Chen Ying Ru Amway

Currently a fine arts major at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, USA, modern Taiwanese artist Chen Ying-Ru possesses a science degree from the Simon Fraser University.

With her family active in the interior designing business, Ying-Ru was brought up in an artistic milieu where pastel, water colours, ink drawing and music ( she learned piano and Chinese Zheng zither) as well as dancing formed the foundation of her artistic background.

Ying-Ru spent much of her young adult years studying and living abroad, therefore she was exposed to numerous cultures and ways of living that continues to widen her artistic and existential viewpoint on life. 

After a period of soul searching, she decided to study painting formally with the notion that the beauty discovered in life has much to do with the amount of beauty we decide to bring into it. Ying-Ru’s newest paintings reflect an unusual mixture of eastern and western inspirations. 

She playfully brings out the hilarious and fanciful parts of her subject matter in an approach that somehow perfectly encapsulates both the traditional and contemporary. 

Professor Ying Cheng

Professor Ying Cheng (NRF/DST SARChI Research Program in Geopolitics and Arts of Africa, Fine Art Department, Rhodes University, South Africa).

 Professor at the Department of Asian and African Languages and Cultures, Peking University, China. Her research interests include popular art practises and urban youth in Africa, theatre and performance arts in African cities, Global South arts, and China-Africa cultural exchanges. 

She lectures in Africa, African Theater and Performance, African Literary and Cultural Studies Frontiers.

Cheng obtained her PhD from Africa's Languages and Cultures Department, SOAS, London University in 2017. Her PhD dissertation involved transforming popular culture in urban Nigeria. 

She has published African Culture Studies Journal, African Theater, Annual Review of African Studies in China, and China Book Review in recent years. 

She earned the Best Doctoral Thesis in the Lagos Studies Award in 2018.

Share This