The National Committee on United States-China Relations has selected Liu Institute faculty fellow Tarryn Chun, assistant professor of film, television, and theatre, for its eighth round of fellows in its Public Intellectuals Program (PIP), which is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The 20 new fellows comprise a wide range of research interests, geographic locations, and types of institutions.
Launched in 2005, PIP identifies outstanding members of the next generation of American China specialists – in the academic, professional, or policymaking spheres – who, in the tradition of earlier China hands, have the interest and potential to venture outside of academia or their professions into areas relevant to foreign policy and public education.
The two-year program is designed to enrich the twenty-one new fellows’ understanding of policymaking processes in both the United States and China; help them establish useful relationships both with their academic colleagues and with policy practitioners; encourage them to move beyond the confines of their own disciplines; and nurture their ability to engage with the public at a national, regional, and local level. PIP is implemented through a series of activities. These include workshops in Washington, D.C., and the West Coast; an international study tour; opportunities to participate in National Committee delegations as scholar-escorts; and public education initiatives.
PIP is an enrichment opportunity intended to complement the primary academic or professional positions held by the fellows. The program offers unique opportunities for professional development, mentoring by senior scholars, networking, and exposure. Fellows gain access to senior policymakers and experts in both the United States and China, and to individuals and fields they are not typically be exposed to, such as the business, arts, health, and civil society sectors in China, as well as to the media in both countries. Fellows have access to media coaches to help edit and place op-eds and develop a social media presence.
The eighth cohort joins an accomplished community of 160 PIP fellows from cohorts one through seven, who have formed a strong network of mutual support and academic collaboration.
Chun, who holds a concurrent appointment in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese theatre, and she teaches courses in Asian theatre, global theatre history, intercultural performance, adaptation, and intersections among theatre and other arts/media.
Her forthcoming book Revolutionary Stagecraft: Theatre, Technology, and Politics in Modern China (University of Michigan Press) examines the relationship between technological modernization and artistic innovation in 20th-21st century Chinese theatre.
Other projects include a second book manuscript, “Spectacle and Excess in Global Chinese Performance,” which received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 2021, and a collaboration with Professor Anton Juan on “Theatre for Justice in Asia: Past, Present, Futures,” which is funded through a Liu Institute Justice and Asia grant.
Chun currently serves on the boards of the Association for Asian Performance and the Association for Chinese and Comparative Literature, and as online editor for Theatre Journal.