Daoism, Cinema
& Wellbeing
Meditative Cinema
Upcoming Event
Daoism’s transcultural and transhistorical resonances
Date: 22 April 2026
Location: BLOC Cinema, Arts One Building, QMUL
In a world marked by accelerating environmental breakdown, persistent political conflicts, rapid technological changes, rising anxieties about collective wellness, art—and cinema in particular—does more than mirror or critique these conditions…
About
Daoism, cinema and wellbeing:
Meditative Cinema
The project shifts the debates on ecology, cinema and wellbeing through the lens of Daoist philosophy, decolonizing Western-centric paradigms in film theory and philosophy.
Vision & Aims
Reframing posthumanism through non-Western philosophies
Responding to critiques of anthropocentrism and Western-centric forms of posthumanism, this project offers a corrective by arguing for the conceptual power of non-western philosophies to response to contemporary challenges.
The Team
Principal Investigator
Writer, filmmaker, curator
Reader in Cinematic Art at the Department of Film Studies and Centre for Film and Ethics, Queen Mary University of London
Yu’s research, in theory and practice, explores cinema in relation to Asian philosophies, art histories, personal expression, and decolonisation, with a focus on creative documentary, artists moving image, women’s cinema and Sinophone cinema.
Yu’s existing research on Daoism and cinema has resulted in journal articles on Screen and Journal of Chinese cinema, and book chapters in edited collections. She is working on her second monograph Cinema that Breathes: Daoist film philosophy and Meditative Cinema. She is the author of ‘My’ Self on Camera (2019), and co-editor of China’s iGeneration (2014) and Essay Film and Narrative Techniques (2025). Kiki’s award-winning films, including Memory of Home (2009), China’s Van Goghs (2016), and The Two Lives of Li Ermao (2019), have been widely screened at international film festivals and art institutions. She also curates film seasons and moving image exhibition.
Project Collaborators
Gao Shiqiang
Artist, Professor of Art, Deputy Head
School of Intermedia Art, The China Academy of Art
Paul Gladston
Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair Professor
Contemporary Art, UNSW
Michelle Yu
Director
Global Culture Communication & Development Ltd (GCCD)
Beaumont Awareness
Organisation for meditation workshops and wellness retreats.
Advisory Board
Chris Berry
King’s College London
David Chai
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ashvin Devasundaram
Queen Mary University of London
Steven Eastwood
Queen Mary University of London
Victor Fan
King’s College London
Janet Harbord
Queen Mary University of London
Anat Pick
Queen Mary University of London
Activities & Events
Research Hub
Cinema, Asian Philosophies and Visual Ecologies (CAVe)
CAVe is an interdisciplinary research hub that advances cinema and visual art through Asian philosophies, to cultivate new ways of seeing, sensing, and relating to the world, fostering relational, ecological, and embodied approaches to visual culture.
