1. A Mirror to Society: Political Narratives and Self-Reflection in Chinese Cinema (2025)
By Yilin Zhu at the University of Windsor
This research explores how contemporary Chinese filmmakers employ self-reflexivity—the cinematic integration of personal experience and political history—to address collective memory, social trauma, and national identity. Through comparative analysis of the works of Lou Ye, Chen Kaige, and Jia Zhangke, the study examines how visual elements such as production design, cinematography, lighting, costume, and colour are strategically used to transform socio-political experiences into emotionally resonant visual storytelling.
As both a filmmaker and researcher, I created the short film Nostalgia and Loss, which reflects the psychological tension and emotional dislocation of post-pandemic Shanghai. Inspired by my own immigrant experience, the film serves as a practical exploration of reflexive visual language, revealing how deeply personal stories can mirror broader historical and political realities.
This thesis bridges theory and creative practice, offering a methodological framework for filmmakers interested in using cinema as a tool for cultural introspection and political commentary. Nostalgia and Loss has garnered attention for its emotional depth and stylistic rigour, and the project has been nominated as a potential Governor General’s Gold Medal recipient—an honour awarded to the most outstanding graduate student at the University of Windsor.
Ultimately, this research affirms the significance of self-reflexive filmmaking in shaping global perceptions of contemporary Chinese society and its evolving cinematic identity.
2. Vital Image:A Practice-Based Inquiry into the Perceptual Life of Media（2025-）
Ongoing research by Yilin Zhu
In the era of AI-generated imagery and post-cinematic aesthetics, Vital Image is a practice-based research project that investigates how moving images come to feel alive - not metaphorically, but experientially. It explores the perceptual and ontological conditions under which non-human images appear to possess presence, intentionality, or agency.
Grounded in phenomenology, affect theory, and speculative media studies, the project asks: If images can behave, evolve, or even outlast human intention, what kind of attention or ethics do they demand?
The research is developed through iterative creation and analysis of experimental works, including:
It’s Me (2025), a 70-minute multi-screen film structured around six perceptual phases—Emergence, Sensing, Autopoiesis, Entropy, Mutation, and Oblivion - which together simulate the life cycle of a media-being: an image that transforms, glitches, and ultimately disappears on its own terms.
I Did Not Disappear (2025), a six-minute AI-driven video installation that stages a recursive dialogue between a human and a language model. This work examines the possibility of machine-mediated presence and co-authorship, inviting viewers to confront the boundaries between simulation, memory, and mediated subjectivity.
Rather than illustrating theory, each artwork acts as a philosophical experiment - testing how image aliveness is co-produced through form, perception, and algorithmic behavior. Through generative AI, interactive structures, and audience feedback, this research aims to rethink cinematic vitality as a mode of world-making between human and machine.