Education and Degree: B.A. Chinese Literature (Peking University); M.A. Folklore (Peking University); PHD in Folklore (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
(I) Research Interests:
Anthropology of Art
Folklore/Intangible Cultural Heritage
Overseas Chinese Studies
(II) Courses Taught:
Courses for PhD students: Research and Writing in Arts (co-teaching)
Courses for M.A. students:
(1) Theories and Methodologies in the Writing of Art History;
(2) Current Issues in Art Research (co-teaching)
Courses for undergraduate students:
(1) Folklore and Design;
(2) Craft Humanities;
(3) Folklore in Modern Life;
(4) Chinese Folklore;
(5) Chinese Culture and Society: Current Issues, Interdisciplinary Perspectives(co-teaching);
(6) Creative Aesthetic Practice
(III) Research Achievements
Publications:
BOOKS
The Travel of Heritage: Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage in North America. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2022.
Translation Works: (Chinese) Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the Frame), originally written by Paul Crowther, Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2021.
Representative Papers：
“Art Engaging as Event: The Practical Logic of Artistic Rural Construction and Social Design.” National Arts 179, no. 4: 34-43, 2024. [Peer-reviewed]
“Performance Theory in Folklore Studies and its Performance Turn: A Interdisciplinary Dialogue with He Chengzhou’s Performance Theory.” China Book Review no. 5: 95-100, 2024.
“Exploration of the Approaches of University Aesthetic Education: Taking Craft Humanities Course as Example.” China University Teaching (General Serial 404), no.5: 58-66, 2024. [Peer-reviewed]
“Reencountering Chinese Restaurant Legends during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Folklore Research 60, no.1: 59-76, 2023. [Peer-reviewed]
“Locality in North American Folklore Scholarship and a Discussion of the Eco-Cultural Protection Area”. Cultural Heritage no. 82: 109-119, 2023. [Peer-reviewed]
“From Time to Space: The Temporal Structure and Representation of ‘Global Art’ History”. National Arts 168, no. 5: 101-112, 2022. [Peer-reviewed]
(co-authored with Zheng Hui) )“Corporeal Shift from Shamanism to Technoshamanism: The Intermedial Performance of Metaverse”. Journal of Arts Management no. 2: 22-28, 2022. [Peer-reviewed]
“Cross-Cultural Confrontation and Interaction: Chinese Restaurants and the Identity Construction of the Chinese and the Jewish in the North America.” Journal of Yunnan Normal University 54, no.4: 105-117, 2022. [Peer-reviewed]
“Anti-Reductionism: On Paul Crowther’s Post-Analytic Phenomenological Aesthetics and its New Possibilities”. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art no. 241: 80-91, 2022.
“The Salvation of Folklore and Everyday Life”. China Book Review no.4: 61-69, 2022.
“The Folkloric Root of Modern/Contemporary Art.” Dushu no.4: 138-141, 2022.
“Catering Culture and Cross-Cultural Performativity with Chinese Identity: Overseas Chinese Food, Chinese Restaurants.” Journal of Guangxi University for Nationalities 44, no. 2: 106-118, 2022. [Peer-reviewed]
“Performative Folklore: Performance Theory, Living Tradition and Public Practice.” Folklore Studies no. 161: 21-32, 2022. [Peer-reviewed]
“The East Construction of Art Community: Cai Guoqiang’s Art and Renaissance”. Research of Chinese Fine Arts 40: 191-196, 2021. [Peer-reviewed]
“How to Define a Community’s Boundary and Cultural Property.” Chinese Newspaper of Arts, October 03, 2021.
“Several Basic Modes of Artistic Identity.” National Arts 161, no. 4: 117-131, 2021. [Peer-reviewed]
“Network in Daily Livelihood and Cross-Cultural Dissemination of Traditional Art: The Case of Chinese in Newfoundland, Canada.” Journal of Guangxi University for Nationalities 43, no.2: 67-82, 2021. [Peer-reviewed]
“The Literature Review and Research Trends of the Anthropology of Art”. Journal of Art Theory and Art History 7: 61-69, 2021.
“Introduction of the Ideas of Aesthetic Education in European and American Higher Education and the Possible Adaption in China”. General Education Review: 86-92, 2021.
