PERSONAL DATA
Brian DeMare
Professor and Chair
History Department
Tulane University
Ph.D.: University of California Los Angeles, in History, 2007. Major field in modern Chinese history; Minor fields in modern Japanese history, early modern French history, and cultural history. Dissertation committee members: Philip Huang, Lynn Hunt, Kathryn Bernhardt, and Fred Notehelfer. Dissertation: Turning Bodies and Turning Minds: Land Reform and Chinese Political Culture, 1946-1952.
MA: Columbia University, in East Asian Languages and Cultures, 1999.
BA: Occidental College, in History, 1996.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
· 2020-2022: Professor, Tulane University, History Department
· 2016-2019: Associate Professor, Tulane University, History Department
· 2009-2016: Assistant Professor, Tulane University, History Department.
· 2007-2009: Visiting Assistant Professor, Tulane University, History Department
· 2004-2005: Visiting Instructor, Qinghua University (Beijing), Sociology Department
UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP
· Fall 2022-Present: Chair, Department of History
· Fall 2018-Spring 2019: Senator-at-Large, University Senate
· Fall 2018-Spring 2021: Chair, Library Committee
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
1. Tiger, Tyrant, Bandit, Businessman: Echoes of Counterrevolution from New China. Stanford University Press, August 2022.
3. Mao’s Cultural Army: Drama Troupes in China’s Rural Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, May 2015.
Edited Volumes
1. Cultural History of Contemporary China: Selected Essays. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, May 2023.
2. On the Communist Revolution. Co-edited with Fangchun Li. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. In progress.
Book Chapters
1. “Drama from Beijing to Long Bow: Reforming Shanxi Stages in Socialist China,” in Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform: Performance Practice and Debate in the Mao Era. Edited by Xiaomei Chen, Tarryn Chun, and Siyuan Liu. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021.
2. “Production in Revolution: Agricultural and Political Labour during Land Reform,” in Landscapes of Chinese Labour: A History of China’s Working Class, edited by Ivan Franceschini, Kevin Lin, Nicholas Loubere, and Christian Sorace. Canberra: Australian University Press, 2022.
3. “Fifty Years of Fanshen: One Chinese Village and Mao’s Rural Revolution,” in China by the Book. Edited by Charles Hayford. To be submitted to Rowman & Littlefield.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
1. “Blacklisting Tradition: Political Campaigns and Cultural Markets in Hubei, 1958-1964.” Twentieth Century China Vol. 42, No. 2 (Spring 2017).
2. “The Romance and Tragedy of Rural Revolution: Narratives and Novels of Land Reform in Mao’s China.” Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History Vol. 43, No. 4 (Summer 2014).
3. “Local Actors and National Politics: Rural Amateur Drama Troupes and Mass Campaigns in Hubei Province, 1949-1953.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Vol. 24, No. 2 (Fall 2012).
4. “Casting (Off) Their Stinking Airs: Chinese Intellectuals and Land Reform, 1946-1952.” The China Journal No. 67 January 2012, #67.
Other Publications
2. “You Can’t Understand Modern China Without Looking at the History of Land Reform.” Jacobin (May 23, 2023).
3. “Tiger, Tyrant, Bandit, Businessman: A Few Words on the Sources.” The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol. 20, No. 13 (September 15, 2022).
4. “Tiger, Tyrant, Bandit, Businessman: A Conversation with Brian DeMare.” With Ivan Franceschini. Made in China Journal (August 29, 2022).
5. “Land Reform Educated Me.” The PRC History Review Vol. 6, No. 2 (March 2021).
6. “It Takes a Village: Land Reform in the Classroom.” The PRC History Review Vol. 4, No. 2 (August 2019).
7. “Response to Liang Luo’s Review.” The PRC History Review Book Review Series No. 7 (July 2019).
9. “Structures of ‘Land Reform Narratives’” (“土改叙事”的特殊结构). Open Times (开放时代) #1 (2017).
Podcasts
1. “Tiger, Tyrant, Bandit, Businessman,” hosted by Yi Ren on the New Books Network (August 30, 2022).
2. “Land Wars,” hosted by Jordan Scheider on ChinaTalk (August, 2020).
