Meiling Cheng
{{Short description|Taiwanese academic (born 1960)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox academic
| native_name = 鄭美玲
| native_name_lang = zh-tw
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1960}}
| birth_place = Taipei, Taiwan
| occupation = Theatrologist
| awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (2008)
| education = {{ublist|
}}
| discipline = Performance art studies
| workplaces = {{ublist|
}}
}}
Meiling Cheng ({{langx|zh|鄭美玲|Zhèng Měilíng
}};{{Cite web |title=Cheng, Meiling |url=https://china.usc.edu/profile/cheng-meiling-%E9%84%AD%E7%BE%8E%E7%8E%B2 |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=USC US-China Institute}} born 1960) is a Taiwanese performance arts academic based in the United States. A 2008 Guggenheim Fellow, she is the author of In Other Los Angeleses (2002), Beijing Xingwei (2014), and Reading Contemporary Performance (2015), and she is a professor at the USC School of Dramatic Arts.{{Cite web |title=Meiling Cheng |url=https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/meiling-cheng/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=USC School of Dramatic Arts}}
Biography
Meiling Cheng, an ethnic Hakka, was born in 1960 in Taipei and later raised there.{{Cite book |last=Cheng |first=Meiling |title=In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art |publisher=University of California Press |year=2002 |page=xvi}}{{Cite web |date=2022-09-09 |title=1:1:2 at the Schindler House with Meiling Cheng and Artist Reception |url=https://www.makcenter.org/events/edible-poetry-i |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=MAK Center for Art and Architecture}} She later began publishing poetry, fiction, and essays, and she studied at National Taiwan University, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983.
In 1986, Cheng later moved to the United States, obtaining her Master of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism in 1989 and Doctor of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts in 1993, both from the Yale School of Drama and on Asian Cultural Council grants. She also had a brief dramaturge career while in Yale, working for Lee Breuer, Brighde Mullins, Lynn Nottage, and August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. After spending a year at Mount Holyoke College as an assistant professor of theatre arts, she moved to the University of Southern California, where she was assistant professor of theatre before being promoted to associate professor in 2000. She was promoted to full professor in 2015 and became the school's head of critical studies in 2019.
As an academic, Cheng specializes in performance art studies. In 2002, she published the book In Other Los Angeleses.{{Cite web |title=In Other Los Angeleses by Meiling Cheng - Paper |url=https://www.ucpress.edu/books/in-other-los-angeleses/paper |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=University of California Press}} In 2004, she started writing essays on Chinese performance art, and in 2008, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her book project Beijing Xingwei, where she discusses the role of time-based media in the history of China after Deng Xiaoping; the book was eventually published in 2014.{{Cite web |title=Meiling Cheng |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/meiling-cheng/ |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}}{{Cite web |title=Beijing Xingwei: Contemporary Chinese Time-based Art |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/B/bo14416346.html |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=University of Chicago Press |series=Enactments }} She co-edited the 2015 volume Reading Contemporary Performance.{{Cite web |title=Reading Contemporary Performance: Theatricality Across Genres |url=https://www.routledge.com/Reading-Contemporary-Performance-Theatricality-Across-Genres/Cody-Cheng/p/book/9780415624985?srsltid=AfmBOord6UzsF9GX9APOaQ_IndFNORElIzfRGcpB3PtdUGOWln-oAxbO |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=Routledge & CRC Press }} In addition to academia, she also works with live art events.
Publications
- In Other Los Angeleses (2002){{Cite journal |last=Bial |first=Henry |date=2004 |title=In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-research-international/article/abs/in-other-los-angeleses-multicentric-performance-art-by-meiling-cheng-berkeley-and-los-angeles-university-of-california-press-2002-pp-xxxiv-407-illus-60-hb-2495-pb/C61321575DBDC2AC315EF22F5DF321CF |journal=Theatre Research International |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=186–187 |doi=10.1017/S0307883304210604 |issn=1474-0672 |via=Cambridge University Press|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Klein |first=Jennie |date=2003 |title="If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Now": Performance in Los Angeles |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3246427 |journal=PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=105–113 |issn=1520-281X |jstor=3246427}}{{Cite journal |last=Nakas |first=Kestutis |date=2003 |title=In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/49946 |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=747–748 |doi=10.1353/tj.2003.0181 |issn=1086-332X |via=Project MUSE|url-access=subscription }}
- Beijing Xingwei (2014){{Cite journal |last=Zhuang |first=Jiayun |date=2015 |title=Beijing Xingwei: Contemporary Chinese Time-Based Art by Meiling Cheng (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/578004/pdf |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=158–159 |doi=10.1353/tj.2015.0024 |issn=1086-332X |via=Project MUSE|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Peggy |date=2015 |title=Review of Beijing Xingwei: Contemporary Chinese Time-Based Art |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24585018 |journal=TDR |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=173–175 |doi=10.1162/DRAM_r_00459 |issn=1054-2043 |jstor=24585018|url-access=subscription }}
- Reading Contemporary Performance (2015)
References
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Category:American academics of Taiwanese descent
Category:Taiwanese emigrants to the United States
Category:Taiwanese people of Hakka descent
Category:National Taiwan University alumni
Category:David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni
Category:Mount Holyoke College faculty
Category:University of Southern California faculty
Category:Taiwanese women academics