Xinyan is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist with nearly 15 years of experience crafting timely, impactful stories across cultures and continents.​ She began her career at BBC News in Beijing, covering major global events, from the Rohingya refugee crisis to the 2020 U.S. elections, before moving into independent filmmaking.

​

In 2022, Xinyan founded the Washington DC-based production company Mandarin Duck Films and has since directed, produced, and shot work for media platforms including BBC News, CNBC, NHK, Channel News Asia, PBS NOVA, Frontline, and American Masters.

Xinyan's documentary feature debut, Made in Ethiopia, supported by IDA, Ford Foundation, Firelight Media, and the Danish Film Institute, won a Special Jury Mention at Tribeca Festival in 2024 and went to screen at nearly 50 international film festivals. Her latest PBS Frontline film, Maui’s Deadly Firestorm, won an Emmy Award and a Scripps Howard Journalism Award. 

A New America National Fellow, Firelight Media Doc Lab Fellow, and Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist Fellow, Xinyan draws on her upbringing in a steel factory community in China to document the evolving geopolitical landscapes of the Global South, and amplify the voices of marginalized communities in the developed world.