Xinran LIU is a PhD candidate in the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.

Her research interests include documentary, women filmmakers, and sinohphone world cinema.

Her doctoral research, temporarily titled “Making Waves: Hong Kong Women Filmmakers and Independent Documentary,” explores the relationship between Hong Kong independent documentaries and engendered approaches women filmmakers take. Hong Kong has experienced drastic cultural, political, and economic transformations over the past 27 years. The city saw an increase in non-fiction films that have just begun to receive scholarly attention. This dissertation explores the largely overlooked area of independent documentaries in Hong Kong by tracing historical context and recent developments. She will focus on twelve female directors whose works have formed a women’s cinema offering alternative narratives addressing gender, identity, and power through the female lens. Auteur theories will be adapted to assert these filmmakers’ creative agency, examining how they combine the personal and the political to give voices to marginalized people and communities. She hopes to explore issues including Hong Kong’s (de)colonization and embracing or rejection of Chinese nationalism, and to challenge the patriarchal discourses profoundly shaped the complex identities of female directors.