Yilin Evan Zhu (b. 1994, Shanghai) is a filmmaker and media artist whose practice explores the philosophical structure of moving images, non-human spectatorship, and the ethical life of media. His work operates at the intersection of experimental cinema, media ontology, and political memory.
Zhu holds a BA in Directing from the Shanghai Theatre Academy and an MFA in Film and Media Arts from the University of Windsor. His current research centers on Vital Image—a speculative framework that imagines media as a living, self-evolving system. His ongoing film project It’s Me performs the simulated life cycle of a non-human image-being, unfolding across perceptual phases such as Emergence, Autopoiesis, and Oblivion.
During his MFA, Zhu’s thesis focused on political symbolism in Chinese cinema, analyzing how directors like Lou Ye, Jia Zhangke, and Chen Kaige embed critique through production design and emotional narrative. His short film Nostalgia and Loss emerged from this study, portraying emotional estrangement as a form of quiet resistance in post-lockdown Shanghai.
Zhu’s broader work investigates how images endure after meaning fails, and what it means to witness media not as content—but as presence.
