About the keynote speakers:

David Rolston

David Rolston, professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures of the University of Michigan, has long engaged in the research of traditional Chinese fictions and dramas. Select publications include How to Read the Chinese Novel, Traditional Chinese Fiction and Fiction Commentary: Reading and Writing between the Lines, Oral Performing Literature in Traditional Chinese Fiction: Nonrealistic Usages in the Jin Ping Mei cihua and their influence.

Through comparisonand contrast, Professor David Rolston will deconstruct the similarities and differences between Zhang's performances in America and those of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang in 1930, and discuss the influences of Chinese culture over American mainstream cultures.