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AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC TRANS-MEDIA JOURNEY FROM XINJIANG [XUAR] TO HARMONY
A WORK IN PROGRESS

LATEST UPDATE(S)

“An Australian Inter-Cultural Communication [IC] education professional's trans-cultural transformation from first arrival in China, in Xinjiang [XUAR]'s Urumqi, on 2011/07/03, to panel participation in the 11th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations, in Shandong's Qufu (Confucius' birthplace / home), on 2025/07/09.”

2. Sins of the Father

1. From Xinjiang to Harmony

THE RESEARCH CONTEXT: 1) AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIC PILOT STUDY

Trans-media Autoethnography at the 11th Nishan Forum: From Xinjiang to Harmony-Intercultural Pedagogy and Civilizational Dialogue
https://doi.org/10.31124/advance.175335015.55062303/v1

This auto-ethnographic study reflects on my participation in the 11th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations (2025/07/09-10, Qufu, China), themed "Beauty in Diversity: Nurturing Understanding Among Civilizations for Global Modernization." As an Australian intercultural communication (IC) educator with 14 years in China, my panel contribution on "Mutual Assistance in Pursuing Modernization" bridged personal experience-rooted in Xinjiang teaching (2011-12)-with global dialogue. Utilizing a trans-media approach, this paper integrates written reflection with a video narrative, drawing on Jenkins' (2006) storytelling framework and Walley's (2015) template. Data from field notes and consented footage, edited into a montagist, split-screen video, explore cultural shifts from Western individualism to collectivist harmony. READ MORE

advance.175335015.55062303_v1.pdf

THE RESEARCH CONTEXT: 2) AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIC VIDEOGRAPHY

“Being In Time”: China, Place Memory & Pedagogy – From Xinjiang To Shanghai

"Being in Time is a 35 min auto-ethnographic film, the first half of a two-part digital feature. It explores foreign EFL teacher identity construct dialectics in contemporary China, qualified by China/West geo-political tensions. It is an experimental pilot to an ongoing, episodic series within a longitudinal auto-ethnographic trans-media parent project. This parent project relates my lived experience as an EFL teacher in China’s language education system. I worked within this system in both the public, government-run sector (secondary education in Xinjiang [XUAR] prior to tertiary pedagogic practice in Shandong and Shanghai) and the private, corporate driven EdTech sector (in Shanghai). The film was completed during “zero-Covid” conditions in China from 2020/02 to 2022/12. Second part production was thereafter initiated in tandem with my current tertiary level teaching of Inter-Cultural Communication [IC]". READ MORE

THE RESEARCH CONTEXT: 3) TRANSMEDIA DIGITAL PUBLISHING

“Opal Sky Media”: Insider-Led, Insider Driven "Multiculturalism as Lived Experience"

"Opal Sky Media" is an insider-led transmedia digital publisher exploring multicultural identity as lived experience, beginning in Australia. Some stories are told about people, others are told from within. OSM begins with lived experience, not as something to be explained, but as expertise in itself. OSM works through auto-ethnography and transmedia, combining personal truth with rigorous research across books, film and digital forms. Our focus is Australia. Not as an idea, but as it is lived. From dreamtime to now. From the personal to the collective. From the margins to the centre. Australia is a nation still in transformation. Its identity is not settled. The most honest stories come from those living through that transformation. This is why OSM exists: to platform insider voices, to document Australian stories with care and rigour. Insider voices. Australian stories. Join us. READ MORE