3. “Land Wars,” hosted by Ed Pulford on the New Books Network (June 18, 2020).
4. “Mao’s Cultural Army,” hosted by Carla Nappi on the New Books Network (May 2, 2016).
Edited Journal Issues
1. Teaching PRC History. A special issue of the online journal The PRC History Review. Co-edited with Covell Meyskens. 2019; revised and republished in 2021.
Reviews
1. Review of Jo Guldi, The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021). The American Historical Review, forthcoming.
2. Review of Xiaofei Kang, Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in Chinese Communist Propaganda, 1942-1953 (Oxford University Press, 2023). NAN NÜ, forthcoming.
3. Review of Jeffery A. Javid, Righteous Revolutionaries: Morality, Mobilization, and Violence in the Making of the Chinese State (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022). The China Journal (2023)
4. Review of Emily Wilcox, Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy (University of California Press, 2019). The PRC History Review (2022).
5. Review of Covell F. Meyskens, Mao’s Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China (Cambridge University Press, 2020). H-Diplo Review Essay 301 (2021).
6. Review of Jeremy Brown, June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989 (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Twentieth-Century China (2021).
7. Review of Felix Wemheuer, A Social History of Maoist China: Conflict and Change (Cambridge University Press, 2019). The China Journal, Vol. 85 (January 2021).
8. Review of Denise Y. Ho, Curating Revolution: Politics on Display in Mao's China. (Cambridge University Press, 2017). The Journal of Asian Studies (2020).
9. Review of Joshua Eisenman, Red China’s Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, and Economic Development Under the Commune (Columbia University Press, 2018). Journal of Chinese History, Vol. 4 No. 1 (January, 2020).
10. Review of Kate Merkel-Hess, The Rural Modern: Reconstructing the Self and State in Republican China (Chicago, 2016). The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 78 No. 4 (November, 2019).
11. Review of Jennifer Altehenger, Legal Lessons: Popularizing Laws in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-1989 (Harvard University Asia Center, 2018). The China Journal No. 82, Summer 2019.
12. Review of Xiaojia Hou, Negotiating Socialism in Rural China: Mao, Peasants, and Local Cadres in Shanxi 1949-1953 (Cornell, 2016). The China Quarterly Vol. 229 (March, 2017).
13. Review of Ka-ming Wu, Reinventing Chinese Tradition: The Cultural Politics of Late Socialism (University of Illinois Press, 2015). The China Journal, No.77.
14. Review of Walt Idema, The Metamorphosis of Tianxian Pei: Local Opera under the Revolution (1949-1956) (The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2014). The China Quarterly Vol. 255 (March 2016).
15. Review of Jeremy Brown, City Versus Countryside in Mao’s China: Negotiating the Divide (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Twentieth-Century China Vol. 41 No. 1 (January, 2016).
16. “Revisiting Anyuan: Identity, Narrative, and the Political Uses of Culture,” a review of Elizabeth J. Perry, Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition (University of California Press, 2012). The PRC History Review, Vol. 1 No. 2 (September, 2015).
17. Review of Elizabeth J. Perry, Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition (University of California Press, 2012). Twentieth-Century China (October, 2013).
18. Review of Andrew G. Walder, Fractured Rebellion: The Beijing Red Guard Movement (Harvard University Press, 2009). Journal of Cold War Studies Vol. 14 No. 3 (Summer, 2012).
19. Review of Timothy Cheek, ed., A Critical Introduction to Mao (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Twentieth-Century China (Winter, 2011).
Papers Read
March, 2021: “Northern Interrogators, Local Suspects: Language and Place in the Archives,” in the panel “Politics and State Building at the Grassroots: County Governance Practices in the 1950s” for the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, held online.
May, 2019: “Counterrevolution and Regime Change in Rural China,” for the symposium “Conjuring the Socialist Rural: Locality, Economy, and Imagination of Village Life in 1950s China,” held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
January, 2019: “Fifty Years of Fanshen: One Chinese Village and Mao’s Rural Revolution” in the panel “China by the Book: Cold War, Hot Debate” for the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, held in Chicago.
November, 2018: “Tyrants and Bandits: Crime and Punishment in Communist China, 1951,” for the conference “How Maoism Was Made: Analyzing Chinese Communism beyond the Totalitarian Lens, 1949-1965,” held at The British Academy, London.
