Research
My research examines how meaning and behavior change across markets, media platforms, and cultural contexts. I am interested in combining close qualitative reading with structured data collection to explain how audiences interpret brand communication and participate in digital communities.
Cross-cultural Social Media Marketing for Chinese Trend-Toy Brands
This project investigates how Chinese trend-toy brands communicate with overseas audiences, using POP MART as the principal case. The study asks how a brand can maintain a recognizable global identity while adapting its creator partnerships, cultural references, campaign narratives, and community interactions to local markets.
I led the comparative analysis of POP MART's localized operations on Instagram and TikTok. Our team broke down platform content by campaign theme, creator type, cultural reference, audience interaction, and brand storytelling function. We then combined KOL performance, campaign engagement, and audience-feedback data in a practical evaluation model.
The project produced a framework for distinguishing surface-level localization from deeper cultural adaptation. Its recommendations focus on locally credible creator selection, differentiated content strategies, and the preservation of a coherent brand world across markets.
Online Game Marketing Communication from a Cultural Perspective
Using Dungeon & Fighter as a case study, this project explores how players in different cultural and platform environments respond to game marketing communication. We treated user comments not merely as campaign reactions, but as evidence of community values, narrative expectations, and platform-specific participation.
I collected and coded discussions from Bilibili, Weibo, YouTube, and Reddit. The analysis compared recurring themes, emotional positions, content formats, and the rhythm through which topics moved between official communication and player communities. This work resulted in a multidimensional map of cross-platform communication pathways.
The study strengthened my interest in consumer-generated data and in the cultural assumptions embedded in apparently universal digital marketing strategies.
Cognitive Functions of Co-speech Gesture
I assisted an SSCI-oriented research project on the cognitive and pragmatic roles of co-speech gesture in spoken interaction. The project examined how gesture works with language to shape emphasis, intention, interpretation, and the audience's cognitive load.
My work included processing short-video interaction data and coding verbal behavior and accompanying gestures. Drawing on Speech Act theory, I helped distinguish communicative functions across recurring gesture patterns and supported the analysis of how non-verbal cues influence pragmatic meaning and audience cognition.
Methods and developing interests
- Literature review and research-question development
- Cross-platform content collection and qualitative coding
- Campaign, creator, and audience-response analysis
- Comparative case studies across cultural contexts
- Python, SQL, Stata, and spreadsheet-based data work