Zhen is investigating the live-streaming industry in China, focusing on the (gendered) live-streaming production and issues of creative labour. She will continue this research as a PhD candidate at ESHCC.
Before landing in Rotterdam, Zhen has been exploring herself in different cultural and academic settings. Zhen started her university life with a major in Japanese Language and Literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University, while later on she chose to do a minor in Journalism and Communication. During her third year of bachelor, she was in an exchange study programme which brought her Tokyo and developed a fascination about inter-cultural communication in her mind. Therefore, she decided to pursue her personal interests with a Master programme of Media & Communication at Goldsmiths, University of London, after graduating.
The life in east London has led her to a position where she was constantly reading, feeling, discussing topics and ideas from various disciplines including Culture Studies and Gender Studies, and where she noticed herself being lost in political economic of the media, affect theories, and other strands of thoughts. Followed by this MA, she enrolled in the Research Master of Media Studies at University of Amsterdam from 2018 to 2020 (where she also worked as a teaching assistant and a research project assistant), hoping to take more time for herself to figure out what her research interest really lies in. Fortunately, the path has become clearer to her.
In terms of daily life hobbies, Zhen enjoys very much spending time in the independent cinemas. Her favorite cinemas include Eye, Lab111, Rialto, The Movies at Amsterdam, Filmschuur at Haarlem, and LantarenVenster at Rotterdam. Besides, she likes to document people, architectures, and the mundane-ness of city life with photographs.
