PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES 

Since 2024       Karen and Patrick Walker Professor in History, UT-Austin

Since 2012       Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Since 2015       Distinguished Scholar, The Robert S. Strauss Center, UT-Austin

2015-2020 Director, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin

2009-2012 Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin               

2006-2009       Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin

2006         Promoted to Associate Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia

2001-2006 Assistant Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia

 EDUCATION

2000   Ph. D., History, University of California, Los Angeles

1987   M. A., History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

1984   B. A., History, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION AND INTEREST

Modern Chinese history; contemporary Chinese economy, society, and politics; imperial China; Chinese culture and religion; gender and family; agrarian studies; global history

BOOKS

Monographs in English

 The Master in Bondage: Factory Workers in China, 1949-2019.  Stanford University Press, 2023.

The Making of the Modern Chinese State, 1600-1950.  Routledge, 2020.

Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2013.  (Recipient of 2014 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award, University of Texas at Austin).

Village China under Socialism and Reform: A Micro-History, 1948-2008.  Stanford University Press, 2009. (Recipient of 2009 Cecil B. Currey Book Award, the Association of Third World Studies; 2010 Award for Academic Excellence, the Chinese Historians in the United States; 2010 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award, University of Texas at Austin).

Village Governance in North China, 1875-1936.  Stanford University Press, 2005.

Monographs in Chinese

 Zhongguo de xiandaihua: 1850 nian yilai de lishi guiji中国的现代化：1850年以来的历史轨迹.  Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2024

Xiandai zhongguo de xingcheng 现代中国的形成,1600-1949.  Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2022

Chonggou jindai Zhongguo: Zhongguo lishi xiezuo zhong de xiangxiang yu zhenshi 重构近代中国：中国历史写作中的想象与真实.  Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2013.

Xiangcun Zhongguo jishi: jitihua he gaige de weiguan licheng 乡村中国纪事：集体化和改革的微观历程. Beijing: Falu chubanshe, 2010.

Huabei cunzhi: wan Qing he minguo shiqi de guojia yu xiangcun 华北村治：晚清和民国时期的国家与乡村. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2008.

 Book Series

Editor of book series “Rethinking Socialism and Reform in China,” including the following volumes (ongoing):

Vol. 1, Mapping China: Peasant, Migrant Workers, and Informal Labor. Brill, 2016.

Vol. 2, Media and Society in Networked China. Brill, 2017.

Vol. 3, Residency, Class, and Community in the Contemporary Chinese City. Brill, 2018.

Vol. 4, Urban Chinese Governance, Contention, and Social Control in the New Millennium.  Brill, 2019.

Vol. 5, Factory Politics in the People’s Republic of China.  Brill, 2020.

Vol. 6, Ethnic Minorities in Socialist China: Development, Migration, Culture, and Identity.  Brill, 2022.

Vol. 7, On Rural Society and Village Governance in Contemporary China. Brill, 2023.

Editor of book series “Historical Studies of Contemporary China,” including the following volumes (ongoing):

Vol. 1, Selected Essays on the History of Contemporary China.  Brill, 2015.

Vol. 2, Agricultural Reform and Rural Transformation in China Since 1949.  Brill, 2016.

Vol. 3, Women, Family, and the Chinese Socialist State, 1950-2010.  Brill, 2020.

Vol. 4, Cultural History of Contemporary China.  Brill, 2023.

REFEREED ARTICLES

“From Unitary Plurality to Plural Unity: The Politics of Writing about the Beginnings of Chinese Civilization,” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 82, No. 4 (November 2023), pp. 594-619.

“From Modernization and Globalization to the Competitive Advantages of Great Powers: Theories on the Economic Growth of Nations and Implications for Understanding China’s Development Experiences” (从现代化和全球化到大国竞争优势：各国经济增长路径的理论建构与当代中国的发展历程), Tansuo Yu Zhengming 探索与争鸣, No. 4 (2023), pp. 32-46.

“Great Powers Competition and China’s Modernization” (大国竞争与中国的现代化), Xueshu Qianyan 学术前沿, No. 5 (2023), pp. 53-69.

 “State Transformation in Late-Qing China: An Analysis of the Triple Equilibrium Trap and Its Implications” (晚清国家转型的路径与成败——以三重均衡陷阱分析为中心), Wenshizhe (文史哲)，No. 3 (May 2022), pp. 36-50.

“The Myth of Nation-States and the Making of Modern China” (民族国家的迷思与现代中国的形成) ，Xueshu qianyan (学术前沿), No. 1 (January 2022), pp. 21-31. 

