Role
Dr Lee is a Senior Lecturer in Asian Media.
Career overview
Nikki J.Y. Lee studied Sociology at Yonsei University (BA and MA) in Seoul, South Korea. She obtained MA in TV Documentary and PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London in the UK. She had taught at Yonsei University and Korea National University of Arts, in Seoul, before she moved back to the UK and started teaching at Nottingham Trent University. At Nottingham Trent University, she mainly teaches on Asian Media and Cinema; and Documentary. Apart from her professional career as an academic researcher and lecturer, she worked as an independent documentary-maker; as an interpreter and translator for film-related events and media; and was involved in organizing the first London Korean film festival in 2001.
Research areas
Nikki Lee's PhD thesis critically engages the discourses and the institutional networks surrounding the 'travelling' of films by East Asian auteur directors (Kitano Takeshi, Zhang Yimou and Im Kwon-taek); and the directors' responses to such given conditions as orientalist and nationalist discourses, censorship, and the international film festival and art-house networks.
Drawing upon such critical interests, her research area has developed to include subjects such as transnational film production and consumption, film festivals, and globalization with a focus on East Asian cinemas and media. Reflecting such research interests, she has published on transnational auteur-branding of Park Chanwook, globalization of Korean film industry and The Host (dir. Bong Joon-ho), historical exploration of Noir genre films in South Korean cinema, Korean audiences' reception of Zhang Yimou's Hero (2002), transnational stardom of Rain, Korea-Japan and Korea-China film co-production, Chinese films on the international film-festival circuit, Tudou Video Festival and video culture in China, Udine Far East film festival, etc. Her articles are published in Cinema Journal, Screen and many edited collections. Her article on the distribution of Korean films in the UK was published in the KOFIC (Korea Film Council) report.
Her current research area covers the soundscape of contemporary Korean film sound; Korea-China film/media co-production; globalization and Chinese film industry; food media, TV (drama) formats and television dramas in East Asia.
Publications
Selected publications
- The Korean Cinema Book, Lee NJ-Y and Stringer J, (eds) British Film Institute / Bloomsbury Publishing (forthcoming)
- Independent Filmmaking by a Cine-Kid: Ryu Seung Wan’s Die Bad (2000)’, in Sang Joon Lee (ed.) Rediscovering Korean Cinema, Michigan University Press (forthcoming)
- Screenwriting for a Film to The Sound Maps: The Evolution of Live Tone’s Creative Alliance with Bong Joon-ho, The New Soundtrack, vol. 8, no.2, 2018, pp. 145-159
- Snowpiercer: Sound Designable Voices and the South Korean ‘Global Film’, in Tom Whittaker and Sarah Wright (eds.) Locating the Voice in Film: Critical Approaches and Global Practices,Oxford University Press, 2017
- China’s Sundance: The Tudou Video Festival, in Chris Berry and Luke Robinson (eds) Chinese Film Festival Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
- Japanese Cinema. Lee NJ-Y and Stringer J, 2014, Anthology, Routledge
- Pop-Orientalism and Asian Star Body: Rain and the Hollywood Action Movie Lee NJ-Y in (eds) Leung Wing-Fai and Andy Willis, East Asian Stardom, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, 2014, 35-48
- Ports of Entry: Mapping Chinese Cinema's Multiple Trajectories at International Film Festivals Lee NJ-Y and Stringer J in (ed) Yingjin Zhang, A Companion to Chinese Cinema, London, Blackwell Publishing, 2013, 239-261
- Counter-programming and the Udine Far East Film Festival. Lee NJ-Y and Stringer J, Screen, 2012, 53 (3), 301-309
- Asianization' and Locally Customised 'Kor-Asian' Movies: Goodbye, One Day (2010) and Sophie's Revenge (2009). Lee NJ-Y, Transnational Cinemas, 2012, 3 (1), 81-92
- Localised Globalisation and a Monster National: The Host (2006) and the South Korean Film Industry. Lee NJ-Y, Cinema Journal, University of Texas Press, 2011, 50, (3), 45-61
- Salute to Mr. Vengeance: Oldboy (2003) and the Making of a Transnational Auteur. Lee NJ-Y in (eds) Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-fai, East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film, 2008, London, I.B Tauris, 203-219