Kiki Tianqi Yu is Reader in Cinematic Art at the Department of Film Studies and Centre for Film and Ethics, Queen Mary University of London.Her research explores cinema in relation to Asian philosophies, art histories, personal expression, and decolonisation.

Her books include, as the author, ‘My’ Self on Camera: First Person Documentary Practice in an Individualising China (Edinburgh University Press, 2019); as the co-editor, China’s iGeneration Cinema and Moving Image Culture for the 21st Century (Bloomsbury, 2014), the Special Issue of Studies in Documentary Film on feminist approaches in East Asian Women’s personal cinema (14:1 2020), Essay Film and Narrative Techniques (Intellect, 2025), and the forthcoming Sinophone Women’s Cinema and Women Filmmakers(Edinburgh University Press, 2027).

Yu’s existing publications on ‘Daoism and cinema’ includes ‘Cinematic Ideorealm and Cinema Following Dao’published on Screen (2023 64:4), “Cinema of Qi” appears in the Handbook of Documentary Film (2025), “Embodied Female Gaze and Transborder Flows: Personal Cinema as ‘Soft Resistance’ in New Wave Women Filmmaking in Post-2010s China”, on Journal of Chinese Cinemas (2025), and article “The Philosophy of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” (2023) on The Conversation, translated into four languages within six months. She also delivered her keynote speech ‘Cinematic Nothingness in Nomadland and Chloe Zhao’s Wuwei Filmmaking’ at Chloe Zhao’s Transnational Cinema symposium (University Portsmouth, November 2025).

As a filmmaker and curator, her award-winning films include Memory of Home (2009), China’s Van Goghs (2016), exploring creativity, copy and global art trades, and The Two Lives of Li Ermao (2019), a 15-year portrait of a transgender migrant worker. These films have been widely screened at international film festivals and art institutions, and collected by various institutions including Yale University, Harvard University, Columbia University, and so on. Her work-in-progress nonfiction film is also part of this AHRC funded project. Her Daoist themed curatorial practices include Mountains and Water: Cosmological thinking in Gaoi Shiqiang’s Moving Image Art at BLOC Cinema and Gallery London October 2023, and the film season Dancing with Water: Women’s Cinema from Contemporary China at various cinemas in London Feb-April 2024.

Paul Gladston, Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair Professor of Contemporary Art at UNSW, explores the interplay between traditional Chinese thought and contemporary art. His award-winning research, integrated into global academic curricula and translated into multiple languages, has shaped the field of Chinese contemporary art. Author of over ten books, Gladston also co-edits the book series Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics (Palgrave). His current book, Dis-/Continuing Traditions, aligns closely with this project. Gladston has collaborated with various international institutions such as UNESCO, London Southbank Centre, Tate Modern, Sotheby’s Institute, and ShanghArt Gallery. He was an academic advisor to the internationally acclaimed exhibition ‘Art of Change: New Directions from China,’ Hayward Gallery-South Bank Centre (2012).

Professor Gao Shiqiang, Deputy Head of School of Intermedia Art at the China Academy of Art, is a leading figure in China’s new media art, and has mentored numerous prominent Chinese artists, fostering relationships with major galleries and art spaces in China and globally. He developed an innovative teaching system integrating filmmaking, exhibition, and collaborative practice. He received a Creative Talent Grant from China’s National Art Fund for his “Mountains and Water” project, which revitalizes Chinese landscape painting aesthetics and Daoist philosophy through moving images. Gao’s film installations have been shown internationally, most recently at Yu’s 2023 exhibition. Gao helped to establish the academic subject “Cross-Media Art” acknowledged by China’s Ministry of Education in 2015. He also helped to found China’s national Cross-Media Art Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching Centre.

Michelle Yu, director of Global Culture Communication & Development Ltd (GCCD) since 2010, promotes cultural exchange between China and the UK. She has built strong relationships with galleries, curators, art agents, and collectors while supporting emerging artists through platforms to showcase their work. She is also the editor-in-chief of ART.ZIP, a bilingual Chinese-English art magazine distributed globally. She organizes exhibitions connecting artists with the public and collaborated with Christie’s Education on professional lectures. GCCD co-founded the Beijing Contemporary Art Fair (2018), promoting British artists in China, and organized London’s FeastFest cultural theatre festival, engaging local communities.

Jayne Beaumont, co-founder of Beaumont Awareness (2021), is a wellness expert specialising in meditation workshops and retreats. Their highly regarded group retreats focus on life/work balance and tools for healthy living.