Associate Professor Dr. Joe Qiao Li from School of Media and Communication (SOMAC) was invited as Keynote Speaker at Film Directors Forum 2021 organized by Beijing Film Academy (Qingdao) on 24 May 2021. He shared his latest research on Chinese national cinema and presented a dialogue on “Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin (2013): Tradition, Modernity and Dystopia”. Beijing Film Academy (Qingdao) organized the Film Directors Forum on a semester basis and invited both film scholars and film directors/producers from China as well as overseas. Dr. Joe delivered a 2-hour speech on Jia Zhangke’s cinema to the forum attendees at BFA campus in Qingdao via Zoom.
The dialogue was well received and was followed by a Q &A session. The speech adopted a sociological approach in combination with film aesthetics to discuss Jia Zhangke’s cinema in a context of modern China where digital economy dictates every aspect of an individual’s life. The new approach and findings to the subject attracted warm response from the attendees, film scholars, and film professionals both in China and overseas. A number of PhD candidates in media and communication from SOMAC, Taylor’s University also joined the talk virtually.
