Desta Kyi and the Question of Collective Emotional Labour: Who Sustains Visibility in Chinese Film Festival

Abstract

This paper examines Tibetan female filmmaker Desta Kyi’s navigation of the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festivals to show how emotional and affective labour function as essential strategies for marginalized filmmakers to secure visibility within Han-centric, male-dominated Chinese film industries. Drawing on affect theory and post-authorship frameworks, the study distinguishes macro-level affective labour – the circulation of feeling and “buzz” across festival networks – from micro-level emotional labour – the embodied regulation of affect in interpersonal interactions. Using a semi-autobiographical ethnography (2021–2025) combining interviews, participant observation, and reflexive co-production, the analysis centers on Kyi’s relational work with key supporters (Andy Lau, Jiaran Wang, Dan Wang) and the author’s role as co-producer. Findings demonstrate that visibility, access, and cultural legitimacy are produced not only through artistic output but through sustained, gendered, and often invisible emotional investments that operate as relational capital. The case reveals emotional labour as both vulnerability and strategic agency, reframing festivals as affective infrastructures where power is reproduced and contested. By foregrounding gendered and ethnic dimensions of labour, this paper extends post-authorship debates in the Chinese context and suggests new directions for understanding how marginalized filmmakers assert presence beyond authorship alone.