about
Xinyan is an award-winning video journalist and filmmaker based in Washington DC.
Born and raised in China, Xinyan started her journalism career in 2012 working as a producer covering the Asia Pacific region for BBC News based in Beijing. In 2018, she launched the North America video team for Hong Kong’s flagship newspaper South China Morning Post in New York, and later joined the BBC's Washington DC bureau as a Senior Video Journalist in 2020.
Now working as an independent filmmaker, Xinyan has directed and produced for international broadcasters and programs including BBC News, NHK, PBS NOVA and PBS Frontline. She is a New America National Fellow, a Firelight Media Doc Lab fellow, a Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist fellow and an alumnus of the Yaddo Residency.
Made in Ethiopia, Xinyan's feature documentary debut supported by IDA, Ford Foundation, Firelight Media and the Danish Film Institute, premiered at Tribeca Festival, Sheffield DocFest, DC/DOX and Encounters South Africa International Film Festival in 2024.
Xinyan's storytelling is deeply rooted in her upbringing within a community of steel factory workers, where she witnessed firsthand the sweeping socioeconomic changes in China. Her work bridges two distinct worlds: documenting the evolving geopolitical landscapes of the Global South, her place of origin, while elevating the voices of marginalized communities in the developed world, where she now lives and works.
SAMPLE REEL
INTERVIEWS
RECOGNITION
Made in Ethiopia, Xinyan's feature documentary debut, won a Special Jury Mention for A Documentary Feature at Tribeca Festival, a Special Mention for Documentary Competition at Warsaw Film Festival, and Best International Feature at the Planet In Focus Environmental Festival in 2024.
China's Science Revolution, a 23-min documentary Xinyan produced, won the 2015 BBC Storytelling Fund and the "Highly Commended" entry for excellent online production at the 2016 AIB Awards.
Xinyan's short film Fighting fentanyl won the Gold Prize for Best Use of Online Video at the 2019 WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Awards.
A short news feature Xinyan produced, shot and edited for BBC News, Are America's unvaccinated changing their minds?, won one of the White House News Photographers Association's Eyes of History: Digital Storytelling awards in 2022.
The Young People Who “Ran” out of China, a feature Xinyan shot won the ONA 2023 Digital Video Storytelling, Short Form, Small/Medium Newsroom.
FILMS
(91 minutes, 2024)
Co-director / Co-producer
Supported by Ford Foundation, Firelight Media, the Danish Film Institute, IDA, InMaat Foundation and SFFLIM.
THE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO RAN OUT OF CHINA
Winner of ONA 2023 Digital Video Storytelling, Short Form
(13 minutes, 2023)
DoP, United States
Get in Touch
Xinyan is available for hire as director, cinematographer, TV/documentary producer, and editor worldwide, especially in the Greater China region, Asia, United States and East Africa, where she travels between frequently.