Daphne Lei | Talks and Conference Papers

Keynote Speeches

“Revoking the Asian Silencing Act in Performance: Chinese Opera, Rap or Psychedelic Rock? Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, June, 2019.

“China without Opera: the Predicament of Imagining Millennial Chinese Aesthetics and Performativity.” Chinese Culture in the Global Context Conference. The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, March, 2019.

“Performative Chineseness: Contesting Chinese Opera in the National, Transnational, Diasporic and Global Contexts.”  Contesting ‘British Chinese’ Culture: Forms, Histories, Identities.  University of Reading, Reading, UK, September, 2011.

State of the Profession panel, ASTR conference, Minneapolis, 2015

Selected Talks and Conference Papers

“Intercultural and Experimental Theatre in Taiwan.” Symposium on Sinophone Theatre. Illuminations and Center for Asian Studies, UC Irvine. February 2020.

“Chin/English please! Transnationalizing Asian American Theatre.”  The Worlds of David Henry Hwang Symposium. Illuminations, UC Irvine. November, 2019.

Sounding Transpacifically: Alternative Chinese Opera, American Musical, Rap or Psychedelic Rock? American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Arlington, November, 2019.

“Off-white Andante vs. Yellow Ritardando: Imagined Humanity Made with Stolen Time/Space in Higher Education.” The Future in the Present: The Transtemporalities of Minoritarian Performance" (ASTR José Esteban Muñoz Targeted Working Session, Year II). Seminar Paper. American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Atlanta, November, 2017.

“Operatic Minimalism Rescues Subjectivities.” Hong Kong in Transition: Asian City-to-City Collaboration and Performing Arts Exchange, 1997-2017.  SOAS University of London. London. September, 2017.

"Off-whiteness vs. Yellow Spectacle: Negotiating Strategic Invisibility and Performative Orientalism in Higher Education." José Muñoz Working Group "The Future in the Present: The Transtemporalities of Minoritarian Performance." American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Minneapolis, November, 2016.

“TPP-ing Chinglish: Seeking Trans-Pacific Partnerships for Asian American Theatre.”  National Asian American Theater Coference and Festival. Ashland, OR, October, 2016.

"Performative Death Rescues History: Gendered Nationalism in Chinese Opera." International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR/FIRT) Conference. Stockholm, June, 2016.

Panel speaker, “State of the Profession”  American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Portland, November, 2015.

"What's Left to Cross?  What's Left to Defend? Chinese Opera in the Transnational Context.” American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Portland, November, 2015.

"Can You See Yellow? Rescuing Interculturalism in Post-racial Orientalism." Interculturalism & Performance Now: New Directions? Symposium, National University of Ireland, Galway. April, 2015, Galway, Ireland.

"A Post-racial Blurry Vision: Rupture between Authentication and Transcendence of Yellowness." American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Baltimore, November, 2014.

"Resisting the Global Dream Act with Localized Chinese Opera." Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, July, 2014.

"Multicolor Is the New Black: Branding America with Multiculturalism in the Age of Globalization."  Performance Studies international (PSi) Conference. Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai, July, 2014.

"Playing with Visibility and Invisibility, Named and Unnamed: the Relationship between Chinese Opera and Dance under the Global Gaze."  Joint Conference by the Congress on the Research in Dance and the Society of Dance History Scholars (CORD/SDHS).  Riverside, November, 2013.

“Fluency and Fluidity: Accessing Global Wealth through Mistranslated Language in David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish.” International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR/FIRT) Conference.  Barcelona, July, 2013.

International Assassination with National Temporal Spectatorship: An Analysis of Performative Nationalism and Online Gaming in Taiwan. Performance Studies international (PSi) Conference. Stanford University, Stanford, June, 2013.

“Ethnic Proximity and American Multiculturalism: the Predicament of “Playing” Asian on the Asian American Stage.”  Asian American Theater and Performance Studies Symposium.  Harvard University, Cambridge, March, 2013.

Looking for an Awkward Dance Partner: Interculturalizing Chinese Opera in the Age of Globalization.” CUNY Graduate Center.  February, 2013.

“It Takes Two: the Negotiation Dance of Chinese Opera in the Age of Globalization.”  Tufts University.  January 2013.

"Thick Skin, Thin Masks: The Dilemma of Chinese Opera in the New Millennium.” The Pennsylvania State University.  November 2012.

 “Resisting the Temptation: (Un)Writing a Techno-Global History of Chinese Opera.” Seminar Paper.  American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Nashville, November, 2012.

“Humanity Trumps All?  The Economy of Chinese Opera under the UN Typography.” Seminar Paper. American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Montreal, November, 2011.

“Embarrassment, Discomfort and Humiliation: Harvesting the Ganga Energy for Innovative Jingju in Taiwan Staging the Modern: Theatre, Intermediality, and Chinese Drama Symposium.  Harvard University, Cambridge, May, 2011.

“Chinese ‘Women’ Now and Then:  Gender and Cantonese Opera in San Francisco.”  Symposium on Jade in the Coal. University of British Columbia. Vancouver, November, 2010.

 “The War between ‘Freedom’ and ‘Liberation’:  The Unbridgeable Chasm in Contemporary Beijing Opera.” Seminar Paper. American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Seattle, November, 2010.

“Desperate Housewives’ Fulfillment: Female Patronage and Chinese Performances in Diaspora.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).  Los Angeles, August, 2010.

