Research Interests

Aesthetics; Asian Arts and Humanities; Heritage and Tradition; Performative Memories; Silk Road and Dunhuang Studies; Folklore and Ethnomusicology; Multimedia and Film Studies

Creative Activities

Visit https://lanlankuangofficial.pub/ for research activities and audio-visual samples.

2019 On-going Fieldwork, Dunhuang Research Academy, Gansu Province, China

2018 Fieldwork, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China

2018 Fieldwork, "He-he (harmony and unity) Philosophy", Taizhou, China

2018 Fieldwork, "Silk and Bamboo" (jiangnan sizhu) Music, Shanghai, China

2017 Fieldwork, Dunhuang Research Academy, Gansu Province, China

2017 Fieldwork, "Silk and Bamboo" (jiangnan sizhu) Music Preliminary Study, Shanghai, China

2013-16 Founding Co-Director, China-U.S. Ethnic Cultural Exchange and Joint Research Initiatives

2013-14 Co-Produce and Co-Direct SINO-AMERICAN University Student Micro-Film Competition, Presented by CHINA-U.S. Ethnic Cultural Exchange & Joint Research Initiatives, and UCF College of Arts & Humanities, a part of the Shanghai International Film Festival and the Miami International Film Festival.

Publications

Books

• Kuang, Lanlan. Staging Tianxia : Dunhuang Expressive Arts and China’s New Cosmopolitan Heritage. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. 2024. Available in: Harvard Library; Princeton Library; Stanford Library; The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library; Univ. Michigan Art, Architecture, and Engineering Library
• Kuang, Lanlan. Dunhuang Performing Arts: The Construction and Transmission of “China-scape” in the Global Context, Social Science Academic Press, 2016. Available in: Harvard-Yenching Library; Princeton-Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology; Stanford East Asia Library; Columbia University Libraries (CLIO); Univ. Michigan Hatcher Graduate Asia Library; OSU Music and Dance Library; UCLA East Asian Library; Brown University Library; Rice Fondren Library; Univ. of Toronto East Asian Library

Articles/Essays

• Kuang, Lanlan. "Creating a Sustainable Narrative: The Interplay of Ecological Agriculture, Cultural Heritage, and Community Efficacy in Contemporary China" Culture as Text (2024). https://doi.org/10.1515/cat-2024-0002
• Kuang, Lanlan."Staging China: 'China-scapes' and the Dunhuang Performative Narratives" in Selected and Translated Essays from the 2017 Belt and Road International Symposium on Cultural and Art Exchanges and Cooperation. Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House. 449-457 (December 2018)
  
  
• Kuang, Lanlan. “China’s Emerging Food Media: Promoting Culinary Heritage in the Global Age.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies. Vol. 17, No. 3, 68–81 (August 2017) Available at: http://gcfs.ucpress.edu/content/17/3/68
  
  
• Kuang, Lanlan. “‘Otto’ and ‘Rumi’: A Case Study on the Constitutive Interactions between Foreign Traveling Artists (Jingpiao) and Jingdezhen’s Ceramic Cultural Landscape, Folklore Research, Vol. 6, (November 2016). Available at: Princeton University Library; 
  
  
• Kuang, Lanlan. “Staging the Silk Road Journey Abroad: In the Case of Dunhuang Performative Arts,” M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture(October 2016).
  
  
• Kuang, Lanlan, “Impact of Multimedia and Agency on Safeguarding and Promoting Folk Songs as Intangible Cultural Heritage,” Safeguarding and Promotion of Folk Songs in the Contemporary Society. Vinh (Vietnam): Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (VICAS), 2015, p.125-150.
  
  
• Rudy McDaniel and Lanlan Kuang. "Cross-Cultural Cinematic Communication: Learning from the Information Design Process for a Sino-American Film Competition," in Communication Design Quarterly, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 49-60 (November 2015)

Book Sections/Chapters

• Kuang, Lanlan. 2021. “Tides High and Low: The Changing Landscapes of Gongfu Cha Tea Culture in Contemporary China.” The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity: A Global Perspective: Cases from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Edited by Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz. Bloomsbury Academic. 
  https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-cultural-politics-of-food-taste-and-identity-9781350162723/?fbclid...
  
• Kuang, Lanlan. 2019. “(Un) consciousness? – Music in the Daoist Context of Nonbeing (wuwei 无為),” Music and Consciousness 2: Worlds, Practices, Modalities, Edited by Ruth Herbert, David Clarke, and Eric Clarke. Oxford University Press.
  
  https://global.oup.com/academic/product/music-and-consciousness-2-9780198804352?cc=us&lang=en&#
  

Creative Publications

• Kuang, Lanlan. Hou Niao: Wo Zai Meiguo Du Zhong Xue. Di 1 ban. Beijing: Guo ji wen hua chu ban gong si, 1996.

Book Reviews

• Kuang, Lanlan. Review of Just a Song: Chinese Lyrics from the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries, by Stephen Owen. China Review International 25 (2018): 65-69. doi:10.1353/cri.2018.0014.
  
  
• Kuang, Lanlan. Review of Competing Values in Archaeological Heritage, edited by Stuart Campbell, Liz White, and Suzie Thomas. International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 25 no. 10, 2019, p. 1109-1111.
  
  Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2019.1590452
  
  
• Wilcox, Emily. Review of Dunhuang Performing Arts: The Construction and Transmission of “China-scape” in the Global Context, by Kuang Lanlan. Asian Theater Journal, vol. 35 no. 1, 2018,p. 237-240.
  
  Available at: 10.1353/atj.2018.0029
  
  

• Piao, Yongguang. “Approaching Chinese Arts from A Changing Perspective,” Review of Dunhuang Performing Arts: The Construction and Transmission of “China-scape” in the Global Context, by Kuang Lanlan. Wu dao (Dance) 2017(2): 76-77.

  Available in: Yale University Library; Cambridge University Library

• Zhang, Duo. “New Ethnographic Insights in Research on Dunhuang Arts —Review of Lanlan Kuang’s new book Dunhuang Performing Arts,” Review of Dunhuang Performing Arts: The Construction and Transmission of “China-scape” in the Global Context, by Kuang Lanlan. Forum on Folklore Culture 2016 (5): 117-120.
  
  Available in: Stanford University Library; Columbia University Library; Waseda University Library (Japan)     

Awards

2025 Eurasia Foundation (from Asia) Grant

2024 Eurasia Foundation (from Asia) Grant

2023 Eurasia Foundation (from Asia) Grant 

2022 Asia Library Travel Grant from the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies of the University of Michigan

2021 Florida Humanities Council Greater Good: Humanities in Academia Award

2020  Mid-Career Refresh Program Award, University of Central Florida

2017  Outstanding Research Paper in Education Category, Sharing Cultures 2017 - Fifth International Conference on Intangible Heritage, Barcelos, Portugal

2013  Distinguished Fellow, Center for Folk and Ethnic Literature and Art Development, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, PRC

2016  Distinguished Fellow, Key Research Institutes in Humanities and Social Sciences (Cultural and New Media Development), Shanghai, PRC

2015  Foreign Research Specialist, Northwest University for Nationalities, PRC

2008  Fulbright-IIE Grant (Country: China)

2006  Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Traveling Scholar at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

2004  China Hengdian Film Award, Documentary in Humanity Arts Category

1997  China National Award for International Reports

Courses

• Fall 2025
• Spring 2026