“Exploring the Acoustic/Sound System of The Classic of Mountains and Seas.” Cultural Heritage no.68: 106-116, 2020. [Peer-reviewed]
“Performative Chineseness and Culinary Tourism in Chinese Restaurants in Newfoundland, Canada.” Folklore 131, no. 3: 268-291, 2020. [Peer-reviewed]
“The Concept and Practice of Aesthetic Education in American and European Higher Institutions and their Enlightenment to Chinese Higher Education.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 11, no. 59: 11-19, 2020. [Peer-reviewed]
“The Dragon Boat Race in Newfoundland, Canada.” Chinese Newspaper of Arts, June 19, 2020.
Book Review: “Hill, Wes. How Folklore Shaped Modern Art: A Post- Critical History of Aesthetics. New York: Routledge, 2016, 182 pp., $160.00 cloth.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 78, no.2: 261-264, 2020.
“The Cultural Logic of Contemporary Art under the ‘Anthropological Turn’”. National Arts 152, no. 1: 76-86, 2020. [Peer-reviewed]
“Summary of the International Symposium on ‘Cross Media Research of Art and Culture”. Art Criticism no. 193: 177-184, 2019.
“Characterized Buildings of the Immigrants: A Case Study of the Grave Building Arts of the Chinese Immigrants in Newfoundland, Canada.” Journal of World Peoples Studies 133, no. 3: 69-79, 2019. [Peer-reviewed]
“Alan Dundes’ Notion of “Grand Theory” and its Relevance to the Cross-Cultural Communication of ICH.” Folklore Studies no. 144: 57-69, 2019. [Peer-reviewed]
“Exploring the Systematic Colors of the Classic of Mountains and Seas.” Cultural Heritage no. 58: 90-100, 2019. [Peer-reviewed]
“Floating and Immersion: A Reflection on My Fieldwork in Newfoundland, Canada.” National Arts, no. 145: 5-11, 2018. [Peer-reviewed]
“The Interplay between Ethnic Tradition and Local Knowledge: The History, Cultural Performance and Rituals of Chinese New Year Celebrations in Newfoundland.” Journal of Overseas Chinese History Studies no. 123: 1-13, 2018. (China) [peer-reviewed]
“Presenting Diversity and Negotiating Identity: Narratives of the Chinese in Newfoundland.” Journal of Folklore Research 55, no. 3:51-86, 2018. [peer-reviewed]
“From the Ethnic to the Public: The Emergence of Chinese New Year Celebrations in Newfoundland as Vernacular Cultural Heritage.” Western Folklore 77, no. 3/4:277-312, 2018. [peer-reviewed]
“Emergent Chinese Diasporic Identity and Culture: Chinese Grave Markers and Mortuary Rituals in Newfoundland.” Journal of American Folklore 131, no. 519:53-90, 2018. [peer-reviewed]
“Forgotten Sound: A Proposal of the Study of Auditory Cultural Heritage and Acoustic Folklore.” Cultural Heritage 52: no. 1: 126-134, 2018. (China) [peer-reviewed]
“The Loss and Reversion of the Cultural Rights of Intercultural Communication Subject: The Chinese Traditional Dance in Newfoundland.” National Arts 139, no.6: 75-82, 2017. (China) [peer-reviewed]
“Performing Chineseness: The Lion Dance in Newfoundland.” Asian Ethnology 76, no. 2, 289-317, 2017. [peer-reviewed]
“Jocular Ethnicity: Negotiating American Chineseness in the Digital Age.” In Race and Ethnicity in Digital Culture: Our Changing Traditions, Impressions, and Expressions in a Mediated World, edited by Anthony Bak Buccitelli, 133-149, 2017. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger.