At the IFTR/FIRT conference, Seoul, Korea, 2008

“Homeland under Attack: Negotiating Diaspora, Transnationalism, and Globalization in Asian American Theatre.” GENesis: Asian-Canadian Theatre Conference. Toronto, May, 2010.

“Expired Nation:  Performing Ambivalence in Post/neocolonial Hong Kong.”  Seminar Paper.  American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Puerto Rico, November, 2009.

"Actualized Homeland: The Impact of Globalization and Transnationalism on Asian American Theatre." Seminar Paper. American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Boston, November, 2008.

"物質與非物質之弔詭: 崑曲在海外的保存與發展" (The Paradox between Materiality and Intangibility: Preservation and Development of Kunqu Overseas). Conference on "Non-Material Cultural Heritage and Traditional Chinese Theatre." Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, October, 2008. Talk in Chinese.

"The Transnational Production and Consumption of 'Chinese' Nostalgia" International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), Seoul, Korea, July, 2008

"The Peony Circuit: Privatized Globalization of National Heritage and Academia." American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Phoenix, November, 2007.

"粵劇之地方性與全球化的危機" (The crisis of localness and globalization in Cantonese opera). International Cantonse Opera Conference. Hong Kong Cultural Museum, Hong Kong, September, 2007
--Talk in Chinese.

“變臉與變性:京劇在國際舞台上的呈現” (Face and gender metamorphosis:  Beijing Opera on the world Stage).  京 劇與中國文化傳統:第二屆京劇學國際學術研討會 (Beijing Opera and Chinese Cultural Traditions:  the Second Beijing Opera Conference).  The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts.  Beijing, China, May, 2007 (lecture in Chinese).

At the Beijing Opera Conference,
the National Academy of Chinese
Theatre Arts, Beijing

“Haunted by Shakespeare:  Performance of Ethnic, Cultural, and National Identities” (陰魂不散的莎士比亞:種族、文化與國家認同的表演)
NTU Shakespeare Forum
Department of Drama and Theatre and Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, December, 2006 (lecture in Chinese and English)

“Staging Transnational Chinese Capital for the Local American Audience”
Seminar Paper.  American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference, Chicago, November, 2006

“黃金夢今與昔:華人戲劇在美國的發展” (The golden dream now and then: development of Chinese drama in America”)
National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC, October, 2006 (lecture in Chinese)

Staging the Hyphen: Negotiating Asian and American on Stage
National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC, October, 2006

“Whose Asia Is This? Local Identity and Pan-Asian Aesthetics on the Global Stage”
(Panel organizer: “Locating Asia on the Globe”)
International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR/FIRT) Conference
Helsinki, Finland, August, 2006.

“Fake Women, Fake Community: Gender and Cantonese Opera in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco”
Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Conference
Atlanta, March, 2006.

With Yasushi Nagata (Japan) and Jung-Soon Shim (Korea)
at the IFTR Conference, Helsinki, 2006

“The Right Way to Be Chinese: Theatricalized Revolution in Nineteenth-Century China” 
Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference
Washington D.C., December, 2005.

“Transparent Mask: Chinese Opera on the Asian American Stage”
Third Asia Pacific Arts Forum (APAF)
Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan, October, 2005.

“Flirting with Americans: Bridging the Asian and Asian American”
(Panel organizer: “Beyond Authenticity: Asian Theatre as Bridge”)
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference
San Francisco, July, 2005.

 

“Picante or Szechuan? Acquiring a Taste for Ethnic Performance” 
Seminar Co-organizer (with Jorge Huerta and Nadine Graves-George)
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference
Las Vegas, November, 2004.

"Asia Skin Deep: Intercultural Performance in Tattoos"
Performance Studies International (PSI) Conference
Singapore Management University, Singapore, June, 2004 .

"Opera Americana: the Development of an American Taste for Cantonese Opera in the San Francisco Bay Area"
Chinese Opera Performance: the Past, Present and Future Development Conference
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, May, 2004.

“A New Virtual Chinatown: A Study of Cantonese Opera in the Bay Area”
(Panel organizer: “Why Don’t You Live in Chinatown? A Study of Border-Crossing and Border-Formation for Chinese Diaspora”)
Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Conference
New York, March, 2003.

“Remember to Forget: A Study of Chinese Opera Performance and Paratheatricality in the Bay Area”
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference
San Diego, November, 2001.

“Imagining a Transnational Frontier: A Study of Chinese Immigrant Theatre in California in the Nineteenth Century” (Plenary Paper) 
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference
New York, November, 2000.

“Bandit Heroes Come to the Rescue: Anti-Modernization and Anti-Westernization in Local Drama at the Turn of the Century”
(Panel organizer: “Passion, Hatred, Western Playboys and Chinese Bandits: the Western Impact on Twentieth-Century Chinese Theatre”) 
Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Conference
San Diego, March, 2000.

“Real Chinese Playing ‘Real’ Chinese on and off Stage: the Ban on Cantonese Opera and Its Effects at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference
Washington D.C., November, 1998.

“Doubling the Marginalization, Doubling the Pleasure: Bestializing Barbarians in Chinese Local Drama at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”
Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Conference
Washington D.C., March, 1998.

“Vulgarity Rescues the Nation: Gender, Ethnic, and Artistic Conflicts in Chinese Local Drama” (Plenary Paper) 
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference
San Antonio, November, 1997.