My Framer Site

Tian (Esther) Li

Assistant Professor at Korea University

Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy

Korean & Chinese Film, Media, and Cultural Studies

Publication

Refereed Journal Articles

Books & Translations

Invited Publications & Reviews

Talks & Conferences

Film

Resume

esthertianli@gmail.com

Hi, I'm Tian Li!

I am a Assistant Professor at Korea University.

Previously, I have held the following academic positions:

Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages at Yale University. (2023 - 2025)
Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer, Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University (2022 - 2023)
Korea Foundation–Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard University (2020 - 2021)
Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University (Spring 2020)

I am also the Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy.

I am a Assistant Professor at Korea University.

Previously, I have held the following academic positions:

Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages at Yale University. (2023 - 2025)
Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer, Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University (2022 - 2023)
Korea Foundation–Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard University (2020 - 2021)
Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University (Spring 2020)

I am also the Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy.

I am a Assistant Professor at Korea University.

Previously, I have held the following academic positions:

Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages at Yale University. (2023 - 2025)
Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer, Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University (2022 - 2023)
Korea Foundation–Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard University (2020 - 2021)
Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University (Spring 2020)

I am also the Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy.

Publication

My publications explore the intersections of Korean and Chinese screen cultures, media theory, and transnational modernity. Across peer-reviewed articles, book projects, and translations, my work examines how screen media engages questions of justice, affect, and ideology within the broader contexts of globalization and East Asian cultural exchange.

Refereed Journal Articles

“Spatiotemporal Sutures: Screening National Integration in National Treasure,” Screen (under review)

2026

“Channeling Alterity: Toward a Theory of Shamanic Audiovisualization,” Theory, Culture & Society (under review)

2026

"Justice Beyond Modernity: Ritualistic Intermediation and Mediatized Jurisprudence in The Devil Judge,” European Journal of Cultural Studies (under review)

2025

“Pain, Suffering, and Justice: Transnational Narratives of Comfort Women in Twenty-Two and Spirit's Homecoming,” In Private Memories, Public Discourses. The Traces of the Perpetration in Spaces, Testimonies and Archives (Peter Lang, 2025)

2025

“Opening a Virtual Space Before the Door of the Law: The Dogani Effect from Silenced to Angels Wear White,” positions: asia critique 32, no.3 (2024): 685-711.

2024

“在法律之门前开辟虚拟空间：从《熔炉》到《嘉年华》的“熔炉效应,”区域Remapping, no.2 (2024). Journal published by Tsinghua University.

2024

“Rhizome in the shadows: Transplantation of Korean Running Man in the rise of Screen-capitalism,” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies no. 34 (2020):73-87. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2019.1694139

2020

“Bang Bang Bang—Nonsense or an Alternative Language?: The Lingualscape in the Chinese Remake of I Am a Singer,” China Perspectives no.3 (2019): 37-45. https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.9417

« Bang Bang Bang » – Absurdité ou langue alternative ? Le paysage linguistique de l’adaptation chinoise/du remake chinois de I Am a Singer (French Version)

http://journals.openedition.org/perspectiveschinoises/10327

2020

“Running Man: Korean Television Variety Program on the Transnational, Affective Run,” Telos no.184 (2018): 163-184. (coauthor with Kyung Hyun Kim)

https://doi.org/10.3817/0918184163

2018

Books & Translations

Monograph in Preparation

Riding the Korean Wave in China: The Remaking and Reception of Global Korean Screen Culture (manuscript under revision following two positive reader reports for the proposal and sample chapters)

Overcoming Modern Subjectivity: Mediatized Justice, Law, and Ethics in Korean Legal Films and K-Dramas (tentative title, in progress)

Academic Translations

Voices of the Korean Comfort Women: History Rewritten from Memories, London: Routledge, 2023. Co-translator. (Korean > English)

2023

Izabella Goikhman. “Soviet-Chinese Academic Interactions in the 1950s: Questioning the ‘Impact Response’ Approach” In Thomas P. Bernstein and Huayu Li eds., China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-present. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2019, 381-414. (English > Chinese)

2019

Laurence Schneider. “Lysenkoism and the Suppression of Genetics in the PRC 1949-1956.” In Thomas P. Bernstein and Huayu Li eds., China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-present. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2019, 381-414. (English > Chinese)

2019

Invited Publications &. Reviews

Invited Book Review

Jinah Kim’s Postcolonial Grief: The Afterlives of the Pacific Wars in the Americas. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019. The Journal of Asian Studies 80, no.1 (2021):260-261. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002191182000412X

2021

Invited Public-facing Publication

How Korea Quietly Reshaped Chinese Pop Culture, Sixth Tone: Fresh Voices from Today’s China, July 19, 2023.

