Iris Li’s Summer 2024 Research at Zhejiang University
February 25, 2025 By Grace Qian (Edit)
Read below about Iris Li’s Summer 2024 Research at Zhejiang University!
During my summer at Zhejiang University, I have made some unforgettable memories and gained a spectrum of experiences. From late night bike rides to weekly metro hopping, the differences in lifestyles brought in new perspectives as I embarked on these exciting adventures. Trying out new things is always an important aspect to traveling abroad and thus, I made it my goal to experiment with the unknown in China.
On campus, my main research focus was to explore the different perceptions in Chinese and Western films. The experiment was centered on the Chinese and Western participants viewing famous Chinese and Western films. After participants finish watching the films, they are asked to identify specific emotions at bookmarked scenes. The timestamp would feature an actor’s facial emotion and participants would be given a group of words that describe the vast range of emotions experienced by humans. Based on the group of provided vocabulary and the facial expression on the timestamp, participants are asked to pick the word that best describes the facial emotion of the actor. This portion of the task is completed independently by participants. After both Chinese and Western participants have completed their evaluations of the films, they are then asked to come together and staff from the research then host an elaborate discussion. During online or in person sessions, participants are then asked to explain why they chose the word they have selected and are then asked to choose a word that both sides agree on. My task was focused on finding these participants and acting as a translator for Chinese and Western participants during the discussion portions.
Synthesizing these findings, my partner and I completed a final poster displaying our progress, what we think most reasonably causes a disparity in why Chinese participants are able to better recognize Chinese actors’ facial expressions and vice versa, why Western participants are able to better recognize Western actors’ facial expressions. One important concept that I believe explains this gap could be cultural heterogeneity. Cultural influences in the environment, culture, and geographic location that one grows up in deeply alters one’s perception of emotions. This concept of Theory of Historical Heterogeneity and the Dialect Theory of Emotional Expression was one of the reasons we believe why we are seeing this disparity in our results.
Outside of my research, I have enjoyed exploring the Zhejiang Zijingang campus as well as the beautiful city of Hangzhou. Traditionally, at Berkeley, I was only accustomed to one campus, our main campus. However, at Zhejiang University, I learned that a university can have four to five campuses that span Hangzhou and Ningbo. It was eye-opening to be able to visit the two campuses. It was very convenient to take university shuttles from one campus to another. Besides the shuttle services, because of the vastness of the Zijingang campus, the university also provides open air tram services. It always brought in memories of late nights on the bus, feeling the night breeze with my fellow peers. While on the topic of transportation, I must bring up the shared bike services. Those bikes were a necessity as I rode them every day. To be able to just scan and ride around campus, it was a great way to enjoy the scenery while putting in some exercise. Through riding the bikes, I have acquired an essential skill that any Zhejiang university undergraduate has mastered, riding a bike while holding up an umbrella. It was a useful skill for when it’s pouring or raging bright sunshine.
Overall, I have enjoyed my time at Zhejiang University and it has definitely been a highlight of my life to have the opportunity to take part in this experience.
