Breaking News! A thought-provoking debate on gaming
—are you ready for it?
Located at the Communication University of China, a thought-provoking exchange of ideas and academic debate on gaming is set to take place during the inaugural 2025 China Game Studies Dual-City Annual Conference. With six major sub-units and dozens of fascinating research topics to be shared, this event is waiting for you! Are you ready?
Conference Overview
Annual Theme: The Possible Worlds of Gaming
The 2025 China Game Studies Dual-City Annual Conference is a key academic component of the [Aniwow!] China (Beijing) International University Animation Festival series. The event is co-initiated by the School of Animation and Digital Arts at the Communication University of China and the School of Animation and Games at the China Academy of Art. It is scheduled to alternate between Beijing and Hangzhou, hence the name Dual-City Annual Conference.
This conference, set against the context of the intelligent media era, will examine the application and impact of game art and technology in education, society, and culture from multiple perspectives and interdisciplinary viewpoints. It will explore topics including but not limited to game ontology research, functional games, independent games, and the application and future development of emerging technologies in gaming. The conference aims to foster deep connections between academia and industry, promoting the integration and collision of China’s game academic research and design practices, and creating an international and innovative platform for communication among global scholars and professionals in the fields of games, animation, and digital arts.
Organizer: Communication University of China
Host Unit: School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China
Co-Organizer: School of Animation and Games, China Academy of Art
Date: October 25-26, 2025
Venue: Lecture Hall 302, School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China
Conference Schedule
October 25 (Full Day) + October 26 (Morning)
October 25 (Saturday) Morning Session
The opening ceremony will officially begin at 9:00 AM. The conference will commence immediately following the opening ceremony! Please ensure you arrive before 9:00 AM if you plan to attend the morning session.
01 Transnational Player Communities
Time: 9:00 AM, October 25
Session Chair: He Wei
Keynote Speech
Worldism and the Joyous Silk Road
Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Arts and Communication, Beijing Normal University. Deputy Director of the Digital Creative Media Research Center and Director of the Digital Media Theory Teaching and Research Office. Council Member of the Game Committee of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association and Vice Chairman of the Game Industry Research Special Committee. Research areas include digital media communication, game studies, pop culture, and the cultural and creative industry.
Guest Speaker: Zhao Yuping (Zhejiang University)
Esports Diplomacy and Cultural Integration
Guest Speaker: Xiong Shuo (Huazhong University of Science and Technology)
Gaming Expansion and National Image Building
Guest Speaker: Liu Mengfei (Beijing Normal University)
The Topological Inheritance and Circulation of Game Culture Genes
Outstanding Paper Submission:
From the Sisyphus Dilemma to Game Realism: The Cross-Cultural Communication and Cross-Media Integration of One Day Prisoner Narrative
Author: Lin Pin (Capital Normal University)
02 Game Audiovisual and Intelligent Imagery
(Roundtable Forum)
Time: 11:00 AM, October 25
Session Chair: Liu Mengya
Professor and Dean of the School of Digital Media, Beijing Film Academy. National High-level Youth Talent, Beijing Municipal Higher Education Youth Teaching Excellence Awardee, Outstanding Young Talent for the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Member of the Digital Arts Committee of the China Artists Association. Her research focuses on intelligent imagery creation and immersive experience design. She has led multiple national and provincial-level projects and her works have won several prestigious international and domestic awards. She emphasizes integrating China's outstanding traditional culture with technology and art, producing unique contributions to Chinese aesthetic art creation and academic research.
Conference Discussion Guests
Kun Peng (Huying Technology)
Chen Chao (Virtual Pre-visualization Executive Director, On-site Visual Effects Supervisor)
Yang Xindi (Beijing Film Academy)
Yang Zichu (Beijing Film Academy)
October 25 (Saturday) Afternoon Session
03 From Pre-design to Symbiosis: The Evolution of Functional Game Design and Future Interactive Paradigms
Time: 2:00 PM, October 25
Session Chair: Zhang Guangshuai
Associate Dean of the School of Digital Arts and Media, Shandong University of Arts and Crafts. Director of the Artificial Intelligence Design Research Center, Shandong University of Arts and Crafts, and Director of the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Digital Arts (Shandong University of Arts and Crafts). Discipline Leader of the Game Art Design Program and Member of the Academic Committee of Shandong University of Arts and Crafts. His main research and creative activities focus on game art, animation, film and television, and digital media arts. In recent years, he has conducted research on traditional culture preservation and the application of artificial intelligence.
