Information about Researcher Tianyu Zhang
Researcher: Tianyu Zhang
Information
| Role | Researcher |
|---|---|
| First name | Tianyu |
| Last name | Zhang |
| Country | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| Academic title | Dr |
| Organisation | Royal Holloway University of London |
| Thematic area/field | HS – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences / HS2 Culture and cultural production |
| Key words | television production, ethnography, Chinese TV, production culture |
More | |
| Short summary of activities and expertise | I worked in China’s state-owned television and private TV production companies. I am now a Ph.D. researcher in entertainment TV production, with a special interest in ethnography. I also have an MRes in Media and Gender Studies from Communication University of China and an MA in International TV Industries at Royal Holloway. I was awarded my PhD in January 2022 and now work as a Film Lecturer at London South Bank University (LSBU). Having completed four media degrees ranging from television production, cultural studies, communications (media and gender) to journalism, I also have a lot of work experience within the Chinese TV and news industry. My PhD at Royal Holloway was ethnographic research on the working culture of studio-based Chinese entertainment TV. From 2018 and 2019, I conducted six months’ ethnographic fieldwork in China and interviewed creative workers in China and the UK. I am experienced in participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and other qualitative research methods. |
| Relevant publications and/or research/innovation products | 1. Literature Review on the Analysis of Heated Gender Issues from the Perspective of News and Communication from the Report on The Development of Media and Gender in China (2013-2014): https://tinyurl.com/y62ly9v2 2. Global Media Journal: Media ethnography in China - ethics and access in a non-Western context (in preparation, will be published in June 2022) 3. Precarity: management of the Chinese entertainment TV (will be published Sep 2022) 4. Production ethics and casting in Chinese entertainment TV (in preparation) 5. PhD thesis in preparation for book publication with Routledge |
| Other relevant achievements | Conference presentations: 1. Inequality and precarity in Chinese TV. June 2017, Royal Holloway Media Arts Conference 2. God-worshipping in Chinese TV: Superstition? Or Self-consolation? May 2019, Royal Holloway Media Arts Conference 3. Coping with Messiness in Ethnography – Authority, Bias and Immersion in Ethnographic Fieldwork in the Non-Western World at CHI (Online), May 7-8, 2021 4. Disrupted Ethnography, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, Oct 21-22, 2021 5. Creativity and innovations in dramatic arts, media and cultural production: visions and values for the future, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, November 17-19, 2021 6. The Politics of Casting in Media Conference, University of South Wales, November 20-21, 2021 |
| Preferred Host Institution type | Public, Academic, Non-academic, Research centre, Non-governmental organisation (NGO) |
| Additional information | 1) PhD thesis project (2016-2021): an ethnographic study on Chinese entertainment TV production. Thesis title: ‘Power and precarity in Chinese television production: an ethnographic study into the working culture of studio-based entertainment’. A large part of my thesis focused on how China’s overall employment policies, such as the social welfare system and the household registration system (hukou) affected media practitioners’ working conditions and overall livelihood. It also analysed how people make television in China from a micro level. This study has contributed to the knowledge of television production cultures and the Chinese labour market in general. 2) During my MRes (2014-2019), I designed two questionnaires about female journalists’ working conditions and distributed them to 100 female journalists. Later, I interviewed 20 of them who were available. They added insights into the questionnaires and provided more details about their working environment. Some of their words |
Contact | |
| sophiazhang92@gmail.com | |
| Phone number | +447547770426 |
| Website | https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ |
