Eric Shepherd is Assistant Professor of Chinese and Director of the Chinese Section in the Department of World Languages at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Eat Shandong: From Personal Experience to a Pedagogy of a Second Culture (2005) and has published articles on teaching Chinese, interpersonal relationships, etiquette, and oral traditions in China. He was trained as a Shandong fast tale performer by master storyteller Wu Yanguo and performs professionally in both China and the United States.