Jian Yi () is a Chinese independent filmmaker, social innovator and food activist who currently conducts research at the Animal Law and Policy Program at the Harvard Law School since 2022. His films Bamboo Shoots and Super, Girls! won a number of international film festival awards. Jian Yi co-founded the ground-breaking China Villager Documentary Project with filmmaker Wu Wenguang in 2004, and founded the IFChina Original Studio in 2008. His works have been shown at numerous film festivals, museums (including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York) and university campuses across the globe. Jian Yi also spoke at the Apple Artists' Series among many public and media talks, including the BBC and the National Public Radio.
Since 2014, Jian Yi has been at the forefront of promoting sustainable food system in China. He founded and preside the Good Food Fund under the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, one of the ten global Top Visionaries named by the Rockefeller Foundation for its 2050 Food Systems Vision Prize. He was frequently interviewed by international media for his views on China's food systems and appeared on Eating Animals, a documentary produced by Natalie Portman.
Jian Yi served on the Core Leadership Team of Action Track 2 of the United Nations Food Systems Summit between 2020 and 2021 and led the initial Workstream 1 on Food Environments. He has served on a number of roles related to this, including on several UNFSS action areas, FoodXFilm Festival, etc. Jian Yi also led his colleagues to set up the China Action Hub for UNFSS AT2, and organized 10+ independent dialogues on food systems in the first half of 2021, with a combined views of 1 million for their livestreams across platforms. He serves as the Deputy Secretary General of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation.
Jian Yi founded the China Vegan Society, which was officially launched in Dali, Yunnan, May 2021, receiving supporting messages from celebrated figures such as Peter Singer, Dr. Jane Goodall, and Joaquin Phoenix.
Personal life
Jian Yi was born in Ji'an, Jiangxi, China in 1975. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Eva Song, and son, Kuankuan.
Education
Jian Yi got three Master's degrees respectively an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2022, an MA in International Journalism from Beijing Broadcasting Institute in 1999, and an MA in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 1998. Jian Yi received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame in 2015. While at Harvard, he was a Mason Fellow and a Gleitsman Leadership Fellow of the Center for Public Leadership. Jian Yi conducts research at the Animal Law and Policy Program at the Harvard Law School since 2022. He got a Bachelor of Education in Education Management from Jiangxi Normal University in 1995,
He was a tenured lecturer at the Communication University of China for five years (1999-2004).
Filmmaking
Jian Yi is the founder and director of ARTiSIMPLE Studio, which was founded in January 2005 and has pioneered the art of collaborative community and citizen projects. In 2005–2006, he partnered with premier documentary filmmaker Wu Wenguang to launch the China Villager Documentary Project. Jian's photos on China's village governance toured the nation's seven provinces as well as the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels and the Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
In 2007, Jian Yi won the Bronze Zenith Award at the 31st Montreal World Film Festival for his feature film Dong Sun ("Bamboo Shoots"), one of only two Asian films to win an award. In 2007 Jian also produced and directed Super, Girls!, the only independently produced documentary film about the Super Girl singing contest, one of the most popular TV shows in China's history. As a result, he was one of the three Chinese national finalists selected by the British Council for the 2007 International Young Film Entrepreneur of the Year award. (Bamboo Shoots officially hit Canadian cinemas on August 26, 2010.)
Social Memories/Civic Engagement
Jian launched the IFChina in his hometown of Ji'an, birthplace of Mao Zedong's Revolution, in 2008–2009 with Douglas Xiao and Eva Song. IFChina was China's first civic engagement center that focuses solely on documenting social memories through the use of filmmaking, photography, oral history and theater. It was inspired by the China Villager Documentary Project, co-founded by Wu Wenguang and Jian Yi in 2004.