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

So Hye Kim is Lecturer in the Korean Studies Program at the University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago and taught at Northwestern University and Korea University. Her research examines how migration, diaspora, and transnational encounters reshape Korean—and East Asian—cinema and national cultures. She is currently working on her first monograph, Beyond Longing and Belonging: The Cinematic Interplay between the Nation and its Diaspora in South Korea.

Join the University of Chicago Center in Beijing for a lecture and discussion of the work of the renowned Korean Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lü by Korean film scholar So Hye Kim from the University of Hong Kong. The discussion will be moderated by Paola Iovene, faculty director of the Beijing Center. 

Abstract:

Zhang Lü (b. 1962), a Korean Chinese (Chaoxianzu) director, is one of the most distinctive diasporic filmmakers working across China and South Korea in recent decades. His career can be divided into three phases. Zhang began by portraying ethnic Koreans across China, Korea, and Mongolia, often focusing on people pushed toward the social and geographical borders of nation-states. From 2012 to 2019, he mainly made films in South Korea, where he had relocated from China. Since 2021, he has returned to Chinese-language filmmaking based primarily in China, marking another shift across national and cinematic contexts. 

Focusing on the film Dooman River (2010), this talk suggests that border-crossing constitutes an enduring concern in Zhang Lu’s whole filmmaking career. National and diasporic cinema are often conceived as distinct and mutually exclusive categories. Zhang’s career, by contrast, demonstrates how diasporic filmmaking is shaped by an ongoing engagement with national film cultures. His films therefore offer an illuminating case for thinking about how national cinema, diasporic filmmaking, and cinematic experience are mutually constituted through border-crossing.

Monday October 26, 2026

6:15PM Registration

6:30-7PM Reception

7-7:40PM So Hye Kim, The University of Hong Kong, "Cinematic Border Crossings: Zhang Lü’s Dooman River and Diasporic Filmmaking." 

7:40-8:30PM Discussion

Event language: English

Click HERE to register.