Ying ZHANG
Media and Cultural Studies Researcher.
Lecturer, Joshibi University of Art and Design;
Contract Lecturer, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Granada (Spain)
Born in 1992 in Shanghai, China. Research interests include representation studies, media and cultural studies, animation history, and the history of Sino-Japanese animation exchange.
Graduated in 2014 from the Department of Animation Production, Xie Jin Film & Television Art College, Shanghai Normal University. Entered the MA program in Art Research and Creation at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Granada (Spain) in 2015 and completed the degree in 2016. In 2019, entered the Doctoral Program (Art and Cultural Studies) at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Joshibi University of Art and Design, and obtained a PhD in Fine Arts in 2023.
From 2016 to 2017, served as an assistant in the planning department at Yiyuantang Art Gallery in Shanghai, engaging in exhibition planning and management. Since 2023, has been a Project-Based Lecturer at the Faculty of International Art and Culture, Joshibi University of Art and Design. In 2025, worked as an exhibition planner for SEIBUNDO Gallery (Kyobashi). From 2026, serves as a Contract Lecturer at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Granada, and as a Part-time Lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts.
Research focuses on modern and wartime Chinese animation history, with particular emphasis on the first feature-length animated film in Asia, Princess Iron Fan (1941), approached from cultural-historical and urban-historical perspectives. Drawing on research experience in Spain and Japan, this work is characterized by a comparative perspective that crosses different cultural contexts.
Major peer-reviewed publications include: Reconsidering the Creation and Interpretation of Republican-Era Animation through Archival Research: A Case Study of Princess Iron Fan (Library Journal,2022,in Chinese); The Concessionary City of Shanghai and the Princess Iron Fan: A Reconsideration of the Interpretation of the Princess Iron Fan (Animation Studies, 2023); Reconsidering Kawakita Nagamasa’s ‘Laissez-faire Policy’ (Joshibi University Research Bulletin,2023); and Entertainment, Education, and Ideology: The Development of Early Chinese Animation (animationstudies2.0, forthcoming April 2026).
Doctoral dissertation: Rethinking Asia's first feature animation Princess Iron Fan -Through the Settlement city of Shanghai and Nagamasa Kawakita (2023).
Has presented research at conferences and meetings of the Japan Society for Animation Studies and the Mechademia International Conference, among others.
Member of the International Society for Animation Studies (ISAS), Japan Society for Animation Studies(JSAS), Association for Content Cultural History Studies, Japan Society for Manga Studies, and ASIFA-Japan.
![ASIFA-JAPAN [Internationale Association du Film d'Animation - Japan Branch]](../common/images/img_logo.gif)








