Kiki Yu Tianqi

Tianqi Yu is now doing a practice-based Ph.D in documentary film at CREAM (Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media), University of Westminster. In her project, she aims to explore an innovative aesthetic style in presenting the complexity of cultural translation between two political and cultural parts: a rising country - China and the established capitalist ‘West’.  Tianqi was born in an ancient town along the Yellow River in 1985 and migrated with her family to Shenzhen at nine. Influenced by her father, Yu Haibo, an established Chinese social photographer, she has strong interest in visual art and pursued a BA in Film and TV Production at University of Westminster in 2005. In 2006, she went to Tibet for a documentary film making on the impact of Chinese culture and political domination over the local ethnic. Her graduation film “Photographing Shenzhen” was commissioned to Discovery Channel Asia in 2007 and won the Best documentary and Grand Jury Price at 2008 Screentest-UK’s National Student Film Festival. She graduated from Newnham College, University of Cambridge in 2008 with an Mphil degree in Sociology. She organizes ‘Polyphonic China’ - the first Chinese new independent documentaries screening in UK with the support of CREAM. The screening event takes place in February and March 2009 in London.