Tsz Ki Chan – PhD student with a background in journalism and documentaries

A short intro: Who are you and what’s your professional background?
I’d like to start with the most confusing part for anyone meeting me for the first time: Tsz Ki, pronounced approximately as C.K., is my given name — a two-character Cantonese name that we usually split into two words when spelling it in the English alphabet. This is different from my one and only lovely batchmate, Jiru. In Hong Kong, we just do things a bit differently from mainland China. If you’d like to choose one word to call me, Ki would be better than Tsz. But I truly don’t mind, as long as you make the effort to say my name — that’s already so kind of you.

The rest of me is less confusing. Both business and technology are relatively new areas for me. I hold a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Hong Kong and a master’s in media arts cultures from Aalborg University (DK), the University of Lodz (PL) and the University for Continuing Education Krems (AT). Before starting this PhD journey, I worked as a business reporter for a magazine, a press relations officer for the government, a project manager for a film education initiative and an independent documentary film producer. I have always cared about knowing and being known, about contested truths and about humans and non-humans telling their lived experiences. Curiosity, being chatty and sensing others’ emotions are my core empirical skills.

What is your area of work?
My work focuses on creativity in non-fiction storytelling, the international documentary film industry, transnational communication networks, particularly within niche or diasporic communities, surveillance and censorship and the power dynamics and architectural structures of digital networks.

Why did you choose to work at BTECH?
Interdisciplinarity counts and it has shaped both my professional and academic journey. For my PhD research, I want to learn by testing and doing. I believe BTECH is the right place for this, given its unique community in the centre of Denmark, where researchers and practitioners from various disciplines support one another’s endeavours.

Would you like to share a bit about yourself, your family and your hobbies?
My Denmark adventure began in 2022 when I arrived in Aalborg for a semester. I loved surfing on the west coast of Denmark, even though it was three times colder than the little beach village I call home in Hong Kong. I had been moving almost every year since I was 18, but since 2023 I have happily settled in Aarhus with my boyfriend, now fiancé, which makes Denmark feel like a second home to me. In my free time, I enjoy swimming and sitting in a sauna to convince my tropical body that the Danish weather is actually a good idea.