Kim Hunter Gordon
Assistant Professor of Chinese and Performance Studies at Duke Kunshan University

Kim Hunter Gordon is Assistant Professor of Chinese and Performance Studies at DKU, where his teaching and research interests include kunqu performance, media art and local history. His work is centred in the cognitive humanities, with particular emphasis on cultural memory, embodied knowledge and musical linguistics. He is currently part of a team writing an annotated translation of the multi-volume work: "Acting Tradition: Kunqu Master Performers on Chinese Opera Performance" due to be published by Anthem Press in 2020.

In addition to his academic work, he translates stage subtitles for the Jiangsu Kunqu Theatre and Kunshan Contemporary Kunqu Theatre and has worked as executive co-producer on international productions in London and Suzhou. He studied the sheng role under Qian Zhenrong and regularly performs on the avocational kunqu circuit in China and beyond. Prior to his doctorate, he worked as a stringer at The Observer in London before spending a number of years in Shanghai and Beijing working in media and publishing.

He earned his PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London (2017), spending two years as a China Studies Fellow at Nanjing University. He received his MA (Hons) at the University of Glasgow, majoring in psychology and literature (2003), before training in journalism with the NCTJ in London (2005) and intercultural management with the EU-funded METP program in Beijing (2009). Prior to joining DKU, he held a research fellowship at the Shanghai Theatre Academy (2018).

Current Appointments & Affiliations

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