Associate Professor, Chinese
syu@oregonstate.edu

Office: 541-737-3943

Kidder Hall

Kidder Hall 242

2000 SW Campus Way

2000 SW Campus Way
Corvallis, OR 97331
Credentials: 
Ph. D. in Chinese literature, University of Wisconsin at Madison
M.A. in Chinese literature, University of Kansas
M.S. in chemistry, Boston College
B.A. in chemistry, Caldwell College

Profile Field Tabs

At OSU
Affiliated with: 
Sch Lang, Culture & Soc
Research/Career Interests: 

Teaching Philosophy and Courses

  • Third-Year Chinese, Chinese Culture (Traditional and Modern)
  • Modern Chinese Literature and Film

Research

 Chinese drama (classical and modern), comparative drama, literary translation.

Her current research project is focused on Lao She's dramatic work. Modern Chinese drama (huaju) has been closely linked to the social and political conditions of the country ever since its introduction to China in the early twentieth century. Its use of spoken dialogue and realistic portrayal of life made it an ideal vehicle to promote social reforms, to be used as wartime propaganda, and to serve politics as Mao Zedong called for in his “Yan’an Talks on Literature and Art” (1942), which remained the official policy until the late 1970s. Shiao-ling Yu examines the relationship between politics and theater by focusing on the dramatic works of Lao She (1899-1966), one of the most important modern Chinese writers. His twenty-two plays were written during a thirty-year period of cataclysmic changes in China, including the Japanese invasion, and shift of government from Nationalist to Communist. The plays illuminate the function of drama in contemporary Chinese society and how changing political climates affect the production and reception of dramatic works.

Publications

  • "The Orphan of Zhao : Chinese Revenge Drama and European Adaptations." Comparative Literature Studies.
  • "The Bus Stop by Gao Xingjian." In The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama (abridged edition). New York: Columbia UP, 2014. 556-591.
  • “Politics and Theater in the PRC: Fifty Years of Teahouse on the Chinese Stage.” Asian Theatre Journal 30.1 (spring, 2013): 90-121.
  • The Bus Stop by Gao Xingjian.” In The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama. New York: Columbia UP, 2010. 769-804.
  • “Gender and Theater: Changing Images of Women on the Chinese Stage.” Chinese Literature Today, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer, 2010): 45-52.
  • "Cry to Heaven: A Play to Celebrate One Hundred Years of Chinese Spoken Drama." Asian Theatre Journal 25.1 (Spring, 2009): 1-53.
  • "To Revenge or Not to Revenge: Seven Hundred Years of the Transformations of The Orphan of Zhao." CHINOPERAL Papers, 26 (2006): 129-147.
  • "The American Indians' Religious Activities and Religious Beliefs." In Saishe yu yuehu lunji (Collected Essays on Musicians and Religious Rituals). Beijing: Chinese Drama Publishing House. 2006. Vol. 2, 568-578.
  • "Sacrifice to the Mountain: A Ritual Performance of Qiang Minority People in China." TDR: The Drama Review, T184 (Winter, 2004): 155-166.
  • "A Chinese Director's Theory of Performance: On Jiao Juyin's System of Directing." Asian Theatre Journal 20.1 (Spring, 2003): 25-43.
  • Chinese Drama After the Cultural Revolution, 1979-1989: An Anthology. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996, 494 pages. Winner of a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Award.         
  • "Pan Jillian: A new Sichuan Opera." Asian Theatre Journal 10.1 (Spring , 1993): 5-46.
  • "The Themes of Exile and Identity Crisis in Nie Hualing's Fiction." In Nativism Overseas: Contemporary Chinese Women Writers. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1993. 127-156.

Conference Presentations

  • "Chinese Heritage and European Adaptations: The Orphan of Zhao as Intercultural Theater," AAS-in-Asia Conference, Singapore, 17-19 July 2014.
  • “The Chinese Communist Revolution Reexamined: A Recent Play about Li Dazhao,” ICAS 8, Macao, P. R. China, 24-27 June 2013. ICAS= International Convention of Asian Scholars
  • "Putting New Wine in Old Bottles: Lao She’s Adaptation of Folk Drama,” Association for Asian Performance Annual Conference, Washington DC, 1-2 August 2012.
  • "Politics and Theater in 20th Century China: A Study of Lao She's Dramatic Works," The Center for the Humanities, Oregon State University, May 2012.

International Collaborations

  • Conducted joint research on comparative linguistics and pedagogy with Professor Xu Sanyi from Toyo University, Tokyo, 2012-13.
  • Conducted jointed research on modern Chinese literature in Taiwan with Professor Hyun-guk Hwang from Dankook University, Korea, 2009-10.