In this episode of High Impact Thesis, we speak with Nicole Yao, a PhD student from NTU’s School of Humanities, whose research explores the representation of ruins in contemporary Chinese literature and film. Nicole discusses how abandoned spaces—urban and rural—symbolize the human cost of modernization in post-1990s China. She also reflects on the challenges of interdisciplinary research, the role of sincerity in representing marginalized lives, and what it means to pursue meaning in the humanities. Recommended works include The World by Jia Zhangke and The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi.