Xing Fan

Xing Fan is Associate Professor of Asian Theatre and Performance Studies at the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. Her research and teaching interests cover 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. Xing believes in hands-on practice in teaching, learning, and research. She is a performer with training and stage experience in the performing arts including jingju (Beijing/Peking opera), kunqu (Kun opera), kabuki, gudianwu (Chinese classical dance), Nihon Buyō (Japanese classical dance), Balinese dance, and the gamelan ensemble. Xing is a winner of Hawai‘i State Theatre Council’s Po‘okela Award for Best Leading Female Role for her performance of Omitsu in Nozaki Village (an English-language kabuki production) in 2004. She is an area editor of Asian Theatre Journal and an editorial board member for Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. Xing served as the President of the Association for Asian Performance in 2021–2025.

Xing is a specialist in Chinese drama, theatre, and performance. She is the author of Staging Revolution: Artistry and Aesthetics of Model Beijing Opera during the Cultural Revolution. She has contributed peer-reviewed journal articles and translations to Modern Drama, Asian Theatre Journal, Performance Matters, Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, and Renditions. Her essays also appear in the books Realisms in East Asian Performance, Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Plays by Women: The Early Twenty-First Century, Women in Asian Performance: Aesthetics and Politics, Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre, New Modern Chinese Women and Gender Politics, and A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory. Xing’s research has been funded by the Connaught New Researcher Awards, SSHRC Insight Grants, and SSHRC Insight Development Grants.