Professor Emeritus
Dr. Ying ZHU is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed academic journal Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images. A leading expert in Chinese film and television, her research areas encompass Chinese cinema and media, Sino-Hollywood relations, and TV dramas. She is the author to four books including Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market (2022) and Two Billion Eyes: The Story of China Central Television (2013), and co-editor of six book volumes including Soft Power with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds (2019). Her first research monograph, Chinese Cinema During the Era of Reform: The Ingenuity of the System (2003) pioneered the industry analysis of Chinese film studios, with the Journal of Asian Studies calling it “a path-breaking book that initiated the institutional study of Chinese cinema.” Her second research monograph, Television in Post-Reform China: Serial Drama, Confucian Leadership and the Global Television Market together with three co-edited books—TV China (2009), TV Drama in China (2008), and Television Dramas: The US and Chinese Perspectives (2005) pioneered the subfield of Chinese TV drama studies in the West. Her writings have appeared in major academic journals Journal of Cinema and Media Studies and Journal of Communication as well as established media outlets such as The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, etc. Her work has been translated into Chinese, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish. Zhu is a recipient of a US National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, and a Fulbright (China) Senior Research Fellowship.
Degrees
PhD, University of Texas @ Austin
REFEREED PUBLICATIONS SINCE 2010
Books
- Film as Soft Power and Hard Currency: The Sino-Hollywood Courtship (New Press: New Press, 2022)
- Soft Power with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds (Co-edited with Stanley Rosen and Kingsley Edney, London: Routledge, 2019)
- Two Billion Eyes: The Story of China Central Television (New York: New Press, Hardcopy in 2013)
- Women’s Studies in the West (Lead editor, co-edited with Jieyu Liu & Yachien Huang, Beijing: People’s University Press, 2011; in Chinese)
- Art, Politics and Commerce in Chinese Cinema (lead editor, co-edited with Stanley Rosen, Hong Kong University Press, 2010)
Journal articles
- Zhu, Y., (Jan 2022) “"Nomadland": An American or Chinese Story?" Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images 1(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/gs.1706
- “Travel Down Memory Lane: Nostalgia and Nostophobia in Youth” Film and Media Studies (October 2020) Volume 18: 9-26: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346634859_Travel_Down_Memory_Lane_Nostalgia_and_Nostophobia_in_Youth_2017
- “Film as soft power and hard currency: The Sino-Hollywood courtship” The Online Journal of the China Policy Institute (July 5, 2017): https://cpianalysis.org/2017/07/05/film-as-soft-power-and-hard-currency-the-sino-hollywood- courtship/
- “Corruption and It’s (dis)content: The Rise and Fall of Chinese Officialdom Television Dramas,” Screen (Oxford UP) (2016) 57 (2): 235-249: https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjw024
- “Tracing the Sino-Hollywood Relationship,” Journal of Film Culture Studies (in Chinese; Fall 2015): 185-192
- “The Sino-Hollywood Relationship—Then & Now,” Weber - The Contemporary West (Featured Article in Spring-Summer 2015 Film Edition of the Journal): 26-3
- “Live, From Beijing,” Cairo Review of Global Affairs (February 2013): http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=296
Chapters in books
- “From Hollywood to Soviet Model: Building a Socialist Chinese Cinema” In Michaela Praisler and Oana Celia Gheorghiu (eds.) The Odyssey of Communism: Visual Narratives, Memory and Culture (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, May 2021): p139-163.
- “China’s Cultural Power Reconnects with the World,” ((co-authored with Michael Keane) in Daya Thussu & Kaarle Nordenstreng (Eds.) BRICS Media Reshaping the Global Communication Order? (Routledge, December 2020)
- “Chinese Media and Public Discourse,” in Kevin Latham (Ed.) Routledge Handbook of Chinese Culture and Society (London: Routledge, 2019), 328-342
- “The Battle of Images: Cultural Diplomacy and Sino-Hollywood Negotiation,” in Stanley Rosen, Kingsley Edney, & Ying Zhu (Eds.) Soft Power with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds (Routledge, 2019), 100-116
- “Chinese Television: Control and Expansion,” in Shawn Shimpach (Ed.) Routledge Companion to Global Television (Routledge, 2019), 436-444
- “China’s Entertainment Industry,” in Paolo Sigismondi (Ed.) World Entertainment Media: Global, Regional and Local Perspectives (Routledge, 2019), 164-172
- “Tracing the Sino-Hollywood Relationship,” In Yaping Ding (Ed.) Cinema and TV Culture (Beijing, China Film Press, 2015), 185-193.
