Communication University of China

Communication University of China

Communication University of China (中国传媒大学, CUC) has assembled one of the most concentrated and institutionally varied digital human research ecosystems in Chinese higher education. Its infrastructure operates simultaneously across four levels: formal research institutions, nationally recognised physical laboratories, distributed faculty expertise, and an unusually broad portfolio of educational programmes and credentials. The two most significant bodies within this ecosystem are the Digital Human Research Institute and the National Key Laboratory of Media Convergence and Communication — parallel sibling institutions with distinct governance structures and mandates, which occasionally collaborate formally.

Digital Human Research Institute

The Digital Human Research Institute (数字人研究院) is a formally accredited, university-level research institution, listed as entry #26 in CUC's official registry of 49 such bodies — a registry maintained by the Office of Scientific Research and restricted to institutions that have passed institutional accreditation. It focuses specifically on two frontier domains: digital virtual human technology and metaverse product R&D. Its official website, https://digihuman.academy, is internationally accessible — a notable distinction given that several other CUC research platforms are restricted to Chinese IP addresses.

The Institute is directed by Professor Lü Xin (吕欣), a doctoral supervisor in Digital Media Art at the School of Animation and Digital Arts, whose research spans virtual and digital human R&D, intelligent media product design, and the cognitive architecture of digital agents. He teaches a Graduate School course titled "Technical Principles and Evolution Pathways of Digital Humans" and accepts doctoral candidates under programme code 1303J6. Lü Xin is also the Institute's primary public voice: he served as core spokesperson at the release of the 2025 China Digital Human Influence Index Report, where he advocated for what he terms "humanoid cognitive architecture" — a design approach that moves digital human agents toward more human-like cognition by strengthening capabilities including perception, memory, decision-making, planning, and reflection.

The Institute's standing within CUC was underscored in June 2025 when the president of the China Network Audiovisual Association visited the university and specifically included the Institute in his tour of key strategic research facilities, alongside the National Key Laboratory, the National Public Opinion Laboratory, and the School of Animation and Digital Arts.

National Key Laboratory of Media Convergence and Communication

The National Key Laboratory of Media Convergence and Communication (媒体融合与传播国家重点实验室) sits at the apex of CUC's research infrastructure. Approved by China's Ministry of Science and Technology in November 2019 and supervised by the Ministry of Education, it is the only national key laboratory within Chinese universities dedicated exclusively to media convergence and communication. It is led by CUC Vice President Wang Hui as executive director and draws its authority and funding directly from the national government. The lab comprises 13 research teams working across communication content cognition, media convergence production technology, ultra-high-definition video broadcasting, and intelligent media microservices, with a dual mission to address fundamental scientific questions in media convergence and to support China's national strategic communication goals. Its official website is https://mcc.cuc.edu.cn, though this is hosted on domestic government-academic infrastructure and is effectively unreachable from outside China.

The two institutions are not hierarchically related but do collaborate. Their most clearly documented joint effort is the inaugural AIGC and Digital Human Development Forum, held in Chengdu in March 2024 as part of the China Network Audiovisual Conference, which they co-organised together with the China Network Audiovisual Association under the theme "AI Imagination, New Audiovisual Power." Attendees included senior representatives from iFlytek, Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft Xiaoice, Baichuan AI, CCTV, and multiple digital human companies.

Physical Infrastructure

CUC operates two nationally recognised virtual simulation teaching laboratories with direct relevance to digital human work. The Digital Human Design and Production Virtual Simulation Teaching Laboratory (数字人设计与制作虚拟仿真教学实验室) is the primary facility dedicated to the full digital human creation pipeline — from concept design and character modelling through animation, motion capture, and deployment — and was selected as a "typical case team" in the Ministry of Education's Higher Education Virtual Simulation Teaching Innovation Laboratory programme in April 2024. The adjacent Film-Game Convergence Interactive Narrative Creative Virtual Simulation Teaching Laboratory (影游融合交互叙事创作虚拟仿真教学实验室) focuses on interactive narrative at the convergence of film and gaming, and was selected into the same MOE programme simultaneously. Both labs were cited in a January 2026 academic article on Chinese cultural international communication as part of CUC's nationally recognised virtual simulation education infrastructure.

Beyond these two facilities, CUC also operates a Digital Art Innovation Laboratory and an AI-Generated Art Creation Practice Centre, both inspected by a Hong Kong Education University delegation in October 2024. A 2023 public procurement tender for a "Naked-Eye 3D + AI Digital Human Construction Project" indicates ongoing capital investment in physical display infrastructure integrated with AI-driven digital human generation.

Faculty and Research Groups

Digital human expertise at CUC is distributed across three schools. The School of Animation and Digital Arts is the institutional home of the Digital Human Research Institute and its primary research base, with faculty specialising in virtual human R&D, virtual idol production, virtual production, and virtual reality. The School of Data Science and Intelligent Media contributes the computational and engineering substrate: Associate Professor Zhang Sanyi (张三义) works on computer vision, multimodal content intelligent perception, and virtual digital humans; Dr. Jing Cong (靳聪) is a co-investigator on National Key R&D Programme project 2022YFF0902305, focused on real-time ultra-realistic digital twin technology — the most technically specific national-level grant identified in the Institute's ecosystem; and Dr. Meng Ming (孟明) brings pipeline expertise developed at two of China's premier state-level VR/AR research facilities at Beihang University. The Computer and Network Space Security School plays a training delivery role, hosting the Metaverse Technology Training Series.

Research Outputs

The Institute's most sustained research output is the annual China Digital Human Influence Index Report. The 2025 edition, published July 31, 2025, is the most expansive to date: structured across six sections covering research background, influence analysis, emotional intelligence, digital assets, applications, and frontier outlook, it is the first edition to incorporate 164 overseas IP samples alongside 360 domestic ones for comparative cross-border analysis. It was produced in collaboration with the China Network Audiovisual Association and the School of Animation and Digital Arts.

The Institute's most high-profile production project to date is the Chinese Sports Spirit Digital Humans (中华体育精神数字人), completed in August 2025 in collaboration with the National Sports General Administration's Publicity Department and with technical support from Baidu. Launched during the 2025 National Sports Publicity Week, the project made use of the Institute's in-house LoRA Digital Human AI Design Model (LoRA数字人AI设计模型) — a text-conditioned fine-tuned generative model that enables agile character design from role-characteristic keywords. The production team described it as the foundation of an expanded programme spanning science education, cultural display, and athletic training applications.

CUC has also been recognised in the Ministry of Education's first batch of "AI + Higher Education Exemplary Application Scenarios" for its use of digital human cloning technology, knowledge graph systems, and AI tools to batch-generate teaching videos and support personalised instruction.

Educational Programmes

CUC's educational offering in digital human technology is strikingly broad. At the graduate level, Professor Lü Xin and at least one additional doctoral supervisor accept candidates in Digital Media Art and Design Studies with digital human research foci. At the professional and continuing education level, active programmes include: the Short Video and Digital Culture Communication Micro-Major (School of Television Studies), covering AIGC video production and digital human technology; the Virtual Space Cultural Production and Management Micro-Major (School of Cultural Industries Management); the AI Digital Human application module within the School of Economics and Management's livestream commerce micro-major; the Metaverse Technology Training Series (Computer and Network Space Security School), comprising modules on virtual digital humans and AI, XR virtual shooting, and Unreal Engine; and multiple AIGC workshops and certificate programmes offered through the Continuing Education School and other units covering digital human synthesis, AI painting, video generation, and full-pipeline production.