and American Cinemas (module leader)
• HA3401 Dissertation (UG)
• HA7200 and HA7205 MA Dissertation (module leader)
• HA7203 Textual Analysis
• HA7204 American Cinema

I have collaborated with Shanghai International Studies University on a policy consultation report The Construction of New York's Urban Landscape and Its Inspiration to Shanghai's Urban Development. 

I was commissioned an article about British male stardom by a Chinese film magazine Iris in 2017. I was interviewed by China Daily (Sep 2018) about career opportunity of British-East Asian actors and representation of East Asian in Hollywood. I was interviewed by Unearthed Films (U.S.) in 2021 for a special feature that will be accompanied with the re-release of a Taiwan horror cult film Calamity of Snakes (dir. William Chang Kee, 1983). My interview covered the topics of Chinese popular film history and studio system, Hong Kong film studio (Shaw Bros), Hong Kong and Taiwan exploitation cinema and cross-cultural film consumption.

As organiser

• Forgotten Popular Culture: Asian Cinema and Film History (University of Leicester, 23-25 May 2022, online)  https://popularasiancinema.le.ac.uk
• Rethinking Film Genres: East Asian Cinema and Beyond, conference (University of Hull, 14-15 September 2017)

 

As presenter

• “Contesting Gender Space: Zhou Xuan and Chinese Female Stardom during the Republican Era” Women in East Asian Cinema conference (HOME, Manchester, 4-6 December 2019).
• “Performativity in Chinese Artistic Documentaries: A Case Study of Xie Jin’s Huang Baomei (1958)” Conference: Documentaries and the Fiction/Nonfiction Divide (Queen Mary University of London, 15-16 November 2019). 
• “Looking for a (Chinese) Mother: The Construction of Pan-regional Chineseness in Lotus Lantern (dir. Chang Guangxi, 1999)” Research symposium: Cinemas of the Sinosphere: Border Crossing in Chinese Cinemas (University of Exeter, 20-22 September 2019).
• “Shanghai Calling: Imagination of Cosmopolitanism in Co-produced Romantic Dramas” 13th Asian Cinema Studies Society Conference (LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, 24-26 June 2019).
• “Multilingualism in Chinese Urban Films and Re-globalisation of Shanghai in the 1990s” Chinese Cinema in Global Context—Past and Present (University of Idaho, Moscow ID, 14-15 April 2019).
•  “Finding Next Star: Femininity, Casting and Post-Revolutionary Aesthetics in 1980s’ Chinese Cinema”. Symposium: Casts and Casting: Perspectives from Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art (University of Hertfordshire, 10-11 November 2018).
• “Republic Star Culture: The Case of Zhou Xuan”. Guest lecture (UCLA, 19 April 2018).
• “Space Remixed: Filming Location, Selective Cosmopolitanism and Translating the Fluidity of Mega Cities in 007 Franchise”. Conference: Cosmopolitanism, World Cities and Circulation of Visual Culture between China and Britain (Shanghai Theatre Academy, 23 June 2017).
• “Shanghai Jazz and Film Noir Crossover” Rethinking Film Genres: East Asian Cinema and Beyond, conference (University of Hull, 14-15 September 2017).
• “Hear the Unseen: Shanghai Dialect and Taiwan Cinema”, SCMS annual conference (Atlanta, 30 March – 3 April 2016).
• “Ghost Shanghai in Taiwan New Cinema and After”. Research symposium: Chinese Cinema: Space, Identity and Politics (University of Nottingham, 5 June 2015).
•  “Now You See It; Now You Don’t: The Transpacific Imagination of Shanghai in Hollywood’s Sci-Fi Films”, SCMS annual conference (Montreal, 25-29 March 2015).
• "Piracy, an Alternative Channel for Film Distribution? Online Film Sharing, Censorship and Chinese Independent Cinema”, China in Cyberspace: Platform, Content and Governance, interdisciplinary research workshop (University of Hull, 25 September 2014).
• “Somewhere in Between: The Transpacific Imagination of Shanghai in American Independent Cinema since 2000”. Research seminar (University of Southampton, 19 November 2013). 
• “Behind the Dazzling Lights: The Secret of Cosmopolitan Shanghai in Hollywood Action Blockbusters”, Screen annual conference (University of Glasgow, 28-30 June 2013).
• “I’m Ugly but Gentle’: Performing Xiaorenwu (litter character) in Chinese Comedies”, Revisiting Star Studies conference (Newcastle University, 12-14 June 2013).
• “Weaving the Net: Followers, Fame and Film Criticism in an Inter-Media Era”, BAFTSS annual conference: Critics and Criticism: Writing on Audiovisual Media (University of Lincoln, 19-21 April 2013).
• “The Good, Bad and Ugly: Performing Whiteness in the Chinese Propaganda Cinema 1949-1976”, Images of Whiteness annual conference: Exploring Critical Issues (Mansfield College Oxford, 7-9 July 2012).
• “Beyond the Cultural Revolution: Zhiqing’s Story and the Narrative of Urbanisation in Contemporary Chinese Independent Cinema” New Generation Chinese Cinema, conference (King’s College London, 26-27 May 2011). 
• “The Construction of Cosmopolitan Citizenship in Chow Yun-fat’s Comedies” MeCCSA annual conference (University of Glasgow, 30 June-1 July 2010).
• "The Birth of a Hollywood Star: Chinese Immigrants, Global Labour and Capitalisation of Ethnic Stardom", 1st International Congress on Chinese Studies Immigration and Cultural Exchanges (Centro de Estudios Chinos Lu Xun, Bilbao, 26-29 November 2008).
• “The Birth of a TV Star: Chow Yun-fat, Typecasting and Hong Kong Modern Xiaosheng” Televising History: Nation, Memory, Identity, postgraduate conference (University of Lincoln, 13-15 June 2007).
• "Negotiating Transnational Stardom: Chow Yun-fat, Hollywood Blockbusters and Markets”, Identities Negotiations in Contemporary Space(s), postgraduate conference (University of Warwick, 2 December 2006).

Senior Fellow of HEA