Cui Zhou is a visiting assistant professor of East Asian Studies; it is her second year at Oberlin. She holds a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently working on transforming her dissertation, “Cinematic Mappings of Chinese Ethnic Minorities: Discourse Dynamics in National and Translocal Film Production, Consumption, and Circulation, 1949–1999.” This semester, she is teaching EAST 147: Chinese Ethnic Minorities in Multimedia Representations.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Your studies focus on representation of China’s ethnic minorities in Chinese film. What has that relationship looked like over time?
The earliest ethnic minority- themed films were in the Republican period, though this topic wasn’t very popular. Turning to the People’s Republic of China period, especially from 1949–1999, these films began to relate to the government’s policies; the PRC government aimed to create the idea that China was a unified, multinational country, so ethnic minorities became a very important topic for it to highlight the significance of national solidarity.
In the 1990s, China reformed and opened its doors to the rest of the world. After that, the topic of ethnic minorities in film became less popular; more and more filmmakers turned to focus on other social issues. Now, though, more and more ethnic minorities have started making films to represent their own culture and traditions; in the past, such films were made mainly by Han Chinese.
What about Chinese films’ relationship with the international market? Do you see the nature of that relationship changing in the future, particularly in the light of international successes like Guo Fan’s The Wandering Earth and, more recently, Jiao Zi’s Ne Zha 2?
It’s hard to predict, but China has had a long-term ambition to reach wider audiences; even from the earliest periods, silent films featured bilingual subtitles. The government, filmmakers, and also ordinary Chinese audiences are very interested to see the growing influence of Chinese films. More and more filmmakers want to get investments from the global market to strengthen the Chinese film industry. Hopefully, in the future, we can see even more influential Chinese films; we always want to see this interaction between different cultures in the world, right?
Given the significant acclaim for 2025 features such as Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident and Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which critique actively-ongoing human rights violations around the world, do you foresee opportunities for Chinese filmmakers to address the treatment of ethnic minorities in China today?
In terms of the global world, we pay more attention to those underrepresented groups. In China, those ethnic minorities are very underrepresented. We want to hear their voices — we want to see how they live and survive in a very challenging world. I think if interest is there, then, of course, we will have the opportunity to see more Chinese films about ethnic minorities. At the same time, these are sensitive topics, right? So it’s necessary for those Chinese filmmakers to find a balance between what they really want to express and restrictions set in place. Censorship is a very important condition for Chinese filmmakers. How do you navigate it?
Hopefully, in the future, the world will be more inclusive, and we can have more chances to hear those diverse voices. Still, there are quite a lot of filmmakers that make independent work while intentionally keeping a distance from the government and those restrictions in order to have more room to express themselves. I think festivals supporting independent films could be an alternative for us to hear more diverse voices.
What are some examples of Chinese films that have managed to discuss sensitive topics without being censored entirely?
There’s a very good example in the Tibetan director Pema Tseden. He, of course, talked about Tibetan issues and Tibetan culture. That’s kind of a sensitive topic. He did it very well because the Chinese government also promoted and supported his film production. People around the world also got quite a lot of information about Tibetan people and their contemporary lives in China from his films.
Could you describe your dissertation? What work are you doing on it at the moment? How is your experience at Oberlin accentuating that?
My dissertation is about ethnic minorities in filmmaker representation with a focus on the period from 1949 until 1999, which was the flourishing period of ethnic minority-related films. It examines the dynamic interactions of discourses representing four major forces that actively participated in ethnic issues: the nation-states, the Han Chinese, ethnic minorities themselves, and also the rest of the world, the global world. I’m working on turning it into a book project, which will also cover filmmaking activities like performance training, writing, and editing, as well as global reception of ethnic minority films. In terms of its relationship with my teaching while at Oberlin, I’m also teaching a course about these ethnic representations of Chinese minorities. So, that has a close relationship with my project.
What perspective do you bring to the classes you teach? What are you hoping your students will walk away with once the course is over?
I hope students will gain a better understanding about the major issues facing ethnic minorities in this specific field, such as Han-centrism, as well as about some other relevant issues like Orientalism and internal Orientalism.
In general, when we consume popular culture — like films, animation, songs — we may treat them as entertainment. We want to get pleasure from them. At the same time, I hope that, after this class, students will learn how to study this popular material in a serious way. It can provide a lens to reflect some bigger social issues, and that’s a very crucial takeaway.
