Chao Gejin (Chogjin) serves as Senior Researcher and Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethnic Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as a professor at the CASS Graduate School. He specializes in Mongolian oral epic and has conducted fieldwork in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. His many essays and articles have appeared in a wide spectrum of journals. He recently published Oral Poetics: Formulaic Diction of Arimpil’s Jangar Singing (2000) and a Chinese translation (2000) of John Miles Foley’s The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology.