MS HUAYING DAI

Biography

Huaying is a PhD student in Film and Visual Culture (since September 2024), supervised by Dr Alejandra Rodriguez-Remedi and Dr Calum Waddell. Her research explores the aesthetics of Chinese diaspora documentaries through practice-based research, with particular attention to migration, transnational culture, belonging, and the visual representation of these themes in documentary film. Before beginning her PhD, she gained experience in China as a teaching assistant and documentary filmmaker.

External Memberships

• Member, Research Center for Media Convergence and Development, Minnan Normal University, China (2021–Present)
• Member, Minnan Culture Research Association of Fujian Province, China (2026–Present)

Research Overview

• Chinese diaspora documentaries
• Documentary, displacement, and exile
• Practice-based art pedagogy (with a focus on mainland China)

Current Research

I am currently beginning my practice-based PhD project: Representing Belonging: Exploring Formation, Aesthetic Strategies, and Cultural Representation in Chinese Diaspora Documentaries. I am also interested in practice-based pedagogy in undergraduate media and arts education in mainland China, informed by my previous experience, and aim to explore related topics and cases through observation and arts-based methodologies.

In China, I am also involved in the following projects:

• Immersive Communication: Theoretical Framework Construction and Implementation Pathways (The National Social Science Fund of China, ongoing, 2025-2030).
• Multi-Layered Narrative Communication in Minnan Temple Murals (Fujian Provincial Social Science Funding Project, ongoing, 2025–2028).
• Research on Immersive Experience through Augmented Reality (AR) in Fujian’s Digital Tourism (Fujian Provincial Social Science Funding Project, ongoing, 2024–2027).

Knowledge Exchange

• Organising Committee Member, Fairytales of the Other: The Orientalist Gaze, the Villain, and the Cultural Myths from Beyond (international conference on film and media studies), University of Aberdeen, April 2026.
• Presenter, Self-Reflexivity as a Response to Traumatic Experience: Analysing Documentaries by Descendants of the Chinese Diaspora, 12th International Conference of ISSCO (International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 2025.
• Presenter, What Does Generative AI Mean for Marketing? (research led by Yudi Zhang), Granite Journal Research Symposium, University of Aberdeen, April 2025.
• Presenter, Documentary Directors at the Crossroads: Adapting, Embracing, and Navigating the AI Technology Era, 2023 ANPOR-APCA-FICL Annual Conference, Manila, Philippines, 2023 (Best Oral Presentation Award).