Staff profile

Junquan Zeng (Luka) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Music at Durham University. He holds an MA in Music and Management from the University of Leeds. His research focuses primarily on Chinese rock music, particularly the transformation of rock and independent music cultures in the context of digital platformisation. His broader research interests include ethnomusicology, popular music studies, musical labour, cultural identity and live music cultures.

His doctoral research examines how digital platforms are reshaping contemporary Chinese rock music, with particular attention to musicians' creative practices, professional identities, music circulation and live performance. Focusing on Beijing's rock and independent music scenes, he explores how online visibility, platform-based promotion and changing audience relationships influence musicians' careers and the sustainability of local music communities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews and participant observation, his research also considers questions of embodied participation, liveness and musical communities.

From February to June 2026, Junquan was a visiting doctoral researcher at the Institute for Cultural Innovation, School of Arts, Peking University（北京大学）. His research focused on the transformation of artistic identities, cultural labour and career trajectories within China's rock and independent music scenes in the context of digital platformisation. During his visit, he conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing, including interviews and participant observation with musicians, rock bands, live music venue operators and music industry professionals. He also received academic support from Professor Xiang Yong, Director of the Institute for Cultural Innovation at Peking University.

In May 2026, Junquan presented his research on the transformation of Beijing rock music under digital platformisation at Arts Across Borders 2026: Music, Media and Global Circulation, held at the Communication University of China. He also co-authored a paper with Xingyu Ji on liveness, sound and embodied participation in Beijing rock music, presented by Xingyu Ji at a 2026 Young Scholars Forum associated with the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). His paper, “Temporally Distributed Liveness: Platformisation, Sound and Embodied Participation in Beijing Rock Performance,” has also been accepted for presentation at the BFE-RMA Research Students’ Conference, to be held at the University of Oxford in January 2027.

• Junquan's research interests centre on Chinese rock and independent music, ethnomusicology, popular music studies, digital platformisation, and musical labour. He is particularly interested in how digital platforms reshape musicians' creative practices, professional identities, music circulation, and the development of contemporary Chinese rock music cultures.
• His research also explores live music performance, liveness, embodied participation, audience and fan cultures, and the relationships between online visibility and offline music scenes. Drawing on ethnographic approaches, he examines how musicians, audiences, and music industry professionals negotiate cultural identity, artistic careers, and changing forms of musical participation in contemporary China.