15 Sep 2025
A newly released research-featured documentary, Becoming Otherwise: Undefined Lives Beyond the Given, is a collaborative creation between the Art and Culture Technology Research Centre (ACTC) at the Academy of Film and Culture Technology (AFCT） and the Department of Urban Planning and Design (UPD) at the Design School.
The film takes as its point of departure Kaixiangong Village in Jiangsu Province—known as "Jiangcun" in the classic studies of sociologist Fei Xiaotong—and examines how young people are reshaping rural communities through innovation and engagement. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and visual storytelling, it sheds light on individual choices and community transformation within the wider process of "counter-urbanisation."
Jiangcun landscape video frame display
From Research Insights to Visual Storytelling
The documentary builds on the research project "Young Talented People's Leaving and Living in Chinese Cities: Unravelling the community building and place-making of new migrants in Suzhou" (RDF-23-02-062), led by Dr Kon Kim of the UPD Department. The project examines three types of young returnees – civil servants, entrepreneurs, and university students – who are challenging urban-rural divides and revitalising Jiangcun through digital innovation and community participation.
Video frame display
In the summer of 2025, to bring academic insights to a wider public, Dr Yiming Chen and postgraduate student Shao Jinze from the Cultural and Creative Industries programme took on the roles of creative supervisor and director. Together with principal investigator Dr Kon Kim and co-investigator Dr Ying Chang, they implemented the documentary production project, completing the entire process from planning, field shooting, to post-production, with support from an interdisciplinary research team including Hongchen Hu and Jing Li from the School of Design, and Yaqi Mi from the International Business School.
Group photo (from left to right): Hongchen Hu, Dr Ying Chang, Dr Jian Jin, Dr Yiming Chen, Shaojin Ze
Capturing “otherwise” lives
- Chapter one follows how civil servants act as bridges between policy and residents.
- Chapter two documents how entrepreneurs use digital technologies to revitalise local economies and cultures.
- Chapter three portrays how student residents integrate into village life, growing alongside rural communities.
Civil servant of Jiangcun working in the field
A young entrepreneur running a café shop in Jiangcun
Interviewing resident university students
AFCT student work photos taken in the field
Practice-Driven Creation: Filming as Research
Becoming Otherwise is more than a documentary – it is a manifestation of practice-based research, demonstrating that filmmaking is not passive recording but an active form of inquiry. Every shot extends the research; every editorial refinement deepens the narrative approach.
Looking ahead, AFCT will continue to champion practice-driven creation as well as interdisciplinary and cross-faculty collaboration, using professional film language to document not only China’s evolving social landscape but also those across Asia and globally, with clarity, warmth, and intellectual depth.
Contributed by Yiming Chen, Jinze Shao, Kon Kim, Ying Chang
Edited by Wenzhen Li
Photos courtesy of Yiming Chen
15 Sep 2025