Vivian Ching-Mei Chu​ (BA, MFA, Ph.D.)

Professor Ching Mei Chu is a full-time professor at the Department of Drama and Theatre of National Taiwan University, and also a founding member of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Research Center at NTU, as well as a group member of the Center’s “Forward-Looking Robots” and “Cognitive and Behavioral Science” teams.

In the past two decades, professor Chu has been working with the most outstanding experts and scholars in Taiwan on a cross-border project to build an "Emotion AI" big data database, in an attempt to have the cold programming language develop a warm "human touch" and emotional communication ability for the "right brain" of AI, which includes: AI voice expressions, compound emotional recognition (facial expression, speech, and bodily movements), human-robot interaction, robotic movement and expression design, and dialogue AI.
Phone：02-33663306
​Email：[email protected]

Education:

Ph.D. in Theatre Directing, Bowling Green State University, USA
MFA in Acting, The City University of New York, USA
BA in English, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taiwan ROC
Specialty:

Acting,
Directing,
Shakespeare Studies,
Emotional Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence Voice Expression,
​Emotion Corpus Design (related to Artificial Intelligence)​

Present:

Full-time Professor, Department of Drama and Theatre, National Taiwan University
Member, Advanced Robotics Group and Cognitive and Behavioral Science Group, Center for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics, National Taiwan University​
Past Experiences:
  1. Full-time Associate Professor and Assistant Professor, Department of Drama and Theatre, National Taiwan University
    ​
  2. Director, Taiwan Shakespeare Association

  3. Review Committee Member, National Theatre

  4. Review Committee Member, National Culture and Arts Foundation

  5. Exchange Professor, Peking University.

  6. Guest Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  7. Visiting Scholar, University College London

  8. Visiting Scholar, University of Chicago

  9. Adjunct Lecturer, Department of English, Fu Jen Catholic University

  10. Visiting Professor, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

  11. Visiting Professor, University of Oxford

  12. Visiting Professor, University of Cambridge

Main Teaching Subjects:
Acting
Directing
Voice
Stage Movement
Shakespeare Films／Shakespeare Animation Art
Shakespeare and the Art of Public Speaking

​Awards:
  1. National Taiwan University Excellent Academic Book Award (2013)
    ​
  2. National Taiwan University Excellent Mentor Award (the only recipient of the year in the College of Liberal Arts at National Taiwan University) (2013)

  3. National Taiwan University Excellent Journal Paper Award (2014, 2013, 2008)

  4. Principal Investigator of 15 National Science and Technology Council Research Projects (1997-1998, 2002, 2004-2015, 2020-2023)

  5. US Fulbright Scholarship Recipient (Taiwan Region) (1992-1994)

Publications（1996-2022）:

I. Academic Books:
  1. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  A Study on Cross-disciplinary Pedagogical Strategies for Teaching Shakespeare and the Art of Public Speaking.  Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2022.
    ​
  2. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  Joseph Chaikin and the Open Theatre: The Paragon of Collective Improvisation.  Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2011.

  3. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  Classic Text, Modern Tune: Stagings of the Classics in Neo-Avant-Garde Theatre.  Taipei: Bookman, 2001.

  4. ​Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  The Artaudian Theatre of Images.  Trans. Shih-Long Lo & Ching-Shiou Kuo, Taipei:Yangchi, 1999.

II. Journal Articles:
  1. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  “The Overreacher in Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Characterization and Source-Tracing.” Chung-Wai Literary Monthly. (accepted.  2025) . (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)​

  2. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  “The Hypertext, Hypermedia and Hyperreality in Prospero’s Books: The Ultra-Alternative Shakespeare.” Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 53(4) (2024): 171-210 . (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)​

  3. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  “A Research on the Praxis of Combined Application of Case Method and Role-Play Technique in Teaching ‘Shakespeare and the Art of Public Speaking’ Course: Take Henry V as an Example.”  Arts Journal  108 (June 2021), 1-40.
  4. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  “Soliloquy or Tirade?: Shakespearean Killer Soliloquies on Stage vs. in Cinema.”  Review of English and American Literature.  34   (Summer, 2019) 65-100. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  5. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  “The Multifaceted Strategies of Dialogue in Shakespeare’s Plays.”  Shakespeare Studies in China  1 (Dec. 2018): 32-42.