“Genderized, Blurry Gender and De-Genderized: The Perspectives of Gender Studies in American Folklore.” Cultural Heritage 50, no. 5: 84-94, 2017. (China) [peer-reviewed]
“Folk Customs, Art and Aesthetic Experience: With Additional Discussion of A Study of Aesthetic Experience of Folk Art by Ji Zhongyang.” Studies of Ethnic Literature 35, no. 4: 120-125, 2017. (China) [peer-reviewed]
“After-Death Surname Changing of Yingshan County in Central China.” Folklore Studies 130, no. 6: 135-146, 2016. (China) [peer-reviewed]
“The Construction of Self-Consciousness of Culture Subject in Different Cultural Contexts: Chinese Lion Dance in Newfoundland.” National Arts 4:157-166, 2016. (China) [peer-reviewed]
“Chinese Restaurants’ Interior Decor as Ethnographic Objects in Newfoundland.” Western Folklore 75, no. 1:33-76, 2016. [peer-reviewed]
“Negotiating Chinese Culinary Traditions in Newfoundland.” Digest: a Journal of Foodways and Culture (Journal of American Folklore Society’s Foodways Section) 3, no. 1, 2014, http://digest.champlain.edu/article2_2_3.html [peer-reviewed]
Book Review “Alison R. Marshall. The Way of the Bachelor: Early Chinese Settlement in Manitoba. (Vancouver: 2011, University of British Columbia Press. Pp. xv-226. ISBN 978-0-7748-1916-9).” Ethnologies 34, no. 1-2: 323-326, 2012.
“Jewish Activities on Christmas: An Online Case Study.” Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore 37, no. 3-4: 27-33, 2011.
“Chinese Masculinity in Newfoundland before Confederation: Socially Destructed and Personally Reconstructed.” The Law Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador Legal Research Awards for Students of Memorial University 2009/2010 [Book], 1-10. St. John’s, NL: the Law Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2011.
“Redhead: a Cultural Case Study from the Perspective of Folklore.” Forum on Folk Culture 201, no. 2: 71-79, 2010. (China) [Peer-reviewed]
“Criticising Local Politics, Rejecting Western Cultural Intrusion: A Study of Sanlu Dairy Online Jokes.” Cultural Analysis 8: 25-44, 2009. [Peer-reviewed]
“Folkloristics by Means of Classification and the Possibilities of Direct Perception,” Forum on Folk Culture 152, no. 6: 35-41, 2006. (China) [Peer-reviewed]
Major Research Projects
Project Director, “The Study of In-Class Artistic Practice of Graduate Students in Art-related Disciplines” sponsored by Nanjing University, Mar. 2023-;
Project Director, “The Study of Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage’s Cross-Cultural Communication in New Era” supported by the Long-Medium Term Program of the Excellence of Arts Studies in New Era Program in Nanjing University (project number: 2022300038), Jan. 2022.-;
Project Director, “Exploring a New Model for Aesthetic Education: ICH Courses as Example” sponsored by Nanjing University, Jan. 2021-;
Project Director, “The Study of Key Aesthetic Issues Raised by Contemporary”, Art’s sub-project “The Study of the Aesthetic Issues of Contemporary Art Participation” supported by China National Key Research Project in Art Studies (project no. 20&ZD050), Nov. 2020-;
Project Director, “Exploring the Acoustic/Sound System of the Classic of. Mountains and Seas” supported by the Institute of Mythology, the Sichuan Academy of Social Science (project number: 2020SHZD01), Jun. 2020-;
Project Director, “The Cross-Cultural Communication of Chinese Intangible. Cultural Heritage in North America” supported by The National Social Science Fund of China (project number: 18CH204), Aug. 2018-Dec. 2021;
Project Director, “The Cross-Cultural Communication of Jiangsu’s Folk Art Tradition” supported by The Provincial Social Science Fund of Jiangsu (project number: 16YSC001), Jun. 2016- Dec. 2018;
Project Director, “Chinese Folkloric and Artistic Life in Newfoundland, Canada” supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, Jan. 2016– Feb. 2017;
Research Assistant, Supervised by Dr. Gerald Pocius, Department of Folklore, Memorial University of NL, Reviewing folklore literatures about fieldwork, Compiling bibliographies, Jan. –Apr. 2012;
Research Assistant; Heritage Foundation of NL, St. John’s, NL, Editing Intangible Cultural Heritage webpage, Editing multi-media materials, Jan. - Apr. 2011;
Archive Assistant, Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive, Digitalizing archival materials, Sept. - Dec. 2010;
Project Director, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Conducting fieldwork for the project: “Cultural Performance: Chinese Lion Dance in Newfoundland” Jun. 2010– Apr. 2011;
Archive Assistant, Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive Editing archival entries, Digitalizing archival materials, Sept. - Dec. 2009;
Research Assistant, Center for the Study of Music, Media and Place (MMaP), Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, Conducting fieldwork for the Project: “Many Voices in St John’s: Immigrant Oral Histories in St. John’s, NL,” Apr. 2009– Dec. 2010;