2023

Talks & Conferences

Selected Invited Talks and Guest Lectures

“Mimicry, Cultural Ban, and Transplantation: Localization of Korean Screen Culture in Postsocialist China,”

East Asian Studies Center, University of Southern California

2024

“Global Korean Screen Culture in Postsocialist China,”

Carnegie Mellon University

2024

“The Futures of Uri” Council on East Asian Studies,

Yale University

2023

“Screen capitalism: Global Korean Screen Culture in Postsocialist China,”

Rochester University

2023

“Nonsense or an Alternative Language?: The Lingualscape in the Transnational Korean Screen Culture” Korean Heritage Language Research Group Roundtable Meetings,

UC Irvine

2021

“Screen-capitalism: Transnational Korean Screen Culture in Postsocialist China,” Kim Koo Forum on Korea Current Affairs,

Korea Institute, Harvard

2021

“Korean Cinema, Imperialism, and The Host,”

The Task Force for Asian American Progressive Advocacy and Studies at Harvard

2020

“Nation, Memory, and Democratization,” History, Nationalism, and the World: The Case of Korea,

Harvard

2020

“The Power of Screen: Hallyu and its Reception in China,”

Korean Failures, UC Irvine

2018

“Spectator-subject, Co-production, and Reception of Korean Television,” Gender and Visuality in Korea,

UC Irvine

2017

“Mystery in a Floating City: City, Space, and Mental Life in Postsocialist China,” Sino-Cinema Scope,

UC Irvine

2016

Conference Presentations

“Exploring the Present and Future of Film and Media Education in Asia,” Busan International Film Festival, Busan, South Korea. September 12-15.

“Intertextuality Across Histories and Geographies in Contemporary East Asian Cinema,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, IL. April 3-6.

2025

“ Round Table Discussion “Networking Women: East Asian Women in Global Cinematic Media,” National Conference of the Asian Studies Development Program, Washington, D.C. March 6-8.

2025

“Reframing Korean Screen Culture: Recent Changes in social, Gender, and Industrial Landscapes,” Korean Screen Culture Conference, Melbourne, Australia. December 1-2.

2023

“How a Softie Like You Can Be So Good on the Battlefield: Male Bodies and the Female Gaze in Descendants of the Sun, Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Honolulu, HI. March 24-27.

2022

“Opening a Virtual Space Before the Door of the Law: The Dogani Effect from Silenced to Angels Wear White,” Korean Studies Working Group at Harvard, Cambridge, MA. April 23.

2021

“The Powerless in the Power-of-Screen: From Silenced to Carnival,” Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Denver, CO. March 21-24.

2019

“From a ‘to-be-looked-at’ object to a ‘to-cater-to’ subject: A Shift of Viewing Subject and Gender Identity in the Rise of Korean Popular Culture,” International Federation for Research on Women’s History, Simon Fraser University, Canada. August 9-12.

2018

“Collaborative Transplant: Hurry Up, Brothers,” Korean Wave Still Matters: Present and Future Directions Conference, Monash University, Australia. June 7-8.

2018

“Gendered Screen-capitalism: A Shifting Gaze and Female Friendship,” the 14th Biennial Asian Studies in Israel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. May 23-24.

2018

“Transplantable Screen-capitalism: Chinese Remakes of Korean TV Program,” Recent Books in Korean Studies Colloquium, Center for Critical Korean Studies, UC Irvine, CA. May 25-26.

2017

“Korean Cinema: The Virtue in the Real—Silenced,” Film Screening & Discussion Series 2, UC Irvine, CA. April 25.

2017

“Pop Culture as Healing and Reconciliation: Supernaturalism and the Supersensory in Korean Cinema and K-drama”

Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Salt Lake City, UT. October 9-10.

2015

“Power and Resistance: Delicate Cages,” Film Screening & Discussion, UC Irvine, CA. February 6.

2014

“A Study on Korean & American Waves in the Chinese TV Drama Scene,” Society for Phenomenology and Media Annual Conference, San Diego, CA. February 16-19.

2012

Film

Executive Director & Translator, I Am Not Brave, Korean National University of Arts& Beijing Film Academy. Supported by Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

2011

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