Rate My Professor Xing Fan

Xing Fan is Associate Professor of Asian Theatre and Performance Studies in the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. She earned her PhD from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, MA from the Academy of Chinese Traditional Theatre, and BA from Beijing Language and Culture University. Her research and teaching interests include practice, theory, and aesthetics in Asian theatre and performance; historiography; art and politics; intercultural theatre and performance; gender and performance; sound studies and theatre; puppetry; and theatre pedagogy. A specialist in Chinese drama, theatre, and performance culture, Fan advocates for hands-on practice in teaching, learning, and research. She is also a performer trained in jingju (Beijing opera), kunqu (Kun opera), kabuki, gudianwu (Chinese classical dance), Nihon Buyō (Japanese classical dance), Balinese dance, and the gamelan ensemble.

Fan has authored several influential books, including Stylized Reality on the Jingju Stage: Revisiting Picking up a Jade Bracelet as a Case Study (University of Michigan Press, 2023), Understanding Drama as Performance Texts: Teaching Gao Xingjian’s Plays of the 1980s (University of Toronto Press, 2023), The Magic of Change: Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's The World of Extreme Happiness (University of Michigan Press, 2021), In Pursuit of the Musical Image: Imagining the Soundscape of Wild Man (International Association of Theatre Critics, 2020), Staging Revolution: Artistry and Aesthetics in Model Beijing Opera during the Cultural Revolution (Hong Kong University Press, 2018), and Stars on the Rise: Jingju Actresses in Republican China (Routledge, 2016). Her peer-reviewed articles appear in journals such as Modern Drama, Asian Theatre Journal, Performance Matters, Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, and Renditions, with essays in volumes including Realisms in East Asian Performance, Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre, and Women in Asian Performance: Aesthetics and Politics. Fan's research is funded by SSHRC Insight Grants (2019), SSHRC Insight Development Grants (2020), and Connaught New Researcher Awards. She received the Hawai’i State Theatre Council’s Po‘okela Award for Best Leading Female Role for her performance of Omitsu in Nozaki Village in 2004.