May, 2018: “Drama from Beijing to Long Bow: Reforming Shanxi Stages in Socialist China,” for the workshop “Socialist Theaters of Reform,” held at Notre Dame.
March, 2018: “Reading Rural Revolution in Mao’s China” in the panel “Knowledge Production, Reading Practice, and Meaning Making in Mao’s China: Part II, Reading as Negotiated Practice” for the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, held in Washington D.C.
October, 2016: “The Communist Revolution and Land Reform” at the symposium “Rethinking Socialism and Reform in China,” hosted by the University of Texas, Austin.
June, 2016: “Revolutionary Narratives versus Local Realities in Sichuan Land Reform," in the panel "Negotiating Revolution: The Party and the People in the Early Mao Period" for the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies in Asia, held in Kyoto. Panel organizer and chair.
August, 2015: “The Politics of Professional Performance: Shanxi Drama Troupes in the 1950s” in the panel “Techniques and Technologies: Constructing Authority and Gender in 1950s PRC Performance” for the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Performance, held in Montreal.
March, 2015: “Seventeen Years Between Party and Audiences: Drama Troupes on the Eve of the Cultural Revolution” in the panel “Delivering the Message: Communist Propaganda and Revolutionary Agency” for the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, held in Chicago.
December, 2014: “Producing Peasants and Intellectuals: The Narration of Identity on Maoist Stages” at the conference “Organized Knowledge and State Socialism” hosted by the University of California Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies.
August, 2014: “Everyday Roles: Staging Identities in Mao’s “New China” in the panel for the conference “Modern China in Global Contexts, 1600-Present,” jointly hosted by the Historical Society for Twentieth-Century China and the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, held in Taipei, Taiwan.
March, 2013: “Directing the ‘Literature and Arts Weapon’: Center and Periphery in Early PRC Cultural Work” in the panel “Locality and Fluidity: China’s Socialism in the 1950s” for the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, held in San Diego.
March, 2013: “Rethinking Frontline Propaganda in China’s Revolutionary Wars” at the conference for the Chinese Military History Society, held in New Orleans.
October, 2012: “The Perils of ‘Peasant Culture’: Investigating Village Drama in the PRC” at the workshop “How to Write a People’s History of Maoist China,” held at the University of Vienna.
May, 2012: “Holding up Half the Stage: Female Dramatists in Revolutionary China” at the conference “Re-thinking State and Society in Modern Chinese History from the Archives,” held in honor of Katherine Bernhardt at UCLA.
March, 2012: “Under Direction: Female Actors on Mao’s Stage in the Early PRC” at the annual Association for Asian Studies meeting in Toronto. Also served as chair for the panel “Progress Revisited: China in the 1950s.”
July, 2011: “湖北省农村业余剧团的运动: 1949-1953” (The Amateur Drama Troupe Movement in Hubei: 1949-1953) at the 1950 年代的中国社会文化学术研讨会 (Academic Conference on Chinese Social Culture in the 1950s) in Shanghai. Paper presentation and discussion were conducted in Chinese.
March, 2011: “Acting for the State: Cultural Performance in Changzhi’s Longbow Village” at the annual Association for Asian Studies meeting in Honolulu. Served as organizer for the panel “Learning from Long Bow: Research and Reflections on One Chinese Village.”
March, 2009: “Performing Revolution: Drama Troupes in Land Reform” at the annual Association for Asian Studies meeting in Chicago. Served as organizer for the panel “Approaching Land Reform: Politics, Literature, and History in Revolutionary China.”
January, 2005: “Power, Persuasion, and Perversion: Gender Politics in Land Reform” at the Graduate Seminar on Contemporary China, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Invited Talks
July, 2024: “Bandits, Big Swords, and the PLA: Regime Change in Rural China” at the Portland Public Library, sponsored by the Northwest China Council.
November, 2023: “From Archive to History: Maoist Revolution and New China at the Grassroots” at the University of Pittsburg.
June, 2023: “Framed by the Archive: Maoist Revolution and the Case of Merchant Zha, 1949-1952” at Oxford University.
June, 2023: “Land Reform & Echoes of Counterrevolution in China” at King’s College London.
