Faculty

簡介

        Having spent two decades studying and working across Australia, Europe, and North America, Dr. Wah Guan LIM is excited to be back in Asia.  He completed his B.A. (Hons 1) in Chinese Literature and Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, M.St. in Chinese Studies at Oxford, M.A. in East Asian Studies at Princeton, and Ph.D. in Asian Literature, Religion, and Culture at Cornell.  Afterwards, he taught at Bard College, a top liberal arts college in the performing arts in New York, and subsequently at his alma mater, UNSW, a leading “Group of Eight” Australian university, before joining National Chung Hsing University, attracted by its strong research culture and proximity to his research sites.

        Dr. Lim works across the interstices of Chinese literature, theatre and performance, and film studies.  His monograph Denationalizing Identities: The Politics of Performance in the Chinese Diaspora (Cornell University Press, 2024) is the first study on four of the most important director-playwrights in contemporary global Chinese drama—Kuo Pao Kun (1939–2002), Gao Xingjian (b. 1940), Danny Yung Ning Tsun (b. 1943), and Stan Lai Sheng-chuan (b. 1954)—across Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  This study demonstrates how theatrical performances complicate national or ethno-cultural discourse and explores the interplay between theatre and politics, cultural identity, and artistic expression across East and Southeast Asia.

        On top of having been the recipient of external competitive fellowships such as the Taiwan Fellowship, Dr. Lim was awarded the “Outstanding Thesis Presentation for Young Scholars” at the 10^th Chinese Drama Festival—the oldest biannual platform showcasing the convergence of praxis and scholarship on theatre and performance in the Chinese-speaking world.  Previously, he has also held Visiting Fellowships at the National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica.  The Taiwan Ministry of Education has just awarded him the “Yushan Young Fellow” this year in its effort to attract outstanding academics globally to strengthen the international standing of higher education here.

        Dr. Lim’s varied interests go beyond his scholarly pursuits.  A speaker of several Chinese dialects, in addition to Mandarin, he served as linguistic consultant to the international best-sellers Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, Rich People Problems, and Sex and Vanity, by Kevin Kwan.  His rich theatre experiences also allowed him to serve as a casting and script translation consultant for the production Dim Sum Warriors: The Musical, by internationally acclaimed filmmakers and comic artists Jocelyn Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh, produced by Stan Lai with a transnational Chinese cast that premiered in Shanghai.  As a recent recipient of the New College Postgraduate Village Service Award for his role in providing pastoral, mentoring, academic support, as well as facilitating cross-cultural interactions for several hundred young adults from diverse nationalities and backgrounds in New College Village (a residential college on campus at UNSW), Dr. Lim is excited about the opportunities to foster a thriving academic community at Chung Hsing.

榮 譽 獎 項 Honors and Awards

Yushan Young Fellow  玉山青年學者, Taiwan Ministry of Education
The New College Postgraduate Village Service Award 「新學院研究生村」卓越服務獎, UNSW
Research Output Scheme 研究成果計劃獎助, Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Priority Fund (SPF02), UNSW
Publication Subvention Grant 研究出版補助, SPF02, UNSW
Taiwan Fellowship 臺灣獎學金, Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Outstanding Thesis for Young Scholars Award 青年學者傑出論文表現獎
The 10^th Chinese Drama Festival 第十屆「華文戲劇節」, Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies (HKFDS) 香港戲劇協會
Hu Shih Fellowship in Chinese Studies 中國研究胡適獎學金, Cornell
Ta-Chung and Ya-Chao Liu Memorial Award 劉大中、戢亞昭紀念獎, Cornell
C.V. Starr Fellowship, Cornell
The New College Award 「新學院」卓越獎, UNSW
The Chinese Studies Prize 中文研究論文獎, UNSW

學 經 歷 Education and Academic Appointments

經歷
Lecturer in Chinese 中文系講師, University of New South Wales (UNSW) 新南威爾斯大學, Sydney
Assistant Professor of Chinese 中文系助理教授, Bard College 巴德大學, New York    
Fellow, New College Postgraduate Village, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
Visiting Fellow 訪問學者, National Taiwan University 國立臺灣大學; Institute of Chinese Literature & Philosophy 中國文哲研究所, Academia Sinica 中央研究院

學歷
Ph.D. 博士 Asian Literature, Religion, and Culture 亞洲文學、宗教與文化研究, Cornell 康乃爾大學
M.A. 碩士 East Asian Studies 東亞研究, Princeton 普林斯頓大學
M.St. 碩士 Chinese Studies 中國學術研究, Oxford 牛津大學
B.A. 1^st Class Honours 一級榮譽學士 Chinese Literature and Theatre and Performance Studies 中文、戲劇與表演, UNSW 新南威爾斯大學    

研 究 領 域 Areas of Specialization

Contemporary Chinese-language theatre, cinema, literature, transcultural performance  當代華語劇場、電影、文學、跨文化表演
Geographical Focus: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Chinese diasporic communities in Southeast Asia (especially Singapore and Malaysia)研究地域主要聚焦於中港台、新加坡、及海外華人地區

近 期 著 作 Publications

Book Manuscript  專書
Denationalizing Identities: The Politics of Performance in the Chinese Diaspora (Ithaca: Cornell University Press East Asia Series, 2024).

