Xiang joined King’s College London in 2025, having previously worked at Goldsmiths, London College of Communication, and City, University of London. From 2022 to 2023, she was a postdoctoral researcher for the AHRC-funded project Independent Cinema in China: State, Market and Film Culture (2019–2024), contributing to its key research output, the Chinese Independent Film Archive at Newcastle University.

Her research sits at the intersections of film, cultural studies, and digital anthropology. Her monograph, Contemporary Art Cinema in China (Bloomsbury, 2024), examines the dynamic networks of art cinema in China in the 21st century.

Through ethnographic research, she explores the cultural practices of intermediaries such as independent programmers, internet critics, and fan translators, revealing an alternative mode of distribution and reception. This ‘new’ cinema culture negotiates a subtly complicit relationship with both state authority and market forces in China. This forms part of her broader research interests in alternative film and screen culture in the digital age.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

• Asian media industry
• Informal distribution and piracy
• Online exhibition culture
• Gender and race in media

Teaching

Xiang teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate levels at CMCI.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Xiang's developing research and public engagement profile includes her role as an Associate Editor at Chinese Independent Cinema Observer. She also publishes regularly in public-facing outlets on film and film festival criticism.

Selected Publications

• Fan, X. (2025) Mediating the New Alternative Film Culture: An Ethnographic Study of Post-Independent Exhibition Practices Since 2017. In Chinese Independent Cinema Past, Present, and a Questionable Future (edited by Chris Berry, Sabrina Qiong Yu, Luke Robinson, & Lydia Dan Wu), Amsterdam University Press.
• Fan, X. (2024) Contemporary Art Cinema Culture in China. Bloomsbury [monography].
• Fan. X. (ed.) (2023) Cinema and Piracy. In: Senses of Cinema, issue 105.
• Fan, X. (2023) In Search of Indie’s Soul: Chinese Independent Cinema Today and Beyond. In: Senses of Cinema, issue 107.
• Fan, X. (2022) ‘Keyword: Film Festival/Exhibition’. In: Chinese Independent Cinema Observer, Issue 3.