March, 2022: “History in the Making: Writing History in a Polarized Age” at the New Orleans Bookfest, Tulane University.
October, 2019: “Land Wars: A Book Talk” at the University of Texas, Austin.
March, 2018: “Between Fact and Fiction: Classification and Liberation in Mao’s Rural Revolution” at Washington University of St. Louis. Part of the TEA Lecture Series.
November, 2015: “Mao’s Cultural Army: Drama Troupes in China’s Rural Revolution” at the University of Toronto.
September, 2015: “Speaking Chinglish: China and the United States in the Fight against Japanese Imperialism” at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
January, 2015: “Mao’s Cultural Army: Drama Troupes in China’s Rural Revolution” at Carnegie Mellon University.
June, 2015: “管比不管好得多：群众政治运动与职业剧团, 1958-1964” (To Control is Better: Mass Political Campaigns and Professional Drama Troupes, 1958-1964) at Shanxi University (China). Paper and discussion were in Chinese.
December, 2012: “Cultural Work in the Early PRC” at the Free University of Berlin.
December, 2012: “Towards a Theory of Revolutionary Drama” at the University of Nuremburg-Erlangen (FAU).
April, 2011: “China Past and Present: Chinese History for Study Abroad Students” for the Tulane Base Beijing Program, Tulane University.
March, 2010: "Revolution in the Rear-View: Perspectives on China's Twentieth Century" at the Festival of International Books and Art at the University of Texas, Pan American.
February, 2010: “Performing Revolution: Drama Troupes and Political Culture in China’s Land Reform, 1946-1952” for the Chinese Culture and Commerce Program in conjunction with the Asian Studies Department, LSU.
COURSES TAUGHT AT TULANE
HISC 2010: History of China, Prehistory to 1800
HISC 2020: History of China, 1800 to the Present
HISC 3910: China and the United States: Historical Methods Seminar
HISC 6120: Women in China and Japan
HISC 6310: China in Revolution
HISC 6210: The PRC: China under Communism
HISC 6410: Empire and Rebellion in China
HISC 6610: Seminar on Modern Japan
HISC 6910: Crime and Punishment in China
HISC 6980: Imperialism in East Asia
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
2024-2025: Lurcy Grant Award, Tulane University
2023-2024: Lavin Bernick Faculty Grant, Tulane University
2019-2020: COR Research Fellowship, Tulane University
2019-2020: Lavin Bernick Faculty Grant, Tulane University
2019-2020: Tulane Japan Friend Award, Tulane University
2019, June: Lurcy Grant, Tulane School of Liberal Arts
2018-2019: CELT Faculty Mentored Undergraduate Research Award
2013-2014: ACLS American Research in the Humanities in China, Alternate
2012, December: Visiting Professorship at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
2005-2006: Peking University Harvard-Yenching Fellowship
2004-2005: National Security Education Program David L. Boren Fellowship
2003-2004: Fulbright-Hays Fellowship
2002-2003: Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
2002 Summer: UCLA Center for Chinese Studies Grant.
2001-2002: Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
2001, Summer: Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Department Committees
Fall 2021-Spring 2022: Chair, Search Committee (Modern Middle East Search)
Fall 2018- Spring 2021: Director of Undergraduate Studies
Fall 2015-Spring 2017: Scheduling Committee
Fall 2014-Spring 2018: Undergraduate Studies Committee
Spring 2014: Scheduling Committee
Spring 2014: Research and Travel Committee, Chair
Fall 2013: Undergraduate Studies Committee
Fall 2012: Graduate Studies Committee
Fall 2010-Spring 2012: Scheduling Committee
Fall 2010-Spring 2011: Undergraduate Studies Committee
University Committees
Fall 2018-Spring 2021: Chair, Library Committee
Fall 2018- Spring 2021: SLA Grievance Committee (Chair in 2020-2021)
Fall 2018-Spring 2019: Senator-at-Large, University Senate
Fall 2015-2018: Library Committee, SLA Representative
Fall 2015-Spring 2017: Graduate Honor Board, SLA Representative
Fall 2014: Tulane Fulbright Campus Committee
Fall 2009-Spring 2012: Gender and Sexuality Studies Program Executive Committee