Born in Changsha (Hunan) in 1963, Chen Shi-Zheng has lived in New York since 1987. Active as a director, choreographer, singer and actor, he began his theatrical career when, as a child during the Cultural Revolution, he was taken under the protection of professional Hunan funeral singers whose shaman rituals continue to influence his work. He went on to study with masters of the Chinese opera and became a leading actor in both traditional and popular repertory, appearing on stage, television and radio throughout China. In 1987, he left China for the United States.
As a performer, Chen Shi-Zheng played a principal role in Meredith Monk's Atlas, created for the Houston Grand Opera in 1990. He collaborated with composer Tan Dun on Nine Songs and on the opera Marco Polo, choreographed Turandot for the New York City Opera, and directed numerous productions off-Broadway, at the Public Theater and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. For the UCLA Center for Intercultural Awareness, he directed Paul Dresher's opera, Myth of Hero. In 1996, he went to Peking to work with the National Beijing Opera Company on an acclaimed production of Euripides' Bacchae. Chen directed and performed in New Zealand composer Jack Body's opera Alley, produced in Wellington in February of 1998. From 1997 to 1999, he focused his energies on the complete Mudan Ting / The Peony Pavilion, a nineteen hour opera seen by audiences in New York, Caen, Paris, Milan, Perth, Aarhus, Vienna and Berlin, and filmed in its entirety by R.M. Arts. In 2000, he created Forgiveness, a music-theatre piece. This work was followed by his Così Fan Tutte, conducted by René Jacobs, for the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Paris's Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. In 2001, he directed Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. in Charleston, and led a workshop on The Orphan of Zhao. His adaptation of this 13th century play by Ji Junxiang will be produced by Lincoln Center Theatre in the summer of 2002. He devotes fall of 2001 to the opera by Guo Wenjing, Ye Yan. Chen Shi-Zheng is concurrently developing a feature film, The Dark Matter Problem.