Peter Guangpei Ran is an anthropologist whose research focuses on mobility, cultural transmission, and ecological change in China and Southeast Asia. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork and visual methods, his work examines how communities navigate state power, infrastructure, and crisis in borderland contexts. His research has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Ethnos. An accomplished ethnographic filmmaker, his films have been recognized at international festivals. He is currently a fellow of the UKRI Network Plus project "Shifting Global Polarities: Russia, China, and Eurasia in Transition."
Education/Degrees
- PhD in Asian Studies (Anthropology) with Visual Media, the University of Westminster, UK
- (Also received research training at the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, UCL.)
- MA in Visual Anthropology, the University of Manchester, UK
- BA in Journalism (Visual Media), Tsinghua University, China
Publications
Forthcoming: “Beyond Exoticism: Rethinking Southwest China” (co-editor with Paul Kendall), special feature in China Perspectives
2026. “Stitching Coherence: Performative Governance in a Chinese Border City.” Ethnos, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2026.2638400.
2025. “The Placing of Care: Ordinary Ethics of Mobility in the Sino‐Tibetan Borderlands.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 31: 754-770. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.14237.
2021. “Commitments to the Past: Cultural Transmission in a Naxi Village,” in Grassroots Values: Local Perspectives on Cultural Heritage in China, edited by Harriet Evans and Michael Rowlands. Lexington Books. 2020.
“Migration Myth and Ancestor Roads in Southwest China,” in Handbook on Religion in China, edited by Stephan Feuchtwang. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786437969.00022.
Affiliations
Selected films:
2021 The Wall (Producer)
Documentary on basic education and poverty in rural southwest China, 74 mins.
- Public screening, Kommunales Kino, Freiburg, Germany.
- Official selection, Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2023 Film Expo.
- Excellent Film award, Fourth Chinese National Biennial Ethnographic Film Festival 2021, archived by the National Library of China and the Chinese National Museum of Ethnology.
2018 The Gorge Is Deep
Ethnographic film documenting Naxi ritual practices and cultural transmission, 58 mins.
- Public screening, Regent Street Cinema, London.
2013 Xiansheng: Passing down the Tradition
Ethnographic film on a Tujia ritual specialist in southwest China, 27 mins.
2013 Addiction – a Fiction (Co-Director with Simon Rasing)
Experimental film blending ethnographic research and fictionalised performances to explore an ex-addict’s search for the roots of addiction, 18 mins.
- Official selection, One with a Movie Camera, Marburg International Ethnographic Film Festival 2013.
2012 A Funeral in Spring
Ethnographic film on Tujia funerary practices in southwest China, 50 mins.