Project Director, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Conducting fieldwork project: “Sacred Narrative: Chinese Immigrants and Their Christian Experience in Their Acculturation in St. John’s,” Apr. – Aug. 2009;
Research and Editorial Assistant, National Library of China, Beijing, PRC, Collecting folklore materials from Chinese classics for The Encyclopedia of Chinese Oral Tradition. Beijing: Tongxin Press (《中华大典》，北京：同心出版社，2011), Sept 2006-Aug 2008;
Research Assistant, Chinese Literature and Language Archive, Peking University, Beijing, PRC Reviewing new publications Helping with making decision for purchase of books and journals, Sept. 2006– Jul. 2007
(IV) Award and Honor
2024 Award for the Excellent Public Lecture of Aesthetic Education, Provincial Department of Education of Jiangsu;
2024 Award for Teaching Excellence in Ethical Education; Nanjing University
2024 Excellent Supervisor for Extra-Curriculum Projects and Social Practice, Nanjing University;
2023 Excellent Supervisor for the Nanjing University’s Short Video Competition of Telling ICH (Intangible Cultural Heritagee) Stories in Foreign Languages Titled “Let the World Know More about China”, Nanjing University;
2023 Nomination Award for the 16th China’s Shanhua Award for Scholarly Publication in Folklore (China’s Highest Award in folklore), China Federation of Literary and Art Circles;
2023 Arts Grand Award of Jiangsu for Scholarly Publication in Folklore, Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles;
2023 Bank of China’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Bank of China;
2022 Award for Academic Excellence in Jiangsu Province (“333 Project”), Government of Jiangsu Province, China;
2022 Award for Research Paper Excellence of 1ST “The Contemporality of Folk Literature and Art” National Forum, Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association;
2022 Award for Teaching Excellence in General Education, Nanjing University;
2021, 1st Competition for Teaching Excellence of Nanjing University (3rd place Award), Nanjing University;
2021, 7th Excellent Creative Research Award for Young Scholars in Humanities, Nanjing University;
2020 Xinhua Daily Press Award for Outstanding Young Professor, Nanjing University;
2018, 6th Excellent Creative Research Award for Young Scholars in Humanities (Finalist Winner), Nanjing University;
2018, 25th Teaching Contest of Young Professors of Southeast University (Finalist winner), Southeast University;
2017 Annual Research Paper Award, Chinese Folklore Society;
2017 Yan Gongda Award for Teaching and Research Excellence, Southeast University;
2016 Zhejiang Yongli Award for Teaching and Research Excellence, Southeast University;
2015 Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2014 James Pon Memorial Award (first place winner), The Foundation to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada;
2014, The Dermot O’Reilly Legacy Award, Memorial University of Newfoundland;
2014, Rev. Dr. Bernard J. O’Connor Scholarship, J. Douglas Ferguson Historical Research Foundation of Canada;
2013 Gerald L. Davis Travel Fund, American Folklore Society;
2012 Scotiabank Bursary for International Study (Graduate), Scotia Bank through School of Graduate Studies Memorial University of Newfoundland;
2011 ISC Scholarship for Academic Excellence, International Student Resource Center (ISC) Memorial University of Newfoundland;
2011 CMHA-NL Mental Health Research Scholarship, The Canadian Mental Health Association, Newfoundland and Labrador Division;
2011, The David Buchan Graduate Research Award in Folklore, Department of Folklore Memorial University of Newfoundland;
2011 ISER Research Grant, The Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) Memorial University of Newfoundland;
2011, The Law Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador Legal Research Award, The Law Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador;
2010 J. R. Smallwood Research Grant, The J. R. Smallwood Foundation for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies Memorial University of Newfoundland;
2009, Mary A. Griffiths Memorial Bursary Fund for Folklore Field Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland;
Folklore Department Doctoral Scholarship, Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2008-2012;
2008, School of Graduate Studies Merit Award, Memorial University of Newfoundland;
2007, Peking University Academic Research Award Winner “Discovering China in History: A Case Study of Constructing a National Identity”;
2007 Peking University Literature Award Fiction: “The Roar of the Tiger”;
2004 Peking University Outstanding Student Honor.
(V) Contacts
E-mail: muli@nju.edu.cn