- “China’s Cultural War Against the West,” In Robin Jeffrey & Ronojoy Sen (Eds.), Media at Work in China and India: Discovery and Dissection (London: Sage, 2015)
- “From Anticorruption to Officialdom: The Transformation of Chinese Dynasty TV Drama,” In Carlos Rojas & Eileen Cheng-yin Chow (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas (Oxford University Press, 2013)
- “Cross-Fertilization in Chinese Cinema and Television: A Strategic Turn in Cultural Policy,” in Yingjin Zhang (Ed.) Blackwell Companion to Chinese Cinema, (Blackwell Publisher, 2012)
- “The Evolution of Chinese Film as an Industry” (co-authored with Seio Nakajima), “The Cinematic Transition of the Fifth Generation Auteurs” (co-authored with Bruce Robinson), & “Feng Xiaogang and Chinese Domestic Box-Office Films,” in Art, Politics, and Commerce in Chinese Cinema, co-edited by Ying Zhu & Stanley Rosen (Hong Kong University Press, 2010).
Commissioned magazine and newspaper articles
- “Zhang Yimou’s Early Filmmaking and Cinematic Transition,” in
- “Collaborations: The Cinema of Zhang Yimou & Gong Li,” Viavision http://viavision.com.au/shop/collaborations-the-cinema-of-zhang-yimou-gong-li/
- “The Chinese New Year Film,” Mubi Podcast (July 8, 2021)
- https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/mubi-podcast-expanded-feng-xiaogang-and-chinese-new-year-comedies
- “The Same Old ‘China Story’ Keeps Chinese Sci-Fi Earthbound,” ChinaFile (September 30, 2019): https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/culture/same-old-china-story-keeps-chinese-sci-fi-earthbound
- “Here’s How the Trade War Is Affecting Hollywood” ChinaFile (March 8, 2019): http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/heres-how-trade-war-affecting-hollywood
- “Can China Expand its Beachhead in Hollywood?” Foreign Policy (February 24, 2017) http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/24/is-the-search-for-a-china-hollywood-blockbuster-doomed- great-wall-fail/
- “Behind the Personality Cult of Xi Jinping: He may be China’s most powerful leader in decades. Here’s what he hopes to gain – and stands to lose.” Foreign Policy (March 8, 2016) http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/08/the-personality-cult-of-xi-jinping-china-leader-communist- party/
- “Xi Jinping: A Cult of Personality?” ChinaFile (Saturday, March 5, 2016): http://www.chinafile.com/conversation/xi-jinping-cult-personality#comment-2671
- “What Can “Bridge of Spies” Reveal to the Chinese About the Limits of Chinese Cinema?” Los Angeles Review of Books (Dec 30, 2015): https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/what-can-bridge-of-spies-reveal-to-the-chinese-about-the-limits-of-chinese-cinema
- “Has Chinese Film Finally Produced a Real Hero?” ChinaFile (August 18, 2015): http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/culture/has-chinese-film-finally-produced-real-hero
- “China’s Spring Festival Gala: Political Theater Made to Party Orders” The Wall Street Journal (February 21, 2015): http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/02/21/chinas-spring-festival-gala- political-theater-made-to-party-orders/
- “国产电影真打败了好莱坞大片?” 上海观察 (Shanghai Observer; Aug 22, 2015): http://www.shobserver.com/wx/detail.do?id=6318
- “生活大爆炸被审查后,大众并未抵抗,” Unusual Commentaries (An online literary magazine from Beijing University; Feb 23, 2015)
- “How U.S. Soft Power Won the Chinese Box Office” Foreign Policy (September 6, 2014): http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/09/06/how_us_soft_power_won_chinas_box_office_transformers_4_hollywood
- “‘Transformers 4’ May Pander to China, But America Still Wins,” ChinaFile
- (Sept 4, 2014) http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/culture/transformers-4-may-pander-china-america-still-wins
