How about Youth Culture in Chinese Film – The Case of “Nezha”

A lecture given by Dr Xuelin ZHOU, organised on Wednesday 25 June 2025 from 18:30 to 20:00.

Place: Cercle Cité, 2 rue Genistre, Luxembourg City (Henri Beck auditorium – 5th floor)

Free entry

Registration required via confucius@uni.lu ou +352 46 66 44 4964

In 2025, Chinese cinema began the year with a major surprise at the box office: an animated film that rapidly captured public attention and shattered records. Released on Chinese New Year’s Day, Ne Zha 2 quickly became a cultural sensation. Within weeks, it became the highest-grossing animated film of all time and reached fifth place on the global box office chart. This talk examines some key factors behind the film’s commercial breakthrough, arguing that it exemplifies two defining features of contemporary world cinema: action-packed and youth oriented. In particular, the talk focuses on how the film represents a form of youth culture shaped by distinctly Chinese values.

Dr Xuelin ZHOU is Associate Professor in Media and Screen at the University of Auckland. His research interests cover popular culture in East Asia and  Chinese-language film. He has published extensively in these fields. His works include Young Rebels in Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Hong Kong University Press, 2007), Youth Culture in Chinese Language Film (Routledge, 2016) and Globalization and Contemporary Chinese Cinema: Zhang Yimou’s Genre Films (Palgrave, 2017). He is currently working on a book-length study on popular genre films in Taiwan between 1960s and 1980s. Xuelin Zhou took over directorship of the Confucius Institute in Auckland in March 2022.