Lingyu Chu

Lingyu Chu is a performer, theater artist, and cross-cultural storyteller currently pursuing an M.A. in Performance Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She holds a B.F.A. in Acting from Chongqing University, where she also completed credit-bearing theater exchange programs at Dongguk University and Chung-Ang University in South Korea. She additionally received an invitation to study Performance at National Taiwan Normal University; however, the exchange was ultimately unable to proceed due to external political circumstances.

Before pursuing acting, Chu studied the Electone, a highly specialized electronic organ requiring performers to coordinate two manual keyboards and a full pedal keyboard simultaneously. Due to its rarity and technical complexity, she was frequently invited to perform as a soloist at major public events and televised auditions. These early experiences sparked her lifelong passion for the performing arts.

Shaped by experiences across China, South Korea, and the United States, Chu is interested in performance as a site of cultural exchange, storytelling, and human connection. Outside of her artistic and academic work, she is a passionate hockey player, avid traveler, and enthusiastic language learner who enjoys engaging with different cultures and perspectives. Through her work in Performance Studies, she continues to explore how performance can connect people across languages, communities, and borders.

Project Title: Horror Sound Design

Project Description: This project explores how horror film sound can become more unsettling when it foregrounds its own artificiality instead of remaining invisible. By examining iconic horror films, it investigates why audiences continue to experience fear even when they are fully aware of the mechanisms used to create it.

Project Inspiration: Ironically, this project began because I was afraid of horror films. I enrolled in a horror cinema course at NYU hoping to become less fearful, only to discover a genre that I found endlessly fascinating. The course transformed my relationship with horror, leading me from avoidance to obsession and prompting questions about what truly frightens us: monsters, ghosts, or ourselves.

With a background in acting and music, I became increasingly drawn to the expressive power of voice and sound. This project emerged from a desire to connect my interests in performance and cinema, using horror sound design as a way to explore how fear is performed, constructed, and experienced.