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Dr Haili Ma

Position
Associate Professor in Performance and Creative Economy
Faculty
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
School
School of Performance and Cultural Industries

Haili’s research explores the relationship between bottom-up artist creativity and top-down cultural policy decision making in the global context, with a focus on China. She is particularly interested in the evolution of traditional art forms and the distinctive role of entrepreneur artists in generating sustainable social economic growth.

Haili works closely with the UNESCO commission, UK Arts Council and China Arts Research Institutions, bringing together government policy makers, researchers, educators and performing entrepreneur artists to develop cultural policy discourse and consultancy documents.

Haili was trained in traditional Chinese opera from her early teens. She was a member of the Shanghai Luwan All-Female Yue Opera Company, specializing in Xiaosheng (male role), before coming to the UK in 1997, where she pursued her academic studies. She completed a PhD at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries (University of Leeds) with Research Distinction. She is the author of Urban Politics and Cultural Capital: The Case of Chinese Opera (Routledge, 2015).

She is currently completing a monograph Understanding Cultural and Creative Industries through Chinese Opera, contracted by Palgrave Macmillan Publisher.