- “After ‘Big Bang Theory’ Censorship, No Mass Viewer Revolt,” Wall Street Journal (May 19, 2014) http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/19/after-big-bang-theory-censorship-no-mass- viewer-revolt/
- “Why Frank Underwood is Great for China’s Soft Power,” Business Spectator (March 4, 2014) http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/3/4/china/why-frank-un…- soft-power; ChinaFile (Feb 27, 2014) https://www.chinafile.com/Frank-Underwood-Great-Chinas-Soft-Power
- “变形金剛 4 向中國獻媚不遺餘力,但美國還是真正勝利的一方” The New Lens (An online magazine in Taiwan; Sept 24, 2014): http://www.thenewslens.com/post/75412
- “纸牌屋:弗兰克。安德伍德何以’有益于’中国软实力,” Unusual Commentaries (An online literary magazine from Beijing University; April 9, 2014): http://10jiaoyu.com/feed/10185767
- “中國政府為什麼不封殺紙牌屋?” The New Lens (An online magazine in Taiwan; April 1, 2014): http://www.thenewslens.com/post/32922/
- “Hollywood Powerhouses Meet a Sleeping Giant,” Los Angeles Times (Nov 9, 2013) https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-ca-china-essay-20131110-story.html
- “China’s Sex and the City Film is a Great Leap Backward for Women,” The Atlantic (July 2013) http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/07/chinas-sex-and-the-city-film-is-a-great-leap- backward-for-women/277841/
- “The Rite of Passage to No Where,” China File (July 2013) http://www.chinafile.com/rite- passage-nowhere
- “Reading Into Official Corruption” China Economic Review (July 2013) http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/reading-official-corruption-chinese-media-officials-novels-tv-television-ying-zhu
- “China Travels Back Down the River” Wall Street Journal (June 14, 2013) http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/06/04/china-travels-back-down-the-river/
- “Domestic Drama” China Economic Review (May 2, 2013) http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/domestic-drama
- “Can Hollywood Romance Chinese Film-Goers?” The Atlantic (April 25, 2013) http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/can-hollywood-romance-chinese-film- goers/275313/
- “Will China Unchain Django?” CNN (April 17, 2013) http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/17/will-china-unchain-django/
- “A Beginning for China’s Battered Women,” ChinaFile (February11, 2013) http://www.chinafile.com/beginning-chinas-battered-women
- “Why China Struggles to Find Soft Power Voice,” CNN (February 6, 2013) http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/06/why-china-struggles-to-find-soft-power- voice/
- “‘Real Progress’: Parsing China’s Censorship Protests,” Wall Street Journal (January 14, 2013) http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/01/14/real-progress-parsing-chinas-censorship-protests
- “《小时代》:中国电影版“欲望都市”反映女性的巨大退步,” The Translation Net (A China Based website; July 17, 20013): http://article.yeeyan.org/view/374238/370175
- “The Inside Story of When China's State-Run TV Criticized the Party,” The Atlantic (June 2012) http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/the-inside-story-of-when- chinas-state-run-tv-criticized-the-party/258102/
- “Two Billion Eyes,” Asia Society Website (May 31, 2012): http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/book-excerpt-two-billion-eyes-story-china-central-television-ying-zhu/
- “The Cultivated and the Vulgar: China's Cultural War” Asian Creative Transformations (4/2/12) http://www.creativetransformations.asia/2012/04/the-cultivated-and-the-vulgar-chinas-cultural-war/
- “Critical Masses, Commerce, and Shifting State-Society Relations in China” China Beat (February 17, 2010): http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=1526