ZHAO Shuting is a PhD candidate in social anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), affiliated with the Centre for Modern and Contemporary Chinese Studies (CECMC).

My doctoral research focuses on family photographs taken on film and home videotapes from the post-Mao era to the pre-digital period (1980–2010). By examining these visual materials and the narratives people construct around them, I aim to understand transformations in private life among Chinese urbanites—particularly the emergence of individualism during this period. In February 2025, I completed a six-month fieldwork project in China and Taiwan.

The post-Mao period marked a turning point in family image-making. From the mid-1980s onwards, as Deng Xiaoping launched economic reforms, some urban Chinese—among the early beneficiaries of the market economy—began to acquire personal film cameras and home video recorders. The images they produced documented everyday life and reveal how a new generation of Chinese was beginning to engage with domestic visuality. These family photos and videos are not only carriers of personal memory, but also visual reproductions of family structures, collective identities, and cultural practices.

Alongside my academic work, I am also involved in creating content related to culture and the arts. During my PhD, I collaborated with Photography of China through interviews and written contributions, and I have worked as a freelance journalist for several international publications, including Wallpaper, Modern Weekly, GQ Art, Vogue, and Nowness.