Yunyi Li

Yunyi Li’s dissertation project is a media and infrastructural history of the Asian Olympiads in Beijing and Tokyo (Tokyo 1964, Beijing 2008, Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022) and examines the role of the Olympic Games as a form of “soft power” diplomacy within both global and regional Asian geopolitics. More specifically, this research centers on the infrastructural and urban transformations that accompany the staging of the Olympics — in their physical, mediated, and quantified forms — from the Cold War to the present, bringing together case studies ranging from the TRANSPAC-1 undersea copper cable to Beijing Daxing International Airport. Li is also interested in coworking spaces and science fiction.

Research Interests

Transnational media, media infrastructures, labor, digital media studies, Asia

Education

M.A., Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
B.A., Women’s Studies and Visual and Media Studies, Duke University