Xiaoping DONG, a professor at Beijing Normal University, received his first doctorate in Chinese Folkloristics in 1989, then pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Iowa, USA in 1994 and completed professional training in international folklore fieldwork at the University of Joensu, Finland, in 1995 with support from UNESCO. From 2000 to present, she has been a visiting scholar or collaborating researcher at the University of Oxford (UK); École Française d’ Extrême -Orient, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, University of Artois (France); University of Oklahoma (USA); Russian National University of Humanities (Russia); University of Tartu (Estonia), etc. She has been a member or director of the 6th and 7th Disciplines Evaluation in Sociology Board of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council; member of the National Expert Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture; specialist in the Evaluation Section of the China Scholarship Council; and a specialist in the Evaluation Section of the National Social Science Foundation (all: PRC). In addition, she has served as dean of the College of Transcultural Studies at Beijing Normal University (BNU), director of the Research Institute for Chinese Folk Culture, director of the Digital Folklore Laboratory, and vice-director of the Research Center for Folklore, Classics and Chinese Characters (all: at BNU).