Speaker's bio:

Mingmei Yip’s literary career began at fourteen when her essay about art was published in a literary magazine. She now has seven books to her credit. Her first novel, Peach Blossom Pavilion, tells the story of Precious Orchid, the last in the Chinese tradition of refined poet-musician-courtesans, or Geishas. Reviews have been highly favorable. Only seven weeks after its publication by Kensington Books, Peach Blossom Pavilion is already in its fourth printing.

All her other books have been well received. Her Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories, which she both wrote and illustrated, has been sold over 30,000 copies and received numerous favorable reviews. In Hong Kong, she was a columnist for seven major newspapers. Her poems have been published in Hong Kong newspapers and some were set to music and performed in Asia and the US.

Mingmei’s formal education was in ancient Chinese music. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, on a full academic scholarship from the French Government. Upon return to Hong Kong, she was lecturer in music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and later senior lecturer (associate professor) at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her great love in music is the qin – the most ancient Chinese stringed instrument on which she gives frequent lectures and performances, most recently at Amsterdam University, Beijing University, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, University of Paris, , Cleveland Museum of Art, Oxford University, and Columbia University.

Mingmei has considerable media experience, having appeared on 40 TV and radio programs in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, as well as many newspaper interviews. She co-hosted a major English language TV documentary on Chinese opera.

She is now currently teaching Chinese calligraphy at City University of New York and will be lecturing on the Art of War at West Point Military Academy in the Fall.

Visit Mingmei’s website: http://www.mingmeiyip.com.