Theatergoers watch a Chinese film in Shanghai on October 16. [Photo by Chen Yuyu/For China Daily]

Also serving as director of the Film and Culture Research Center of Peking University, Dai is one of the major initiators to found the country's first major in movie history at the Beijing Film Academy in the 1980s before she was transferred to the Institute of Comparative Literature and Culture of Peking University in 1993.

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Dai had traveled to the United States to give lectures or take part in academic projects dozens of times in the previous two years.

Even before the outbreak, cinemas struggled with the internet "encroaching", seeing more and more youngsters shift interest to streaming services or video-sharing apps, says Dai.

Last year, the domestic box office hit a three-year low in terms of annual growth as the size of China's video cloud market increased 46.3 percent more than 2018, according to statistics from China Film Administration and International Data Corp's China subsidiary.

The world's ongoing battle against COVID-19 may continue to raise tension between cinema chains and internet platforms, causing many directors' works, tailored for the giant screen, to be seen just on laptops or smartphones.

Earlier this month, Warner Bros announced the simultaneous release of all its films-including the major sci-fi tales The Matrix 4 and Dunein theaters and on the streaming platform HBO Max throughout 2021. Last week, Disney announced its plan to premiere 15 all-new live-action and animated movies directly on its streaming service Disney Plus over the next few years.

With a deep love of cinema, Dai says she believes that watching a movie in a physical theater cannot be replaced for its social function and distinctive experience brought by giant screen.

In the recently published book Gei Haizi De Dianying (Movies for Children), edited by Dai and written by a team of scholars, Dai wrote in the prologue about the charm and influence of classic films.