Guest Speaker: Moutang Juan (Shandong University of Arts and Crafts)
AI Empowerment and Paradigm Reshaping: Interactive Design Practices in Functional Games
Guest Speaker: Zhang Mu (Shandong University of Arts and Crafts)
The Intervention of Functional Games: Value Restructuring and Mechanism Innovation in Interactive Art Research
Guest Speaker: Xiong Hongyun (Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology)
Children-Friendly Interactive Game Design
Guest Speaker: Shao Bing (Jilin Arts Academy)
Functional Games and University Creative Practice Research
04 Game Rules: Inside and Out
Time: 3:30 PM, October 25
Session Chair: Liu Shuliang
Keynote Speech:
“Skill Gomoku”
Floating Game Rules and the Signifier School
Professor, Master's Supervisor, and Discipline Leader of Digital Arts at the School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China. Ph.D. in Animation Arts. His research areas include animation aesthetics, animation and new media communication, subculture, digital games, and frontier topics in digital arts such as AIGC and digital humans. Founder of the animation industry media Animation Academic Gathering.
Guest Speaker: Zhu Xiaofeng (Beijing Normal University)
Game Hardware as Gameplay
Guest Speaker: Li Yujian (Communication University of China)
Carving Vanilla: A Study of Modular Play in Games
Guest Speaker: Li Dianfeng (Communication University of China)
Aesthetic Research on Strategic Behavior in Esports
Outstanding Paper Submission:
Cold Computation, Cold Media, Cold Gaze: A Development Perspective in Video Game Research
Author: Wang Anchun (East China Normal University)
Outstanding Paper Submission:
Play as Art: The Toy-like Experience of Video Games
Author: Zeng Ruiqi (Communication University of China)
Outstanding Paper Submission:
Towards Otherness: Phenomenological Reflections on Immersion in Video Games
Author: Wang Bo (Shenzhen Polytechnic)
October 26 (Sunday) Morning Session
05 Game Forms and Narrative Expression
Time: 9:00 AM, October 26
Session Chair: Xuan Xuejun
Associate Dean, Professor, and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Animation and Games, China Academy of Art. Vice Chair of the Animation Art Committee of the China Artists Association and Special Expert for Tencent Game Academy in Higher Education. Curator of the Black Myth: Wukong Art Exhibition and the Global Official Screening of the VR Section at the 77th Venice International Film Festival (China Pavilion).
Guest Speaker: Tong Yuanyuan (China Academy of Art)
Big Game: Exploring Game Education and Practice from the Perspective of Eastern Aesthetics
Guest Speaker: Li Haoyuan (Tencent Games)
Co-creation Expression in Game Narrative in Higher Education
Guest Speaker: Jiang Jiang (NetEase Games)
Silent Grammar: When Gameplay and Plot Share Narrative Authority in Games
Guest Speaker: Qi Wei (Alibaba)
Gamified Experiences and Innovative Applications
06 From Camera to Interactive Worlds:
The Collision and Fusion of Games and Cinema
Time: 10:30 AM, October 26
Session Chair: Jia Yunpeng
Tenured Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. National High-level Youth Talent, Dean of the School of Digital Media and Design Arts, Director of the Aesthetic Education Center, and Director of the Sci-Fi Imaging Space Intelligent Computing Key Laboratory, Beijing.
Guest Speaker: Hu Yong (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
The Possible Worlds of Mixed Reality Games
Guest Speaker: Qin Wei (Meshy AI)
Applications and Prospects of AI-Generated 3D Technology in Games and Imaging
Guest Speaker: Chen Baijun (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications)
Interactive Mechanisms and Narrative Models in Interactive Movie Games
For more information on the conference and animation festival, as well as the list of shortlisted papers for the conference (Note: Due to limited conference capacity, not all shortlisted papers will be presented onsite. Only the authors of the outstanding papers will speak at the conference. We appreciate your understanding), please follow and contact the official WeChat account of the School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China.
If you are interested in attending the conference as an external audience, please scan the QR code below to register for entry. Due to limited spots, please complete your registration as soon as possible.
Important Note:
Activities on the 25th and 26th require separate registrations.
So if you plan to attend both days，please remember to scan and register for both QR codes.
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↑October 25 Visitor Campus Entry QR Code↑
↑October 26 Visitor Campus Entry QR Code↑
