Researcher in multispecies relations, human–animal studies, and tourism
Yulei Guo, PhD
Researcher in multispecies relations, human–animal studies, and tourism
I explore how humans and other species encounter, imagine, and live with one another across places and environments.
Yulei Guo, PhD
VISUAL RESEARCH & FILM
Miss Panda: A Journey Without Arrival
In October 1946, a panda destined for the United States died in a slaughterhouse in Shanghai. This experimental short film reconstructs her final journey through historical archives, contemporary urban spaces, and the concrete remnants of the abattoir.
Based on the monograph
A Panda the Nation Could Not See
by Yulei Guo
Yulei Guo
Yulei Guo is a researcher working at the intersection of human–animal studies and tourism. Her research explores multispecies relations and how humans and other species encounter, imagine, and live with one another across places and environments. Her current research projects include giant panda tourism, Multispecies Relationship Mapping (MRM), animal-based fandom, and the archival history of human–panda relations.
current Research
Multispecies Relations
MRM
Animal Fandom
Giant panda tourism
Exploring how humans and other species encounter, relate to, and live with one another.
Developing visual and participatory methods for studying relationships between humans and other species.
Exploring how animals become objects of attachment, imagination, consumption, and political meaning.
Researching encounters among visitors, pandas, conservation institutions, and tourism.
Books
The past of the animal
Tracing the historical roots of panda fandom in Republican China.
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Routledge, Forthcoming 2026
The present of the Animal
Examining the contemporary phenomenon in modern China.
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Routledge 2026
I explore how humans and other species encounter, imagine, and live with one another across places and environments.
Books
Archiving the child of the mountain
— Armand David, April 6, 1869
I get a young wild boar striped like the European, a chan-tche-cua or panda, and a rock antelope. The panda is an interesting animal already known in the Himalayas and formerly abundant in these forests, but now scarce.
My hunters tell me that this plantigrade lives in trees and in holes, and that its food is vegetable or animal according to the occasion. The Chinese call it 'child of the mountain' because its voice imitates that of a child.
Explore Miss Panda in Republican Chinese press
(1911-1949)
Explore giant panda in historical press
Create a map of the living beings that matter in your world. There is no single correct way to draw it.