With our shared commitment to advancing research on media and creative industries in Asia, Centre for Film and Creative Industries (CFCI) at Lingnan University in Hong Kong joins forces with the Asian Cinema Research Lab (ACR Lab) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to launch and co-host this webinar series. Media and Creative Industries in East Asia reflects upon the history, media platform, technological infrastructure and related policy in Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, offering insights into the latest developments and robust dynamics concerning the media and creative industries in the East Asian region from multiple perspectives.

Centre for Film and Creative Industries (CFCI)

Affiliated with the Department of Visual Studies, Centre for Film and Creative Industries (CFCI) (formerly known as Centre for Cinema Studies) is a centre devoted to research on creative and media industries, film history, and visual art. Our core members come from the Department of Visual Studies, and contribute interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of film, media and visual art. To advance the research on creative and media industries and step up the impact of CFCI, in early 2021 we co-launched a Master of Arts in Creative and Media Industries with the Department of Philosophy.

In recent years CFCI has gained a global presence in the fields of film history and media industry, two of our research foci. We have collaborated with international institutions on various projects, including “Globalizing and Enhancing the Media History Digital Library” with the University of Wisconsin-Madison; we also initiated an international symposium and masterclass on media industries in 2018, and have become a member of the editorial collective of Media Industries Journal.

Our faculty members’ current research projects cover a wide range of subjects along the axes of film history and media/creative industries. They include colonial regulation and early film exhibition in Hong Kong, East Asian screen industries, transnational film exchange and the PRC (1978-1993), early Chinese cinema, Taiwan cinema, performance art in Asia since the 1990s, artistic autonomy and postsocialist affect in China (1985-1995), queer media cultures in Asia, and a comparative study on the film/media policies in East Asia.

Asian Cinema Research Lab (ACR Lab)

The Asian Cinema Research Lab (ACR Lab) is a network of Asian cinema and media researchers working in Singapore and beyond. The ACR Lab serves as a platform for connecting Singapore’s faculty and graduate students interested in Asian cinema. The ACR Lab includes film and media studies professors and graduate students in Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, and LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore as core researchers. The ACR Lab also invites film programmers, curators, and archivists from such institutions as the Asian Film Archive, the National Gallery of Singapore, and Singapore International Film Festival. In addition to these core members, some of the world’s most respected Asian cinema scholars have joined the ACR Lab as overseas collaborators.

The ACR Lab will organize a series of webinars by leading scholars in Asian cinema studies, multiple virtual film studies conferences, forums, and symposia that provide open forums for film experts, professionals, students, and general audience members who want to share their knowledge, vision, and love of the medium.