Zach Fredman is a diplomatic and military historian whose research focuses on the United States in the world, modern China, and US-East Asian relations. His first book, The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949 (UNC Press, 2022), examines the U.S. military presence in China during World War II and the Chinese Civil War. He co-edited Uneasy Allies: Sino-American Relations at the Grassroots, 1937–1949 (Cambridge, 2024) with Judd Kinzley. He is now writing a history of the US military's overseas rest and recreation program during the Vietnam War. This project draws on research in the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and the UK.

Kim Hunter Gordon is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and Major Convenor of Global China Studies at Duke Kunshan University. He completed his PhD in Asian Theatre and Dance from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2017 with a Joint Research Fellowship from Nanjing University, where he studied classical singing and prosody with Prof. Xie Yufeng. His extensive fieldwork included learning to perform the sheng role-type under Qian Zhenrong at Jiangsu Kunqu Theatre. He has over a decade of experience in stage translation for Kunqu and actively participates in the avocational singing circuit in China. Prior to his PhD, he worked as a journalist, travel writer and media professional. At DKU, he has more than six years experience teaching media and arts, theatre and performance, Chinese studies and translation. His forthcoming monograph Kunqu: China’s Classical Song Drama is due to be published by Methuen Drama in 2025.

James Miller is Professor of Humanties and Co-Director of the Humanities Research Center at Duke Kunshan University. He is known worldwide as a scholar of Daoism, China's indigenous religion and has published numerous books, essays and articles on Chinese philosophy and religion.