Cinematic Border Crossings: Zhang Lü’s Dooman River and Diasporic Filmmaking

The University of Chicago Center in Beijing

20th floor, Culture Plaza
No. 59A Zhong Guan Cun Street
Haidian District Beijing 100872

On October 26, 2026, the University of Chicago Center in Beijing hosted a lecture and discussion titled “Cinematic Border Crossings: Zhang Lü’s Dooman River and Diasporic Filmmaking.” More than 40 attendees gathered to explore the work of Korean Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lü and the ways in which migration, diaspora, and national boundaries shape cinematic expression. The lecture was delivered by So Hye Kim, Lecturer in the Korean Studies Program at the University of Hong Kong, and moderated by Paola Iovene, Faculty Director of the Beijing Center.

Focusing on Zhang’s 2010 film Dooman River, Kim examined how border-crossing serves as a recurring concern throughout the director’s filmmaking career. Born in 1962, Zhang is a Korean Chinese (Chaoxianzu) filmmaker whose work spans China and South Korea. His films frequently portray ethnic Koreans living across national boundaries, bringing attention to individuals and communities situated at the social and geographical margins of nation-states.

Kim situated Dooman River within the broader trajectory of Zhang’s career, tracing his evolving engagement with different national and cinematic contexts. She highlighted how his filmmaking challenges conventional distinctions between national cinema and diasporic cinema, categories often treated as separate or mutually exclusive. Rather than positioning the two in opposition, Zhang’s work reveals how diasporic filmmaking develops through an ongoing engagement with national film cultures.

The lecture offered an opportunity to consider cinema as a medium through which questions of identity, belonging, migration, and national borders can be explored. By examining Zhang’s cinematic approach, Kim demonstrated how films can illuminate the complex relationships between individual lives and the political and cultural boundaries that shape them.

The lecture was followed by a discussion moderated by Iovene, during which attendees had the opportunity to engage further with the themes raised in the presentation. The event brought together participants interested in Korean cinema, East Asian cultural studies, and transnational approaches to film, fostering an exchange of perspectives on the relationship between cinema, diaspora, and national identity.

Through this event, the University of Chicago Center in Beijing continued to provide a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue on cinema, culture, and society, bringing contemporary scholarship into conversation with a broader audience.