2021 to 2022
Teaching Assistant
Jinan University
I supported Short Film Production courses and research workshops through course preparation, student consultation, and assignment design and marking.
Academic
Research, writing and the questions I keep returning to.
My academic work moves between gender studies, sociology and cultural studies. I’m interested in how gender, work and technology come together in ordinary life, and in the relationships between people, media and the material world around them.
Current research
Women’s Invisible Infrastructural Labour in China’s Rural Livestreaming Industry
My doctoral research follows women intermediaries in China’s rural livestreaming industry. I’m interested in their everyday lives, their work and the relationships they build with media technologies, platforms, objects and other nonhuman actors.
I look at how these human and nonhuman relationships help organise and sustain rural livestreaming. Gender is central to this research. It shapes how work is divided, how technologies are used and how women’s contributions become visible, valued or overlooked.
Through the idea of invisible infrastructural labour, I explore the ordinary practices, connections and forms of care that hold livestreaming together, even when they remain behind the screen.
Selected writing
2024
No more queer, but an artist of ‘positive energy’: remembering Leslie Cheung in mainland China
Tingting Liu and Siyun Dong
2026
Governing Urbanites through Green Reality TV: The Rise of Eco-Lifestyle Formats in China
Tania Lewis and Siyun Dong
2022
Current Situation of Dissemination of Chinese Medicine in the New Media Field
Siyun Dong and Tingting Liu
Projects & collaborations
2024
China-Owned Multinational InfoTech Enterprises
Research Assistant
I coordinated interviews and focus groups, collected and transcribed qualitative materials, and translated and analysed industry-related documents.
2022 to 2023
No Longer Poor, Not Middle Class: New Consumer Cultures in the Global South
Research Assistant
I helped draft a WeChat mini program for the project’s China field site.
2022 to present
Poverty Alleviation through E-Commerce in Rural Guangdong
Research Assistant
I assisted with interviews and the collection and transcription of qualitative research materials.
2022 to present
Livestreaming E-Commerce and Rural Revitalisation
Research Assistant
I assisted with interviews and qualitative research on livestreaming e-commerce in rural China.
2022
Platformisation of Little Red Book and the Digital Labour of Bloggers
Research Assistant
I assisted with interviews with Little Red Book bloggers and collected and transcribed qualitative research materials.
Teaching
Selected talks
2024
The Digital Rebirth of Rose Boy in China: Queer Narratives and Resistance in the Age of Positive Energy
2023
Mentally Ill, Socially Awkward and Economically Unsuccessful: Representing and Constructing Subordinate Hong Kong Masculinities in Post-1997 Films
Education
PhD
RMIT University · 2024 to present
MA in Journalism and Communication
Jinan University · 2021 to 2023
BA in Russian
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies · 2016 to 2020
Scholarships
RMIT Research International Tuition Fee Scholarship
2024 to present
RMIT Research Stipend Scholarship
2024 to present