Quan Meidi is a PhD student in the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. Starting her journey in communication studies, Quan Meidi holds a Bachelor’s degree from Sichuan University and a Master’s degree from Sun Yat-sen University. She also participated in an exchange program at the College of Communication at National Chengchi University.  

Her research focuses on Chinese film festivals and related cultural studies. She has actively engaged in several film festivals and independent film screening organizations in China, accumulating a substantial amount of first-hand research materials and practical experience in film research. Employing autoethnography, Quan Meidi takes herself as the method, exploring the connections between individuals and society through the lens of film culture.  

Quan Meidi’s upcoming research endeavor is designed to examine the rise of Chinese grassroots film festivals in the context of post-independent film era. This study will describe the form and features of Chinese grassroots film festivals in their structure, representation and interaction from a perspective of alternative public sphere using the ethnographic method through participatory observation and in-depth interview. It will also use the field theory as a path to explore struggles over capital and power in this field as well as its interaction with other related fields for interpreting the shift of Chinese grassroots film festivals in the new era, as well as the reason of this shift to further understand the role of this distinctive public cultural sphere in today’s China.