Journal Articles & Book Chapters  期刊論文及專書、論文集篇章
“Singapore Theatre.” Asian Theatre Then and Now: A Guide for the Future. Eds. Stratos E. Constantinidis and Esmaeil Najar. London: Routledge (forthcoming 2027)

“Kuo Pao Kun. Mama Looking for Her Cat (1988).” Brill Guide to Chinese Literature, 1900–2000. Ed. Christopher Rosenmeier (forthcoming 2025)

“Danny Yung. Opium War: Four Letters to Deng Xiaoping (1984).” Brill Guide to Chinese Literature, 1900–2000. Ed. Christopher Rosenmeier (forthcoming 2025)

“Kuo Pao Kun.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Sinophone Culture. Eds. Alison Groppe and Howard Chiang. London: Routledge (forthcoming 2025)

“A Pioneer in Cantonese Opera: Chee Kin Foon (OperaWorks Singapore).” Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre Online Repository (forthcoming 2024)

“Literary and the Performing Arts Across the Chinese-speaking World.” Cultural History of Chinese Literatures 《華文文學史》. Eds. Carlos Rojas 羅鵬 and Jack Chen. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Cultural History Series (forthcoming 2024).
 
“From 1989 to 1997 and Beyond: Zuni Icosahedron’s Transnational Explorations.” Asian City Crossings: Pathways of Performance through Hong Kong and Singapore. Eds. Rossella Ferrari and Ashley Thorpe. London: Routledge, Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies Series, 2021. 50–68.

“1980 niandai haiwai Huaren juchang de juhe yu zhangli: Yi Xinjiapo wei li” 〈1980 年代海外華人劇場的聚合與張力：以新加坡為例〉 (Tensions and convergences in 1980s Chinese diasporic theatre: The case of Singapore). Diversity and Singapore Ethnic Chinese Communities: International Conference 《新加坡華族之多元性：國際會議論文集》. Eds. Koh Khee Heong, Ong Chang Woei, Phua Chiew Pheng, Chong Ja Ian, and Yang Yan. Singapore: City Book Room, 2020. 87–94.

“From Theater to Cine-Poetry: Gao Xingjian’s Performance Theories.” Gao Xingjian and Transmedia Aesthetics. Eds. Mabel Lee and Liu Jianmei. Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2018. 201–215.

“The Changing Landscape of Politics and Language Use in Singaporean Theatre: Towards a Multilingual Praxis.” Singapore: Negotiating State and Society, 1965–2015. Eds. Jason Lim and Terence Lee. London: Routledge, 2016. 76–93.

“Between Memory and Forgetting: Ten Years After Gao Xingjian’s Winning of the Nobel.” Polyphony Embodied: Freedom and Fate in Gao Xingjian’s Writings. Eds. Michael Lackner and Nikola Chardonnens. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014. 185–201.

“Danny Yung and Experimental Chinese Theatre” 〈榮念曾與實驗中國劇場〉 (bilingual essay). Zuni Icoshahedron Annual Report 2011–12 《進念·二十面體 2011–12 年度報告》. 32–35.

“Chuyu dongxi wenhua de bianyuan” 〈處於東西文化的邊緣〉 (On the margins of East and West). Hong Kong Drama Review 《香港戲劇學刊》 8 (Sep 2009): 163–82.

Book Reviews  學術書評
Identity and Theatre Translation in Hong Kong, by Shelby Kar-yan Chan 陳嘉恩 (Berlin: Springer, 2015). Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese (JMLC) 《現代中文文學學報》 13.1–2 Special issue on “Popular Literature and Transnational Circulation” 「大眾文學與跨國傳播」專號 (2016): 214–221.

Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater, by Quah Sy Ren 柯思仁 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004). Journal of Oriental Society of Australia (JOSA) vol. 36–7 (2004–05): 185–189.

Translations  翻譯
Translation into Chinese, Chapter Four: “Jin Yong’s Islam in the Chinese Cultural Revolution”  在中國文化大革命脈絡中 金庸小說裡頭的伊斯蘭教, in Stateless Subjects: Chinese Martial Arts Literature and Postcolonial History, by Petrus Liu 劉奕德 (Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 2011), 153–199. Forthcoming.

Translation into English, Foreword: “Calling For (The Absent) Asia” 序：「召喚（缺席的）亞洲」, by Chunyen Wang 汪俊彥. Networked Bodies: The Culture and Ecosystem of Contemporary Performance in Asia: Asia Discovers Asia Meeting for Contemporary Performance (ADAM) 2017–2021 《當代表演的文化與生態：「亞當計劃」亞洲當代表演網絡集會 2017–2021》, ed. Lin Jen-chung 林人中. (Taipei: Taipei Performing Arts Center, 2023).

Translation into Chinese. Presidential Address: “Chinese Philosophy and Human Development in the 21^st century: Context, Response and Human Well-Being” 二十一世紀的中國哲学與人類的發展：環境、反應以及完美生活的關係, by Dr. Karyn Lai 賴藴慧. The 14^th International Society for Chinese Philosophy (ISCP) Conference with Australasian Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (ASACP). School of Philosophy, UNSW, July 13–19, 2005.

教 學 課 程 Courses Taught

研 究 計 畫 Research Projects