  6. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei.  “Old Trick, New Show: Lazzi in commedia dell’arte and Hollywood’s Early Motion Design.”  Taipei Theatre Journal  21 (Jan. 2015): 195-217. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  7. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Interior Vision, Exterior Visuals: The Imagistic Language of the Soliloquy Space in Shakespearean Films” Arts Journal 94 (April 2014): 203-229.

  8. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “The Frame-within-the Frame: The Meta-cinematic Strategies of Filming Looking for Richard.” Theatre Studies 12 (July 2013): 165-194. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  9. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “The Conflicts and Facile Dissolution of Collective Improvisation: “The Open Theatre” as Example.”  Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities 30 (July 2011): 61-84. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  10. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “The Experiments of Collective Improvisation in the Early Creative Period of Stanley Lai: The Case of Bach Variations.” Theatre Studies 7 (Jan. 2011):192-128. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  11. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. "Alice in Horror Land: Julie Taymor’s Experimental Shakespeare Film Titus Andronicus." Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities 30 (July 2011): 1-24. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  12. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. " The Intergration of Theatre and Film: the Experimental Shakespeare Films of Lord Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh." Taipei Theatre Journal 6 (Aug. 2007): 101-119. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  13. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. "Acting for Clowns in Disney Animation." Arts Journal 81:2 (Oct. 2007): 195-210.

  14. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. "Victor, Villain, and Vagabond: Marlowe’s Tamburlaine." Taipei Theatre Journal 3 (Jan. 2006): 7-38. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  15. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “To Act or Not to Act?: The Wilsonian Postmodern Acting.” Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 29:12(May 2001): 108-125. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  16. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Improvisational Strategies of the Open Theatre: The Making of The Serpent,” Arts Reviews 11 (2000): 223-254.

  17. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “To Be and Not to Be: The Aesthetics of ‘Alienation Effect’ in Brechtian Epic Acting and Chinese Acting,” Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 29: 3 (August 2000): 140-57. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  18. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. "Commedia dell'arte and Molière." Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 29:10 (February 2001): 94-116. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)

  19. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Contemporarization of the Classics in Neo-Avant-Garde Theatre.” Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 8:9 (February 2000): 119-46. (Tier 1 excellent journal recognized by National Taiwan University; THCI Core)
    ​
  20. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Stagings of the Masterpieces in the Theatre of Brook, Serban, Grotowski, and Mnouchkine.” Arts Reviews 10 (1999): 149-72.

III. Academic Book Articles:
  1. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Re-inventing Shakespeare by the Contemporary Legend Theatre: ‘Metatheatrical’ Adaptation Techniques and Cross Border Performing in King Lear.” Proceedings of the 2018 Cross Border Performing Symposium. Taipei: National Taiwan University of Arts, (Oct. 2018), 115-142.

  2. Bima Prihasto, Shabrina Choirunnisa, Muhammad Ishak Nurdiansyah, Seksan Mathulaprangsan, Vivian Ching-Mei Chu, Shi-Huang Chen, and Jia-Ching Wang. "A survey of deep face recognition in the wild," 2016 International Conference on Orange Technologies (ICOT), Melbourne, VIC, 2016, pp. 76-79, doi: 10.1109/ICOT.2016.8278983.

  3. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “The Metacinematic Techniques of Filming Shakespearean Soliloquies: The Case of Hamlet by Michael Almeredya.” Proceedings of the 2016 Cross Border Performing Symposium. Taipei: National Taiwan University of Arts (Sep. 2016), 11-28.

  4. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Shakespearean Soliloquy and Film Semiotics: A Case of the ‘Soliloquies’ in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet Film Adaptation.” Proceedings of the 2015 Cross Border Performing Symposium.  Taipei: National Taiwan University of Arts (Sep. 2015), 11-23.

  5. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Acting Techniques and Pedagogy for the Comedies of Molière.” International Conference on Molière. Taipei: National Taiwan University of Arts, (2006),180-190.

  6. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Hamlet’s Soliloquies in Film (1990-2000): Directors’ Perspectives.” Shakespeare Our Contemporary: Contexts, Intertexts & Perspectives. Shanghai: Fu-Dan University, (2005), 273-289.

  7. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Sondheim / Prince’s “Concept Musical”: Creative Methods and Process.” International Conference on Performing Arts.Taipei: National Taiwan University of Arts, (2006).
    ​
  8. Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei. “Greek Tragedies in “Contemporary Legend Theatre.” Conference on Taiwan Contemporary Theatre, 1999.

