Qidi Feng received his bachelors in English and Anthropology from Sun Yat-sen University, with a focus on the recreational life of Nigerian expats in Guangzhou. His ethnographic research lasted five years from 2017 to 2022, and documented the changes in the African diasporic community in China through the COVID-19 pandemic. He received his master's degree in urban studies from London School of Economics in 2021. 

After that, Qidi Feng worked as a research curator at Guangdong Times Museum for two years. His work consisted of art projects and exhibitions focusing on migration life, ethnicities and identity politics, especially in Southwest China and Indochina. He worked with artists, designers, researchers and curators under multi-disciplinary disciplinaries.

In this ERC Project, he will adopt methodologies from different disciplines, focusing on the materiality of fashion items and identity-making through production.

Qidi's PhD research will focus on the hair trade between China and Africa, real hair wig, synthetic wig, hair extensions and hair care products. He will work through the supplying chain and trading scene. Viewing trading as a meaning of translation, how does the cultural meaning of hair changes through trade? How is the imagination of Africa and blackness generated through manufacturing and design? And how is the standard of "good wig" formed? 

In his first-year pilot study, Qidi will conduct a comparative study on combs and combing, and discuss how does this action/verb/ritual acts as a tool/techonology for body autonomy.