{{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| * National Taiwan University (BA) * Yale University (MFA, DFA) }} | discipline = Performance art studies | workplaces = {{ublist| * Mount Holyoke College * USC School of Dramatic Arts }} }} '''Meiling Cheng''' ({{langx|zh|鄭美玲|Zhèng Měilíng }};<ref name="china.usc">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="dramaticarts.usc">{{Cite web |title=Meiling Cheng |url=https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/meiling-cheng/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=USC School of Dramatic Arts}}</ref>
==Biography== Meiling Cheng, an ethnic Hakka, was born in 1960 in Taipei and later raised there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cheng |first=Meiling |title=In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art |publisher=University of California Press |year=2002 |page=xvi}}</ref><ref name="dramaticarts.usc"/><ref name="mak">{{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 |archive-date=16 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241216100959/https://www.makcenter.org/events/edible-poetry-i |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref name="GF"/>
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.<ref name="dramaticarts.usc"/> 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''.<ref name="dramaticarts.usc"/> 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.<ref name="dramaticarts.usc"/> She was promoted to full professor in 2015 and became the school's head of critical studies in 2019.<ref name="dramaticarts.usc"/>
As an academic, Cheng specializes in performance art studies.<ref name="dramaticarts.usc"/> In 2002, she published the book ''In Other Los Angeleses''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> In 2004, she started writing essays on Chinese performance art,<ref name="china.usc" /> 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.<ref name="GF">{{Cite web |title=Meiling Cheng |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/meiling-cheng/ |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |archive-date=16 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241216112344/https://www.gf.org/fellows/meiling-cheng/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref> She co-edited the 2015 volume ''Reading Contemporary Performance''.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> In addition to academia, she also works with live art events.<ref name="GF"/>
Cheng is a widow.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Win |first1=Phyo Pyae Nay Chi |last2=Huang |first2=Keyu |date=2019-03-09 |title=International Women's Day Spotlight |url=https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2019/03/08/international-womens-day-spotlight/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |work=USC Annenberg}}</ref>
==Publications== *''In Other Los Angeleses'' (2002)<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref>{{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 |doi=10.1162/152028103322491755 |issn=1520-281X |jstor=3246427}}</ref><ref>{{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 |archive-date=16 December 2024 |access-date=15 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241216103448/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/49946 |url-status=live }}</ref> *''Beijing Xingwei'' (2014)<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref> *''Reading Contemporary Performance'' (2015)
==References== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Meiling}} Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Theatrologists Category:American academics of Taiwanese descent Category:Taiwanese emigrants to the United States Category:Taiwanese people of Hakka descent Category:Hakka writers Category:Artists from Taipei Category:Writers from Taipei 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 Category:21st-century American academics Category:21st-century American women academics