TAN Chengyu, Ph.D., is a researcher and practitioner with a keen interest in all things queer and performative. She enjoys shifting between the roles of researcher, educator, performance artist, and 90s disco dancer.
She earned her Ph.D. in Performance and Sexuality from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London; M.A. in Advanced Theatre Practice (Devising) from the same institution; B.A. in English Literature and Language from Tongji University in Shanghai. Born in a fourth-tier city, Changde, Hunan Province, Tan and her family moved to Shanghai when she was 12. She has also lived in London, Bochum, Bangkok, and currently resides in Tokyo. In addition to Mandarin Chinese, she speaks fluent English, conversational German, and a bit of Japanese. She received 10 years of training in Chinese dance and 3 years of ballet during her childhood. She has been practicing yoga regularly for 3 years.
Her research journey began with her B.A. dissertation, "Queer Reading of M. Butterfly" (with distinction) at Tongji University in China. Initially torn between pursuing gender studies, which had inspired her, or drama, which she loved, she instinctively chose an offer from a conservatoire drama school for her M.A. over sociology and gender studies offers from top-ranked universities. She felt this might be her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to major in drama, while sociology could be pursued later.
It was during this time that she began her performance practices. Her works often delve into topics such as marriage, mother-daughter relationships, transnationalism, kinship, and the sexualization of bodies in Chinese contemporary society. She never uses others' texts for her performances; they always come from her heart, using her body and voice. It was almost inevitable for her to find a way to merge theatre and sociology, as well as break down and reconstruct her perception of drama from literature to performance as action.
Her doctoral research focused on drag performances and queer gatherings in 2010s Shanghai. Aside from her Ph.D., she started developing applied theatre workshops for individuals with zero theatre experience in China since 2019. Through this, she realized the challenges and even impossibilities of transforming a Western-centered pedagogy in China. Since then, her research interests have shifted to understanding everyday performance within Chinese epistemology and body culture. Currently, she is working on mindful performance - aligning your body, soul, and mind through performance and theatre training.
She believes arts can help people tackle real-world challenges.
She believes there are more similarities in humanity than differences.
She believes the future of theatre in China lies outside of Chinese theatre, outside of Chinese arts institutions.
She believes in education.
She believes theatre is made for people, by people.