Yufei Li: Atlas in Motion: Visualising Manchuria through Moving Images

Supervisor: Professor François Penz

Research overview:

Film’s mimetic power captures places and preserves them across time, allowing viewers to explore these locations in various historical and social contexts. In the 1930s-40s, Japanese-affiliated institutes produced a series of films depicting Manchuria, a Chinese region shaped by its turbulent colonial history with Tsarist Russia and Imperial Japan. Despite their propagandistic nature, these films offer a unique glimpse into Manchuria's landscapes and culture. This study revisits the historical image of colonial places in cinematic representation by proposing a series of shifting perspectives. It conducts a detailed analysis of Manchurian cities by cross-referencing multiple excerpts from films produced between 1932 and 1945, focusing on their filming sites and locations. By centring the concept of "place" as the main subject, the research deconstructs colonial films, shifting the focus from an imperialist gaze to the nuances of location, locale, and the sense of place at a native scale. Historical films are thus positioned as rich sources of locational imagination, particularly in the context of contemporary urban regeneration and cultural placemaking.

Biography:

Yufei Li is a PhD candidate in Architecture, an architect and urban researcher. With a passion for exploring the intersection of the built environment and cultural identity, Yufei’s interest delves into how socio-cultural dynamics and mass media shape cities and places. Her academic journey began with a Diploma from the Architectural Association, followed by an MPhil with distinction from Cambridge. Qualified as a professional architect in the ARB and RIBA, she practises architectural design in London specialising in the renovation of cultural venues.