Donglin Chai received her MA (2012) and PhD (2017) in East Asian Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University with a concentration in Chinese Language Pedagogy. A pedagogue by training, Chai is a leading scholar and practitioner of the Performed Culture Approach, a paradigm-shifting pedagogical framework in the field of East Asian language pedagogy to help learners effectively communicate with native speakers of the target culture.

During the past nine years, Chai has published eight peer-reviewed articles in international academic journals, three textbook series, and one edited book chapter, all relating to pedagogy. Since 2017 she has served as a manuscript reviewer for Routledge, The University of California Press, Chinese as a Second Language: The Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA, Journal of Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology (USA), and Palgrave Handbook of Chinese language Studies. She is currently completing a book manuscript about the history of Chinese language education in the US through the generous research support from the University of Iowa. 

Over the past decade, Chai has taught as visiting or adjunct faculty at The Ohio State University, Loyola University Maryland, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Grinnell College. Before the pandemic, she also directed the US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship Chinese Language Study Abroad Program (Xiamen, China) and co-directed The Ohio State University–Soochow University Summer Chinese Language Study Abroad Program (Suzhou, China). She also worked as a teacher trainer and mentor for novice teachers at the Chinese and Japanese Intensive Summer Program by ALLEX at Washington University in St. Louis. Since Fall 2024, Chai has been developing and teaching a dual-campus Chinese Culture Club after-school program in the Iowa City School District and building three local public libraries’ Chinese language collection.

Since 2019, Chai has been co-editing an online weekly magazine on Chinese language pedagogy through the popular social media platform WeChat. This online magazine adopts a multimedia format (audio, video, image) and its vivid presentation and diverse contents have attracted over 7,000 subscribers worldwide. 

As a member of The Chinese Language Teachers Association (USA), Chai has actively participated and won Cheng & Tsui Professional Development Award (2018) and First Prize of Cengage Learning Award for Innovative Excellence in the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language (2014), both awarded by the association. 

Besides she also squeezed time to serve her city's Parks & Recreation Commission (Member) and an Iowan chapter of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (Secretary). When she is not working, you can likely find her spending time with her husband, preschooler, and her mom workout group.