Prof. Qinyuan Lei is a filmmaker and researcher whose work centers on communication technologies, social media, online communities, digital ethnography, and the impact of new technologies on the daily lives of young people in China. Dedicated to media-based research and ethnography, she aims to document the evolving future of China in these dynamic times. Lei obtained her PhD in East Asian Studies at Princeton University in 2018. Following her doctorate, she moved to Berlin to train as a filmmaker. Before joining the School of Creative Media in the position of Assistant Professor, she worked at the School of Design at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen. 

Lei is focused on media-based research and ethnography, with a strong emphasis on documenting the rapidly changing landscape of China. She founded the “Digital Communities in China” research group, working with young Chinese Communication Studies researchers. Their collaborative efforts have led to several research projects exploring the impact of communication technologies on modern Chinese society. Their most recent articles were featured at the 2023 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) and have been accepted for presentation at the 2024 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the 22nd European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). Lei also contributes as a reviewer for prestigious journals and conferences, including ACM CSCW, the International Communication Gazette, and the Chinese Journal of Communication.

Lei’s documentary debut, The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost, premiered in the “International Competition” category at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2021. Before its premiere, the project was shortlisted by the Sundance Documentary Fund (USA) in 2020. The film was featured in several prestigious international film festivals, including the RIDM-Montreal International Documentary Film Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, and DOK.fest München. Currently, Lei is working on a new film titled Ms. Love (working title), which is also part of her ongoing research into digital communities. This film focuses on three young Chinese women who explore love within the subculture of Erciyuan. The project has been accepted to the “Storytelling Lab” of Docs by the Sea in Indonesia in 2024.