IV. ​National Science Council Awards:
  1. Shakespeare’s Public Speaking/Debating Performing Techniques: A Study on Rhetoric, Theatre and Image Performance (two-year project)
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology
    #NSTC 112-2410-H-002-153-MY2, 8/1/2023-7/31/2025

  2. "Shakespeare in the Multi-media Era: A study of fin de siècle avant-garde Shakespeare films (1990-2000)"（three-year project）
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology
    #MOST 109-2410-H-002-027-MY3, 8/1/2020-7/31/2023
    ​
  3. "Soliloquy or Tirade?: Shakespearean Soliloquies on Stage VS.in Cinema"
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology
    # MOST 104-2410-H-002-170, 8/1/2015-7/31/2016

  4. "Lazzi in commedia dell’arte and Silent Clown: The Ultimate Essence of Chaplin's Movement Aesthetics"
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology
    #MOST 103-2410-H-002-192, 8/1/2014-7/31/2015.

  5. "Old Trick, New Show: Lazzi in commedia dell’arte and Disney’s Early Animation.
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 100-2410-H-002-168, 8/1/2012-7/31/2013

  6.  “Multi-Visional Dimension of Semiotic Imagery: Language of Imagery in Shakespeare: The Animated Tales”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 99-2410-H-002-199, 8/1/2011-7/31/2012

  7. “A Traceability of the Body Movement and Character Acting in Disney Animation: The Influence and Application of the commedia dell’Arte”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 99-2410-H-002-195, 8/1/2010-7/31/2011

  8.  “The Frame-within-the-Frame: The Metacinematic Strategies of Filming Shakespeare’s Plays.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 98-2410-H-002-208, 8/1/2009-7/31/2010

  9. “Acting in Disney Animation: Aesthetics and Strategies.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 97-2410-H-002-141, 8/1/2008-7/31/2009

  10.  “Performance in Shakespearean Films: Transformation and Transgression.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 96-2411-H-002-077, 8/1/2007-7/31/2008

  11.  “The Alternative Shakespeare: Avant-Garde Experiments in Shakespearean Films 1990-2000.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 95-2411-H-002-094, 8/1/2006-7/31/2007

  12. “The Interface of Theatre and Film: The Experimental Shakespeare Films of Lord Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 94-2411-H-002-027, 8/1/2005-7/31/2006

  13.  “Interior Visions, Exterior Visuals: The Imagery Language in the Dimensions of Shakespearean Films.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 93-2411-H-002-069, 8/1/2004-7/31/2005

  14. “Sondheim / Prince’s “Concept Musical”: Creative Methods and Process.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 91-2411-H-002-070, 8/1/2002-7/31/2003

  15. “To Be and Not To Be: The Aesthetics of "Alienation Effect" in Brechtian Epic Acting and Chinese Acting.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 88-2411-H-002-046, 8/1/1998-7/31/1999

  16. "The Director / Auteur: Stagings of the Classics in Neo-Avant-Garde Theatre.”
    Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, sponsored by National Science Council
    #NSC 87-2415-H-002-051, 8/1/1997-7/31/1998
​

V. Directing Works：
2010    “The Establishment of Digital Video Database for Teacher Training Material and Training Modes”, Chu, Vivian Ching-Mei, Tsai, Chuen-Juen, Wu, Ming-Shuen, Taipei Medical University Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, sponsored by National Science Council
 
2008    The Taming of the Pet (animated film), Taipei: Zuei-In Studio
 
2005    Pinocchio（animated film，Graduate Institute of Networking and Multimedia project, National Taiwan University）
 
2004    A Midsummer Night’s Dream， Sir Run Run Shaw Theatre, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
 
2002    Macbeth，Taipei：Novel Hall
 
2002    The Birthday Party，Performance Centre, National Taipei University of Arts
 
2002    The Inter-net，Performance Centre, National Taipei University of Arts
 
2000    Mountain Language，Old Main Library, National Taiwan University
 
2000    The Sand Box，Old Main Library, National Taiwan University
 
2000    The Importance of Being Earnest，Old Main Library, National Taiwan University
 
1998    A Night Out with Shakespeare, Taipei, Crown Theatre
 
1997    Waiting for Godot, Taipei, Crown Theatre
 
1996    The Lover, Taipei, NTU Theatre
 
1995    The Good Woman of Setzuan, J.E. Brown Theatre, Bowling Green State Univ.
 
1994    The Sneeze, Experimental Theatre, Bowling Green State Univ.
 
1991    The Good Doctor, Fu-Jen Theatre
 
1990    A Night Out, Fu-Jen Theatre