“From Unitary Plurality to Plural Unity: Changing Interpretative Frameworks on the Origins of Chinese Civilization” (从“一元多体”到“多元一体”——华夏文明起源的诠释架构辨析), Xuehai (学海), No. 1 (January 2022), pp. 21-38.

“In Search of Prehistorical China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese writings” (追迹华夏之初——古史书写中的想象与真实), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), No. 5 (September 2021), pp. 70-88.

“Centralized Regionalism: The Rise of Regional Fiscal-Military States in China, 1916-28,” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 55, No. 1 (2021), pp. 253-291.

“Beyond Masterhood and Democracy: Substantive Governance in State-owned Enterprises in Pre-Reform China” (超越“当家作主”与“扩大民主”——改革前三十年国营企业“实体治理”模式探析), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), No. 5 (2020), pp. 62-81. 

“Bring the Mao Era Back to History: An Exchange with Proponents of ‘Comparative Advantage’ on China’s Economic Development in 1949-1978” (历史地认识新中国前三十年的经济发展战略：与“比较优势”论者商榷), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), No. 5 (2019), pp. 53-62.

“The Formation and Nature of the Qing State in Global Perspective: An Analysis of Geopolitical Strategies and Fiscal Constitution” (全球视野下清朝国家的形成及性质问题), Historical Research (历史研究), No. 2 (2019), pp. 49-67.

“Centralized Localism and State-Building in Modern China: Revisiting the Warlord Politics in the Period of Beijing Government in Republican China” (集中化地方主义与近代国家建设：民国北京政府时期军阀政治的再认识), Studies of Modern Chinese History (近代史研究), No. 5 (2018), pp. 67-84.

“History-Writing in the Age of Globalization: The Master Naratives and Periodization of Modern Chinese History Revisited” (全球化时代的历史书写：再议中国近现代史的主叙事及分期问题), Twentieth-First Century (二十一世纪), No. 169 (2018), pp. 30-43.

“The Formation of the Qing State in Global Perspective: A Geopolitical and Fiscal Analysis,” Frontiers of History in China, vol. 13, no. 4 (2018), pp. 437-472.

“China’s Meta-Power: A Study of National Competitive Advantage in Social and Cultural Perspective” (中国的“元实力”：社会人文视角下的国家综合竞争优势分析), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), No. 4 (2018), pp. 143-167.

“Institutions and Work Incentives in Collective Farming in Maoist China,” Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 18, no. 1 (2018), pp. 67-86.

“Everyday Power Relations in State Firms in Socialist China: A Reexamination,” Modern China, vol. 43, no. 3 (May 2017), pp. 288-321. 

“How China Becomes a Modern State? A Macrohistorical Interpretation” (中国是怎样成为现代国家的？国家转型的宏观历史解读), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), no. 2 (2017), pp. 11-36.

“Worker Performance in State-Owned Factories in Maoist China: A Reinterpretation,” Modern China, vol. 42, no. 4 (2015), pp. 377-414.

“Rewriting modern Chinese history in the reform era: changing narratives and perspectives in Chinese historiography,” in Q. Edward Wang and Georg G. Iggers, eds., Marxist Historiographies: A Global Perspective, Routledge, 2015, pp. 87-103.

“Status Identity, Institutional Constraints, and Work Efficiency in State-Owned Enterprises in Maoist China” (回首“主人翁”时代：改革前三十年国营企业内部的身份认同、制度约束与劳动效率), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), no.3 (2015), pp. 13-33.

“Fiscal Cycles and the Low-Level Equilibrium under the Qing: A Comparative Analysis,” Social Sciences in China, vol. 36, no. 1 (2015), pp. 144-171.

“Between the State and the Village: Land Taxation and Substantive Governance in Traditional China,” in Philip Huang and Kathryn Bernhardt, eds., Research from Archival Case Records: Law, Society, and Culture in China, Brill, 2014, pp. 257-285.

“Rewriting Modern Chinese History in the Reform Era: Changing Narratives and Perspectives in Chinese historiography,” Storia della Storiografia, vol. 62, no. 2 (2012), pp. 89-104.

 “From Revolution to Modernization: The Paradigmatic Transition in Chinese Historiography in the Reform Era,” History and Theory, vol. 49, no. 3 (2010), pp. 336-360.

“Between Tradition and Revolution: Fan Wenlan and the Origins of the Marxist Historiography of Modern China,” Modern China, vol. 36, no. 3 (2010), pp. 269-301.

“Cultural Transition and Village Discourse in Twentieth-Century China,” in William L. Ascher and John M. Heffron, eds, Cultural Change and Persistence: New Perspectives on Development, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp. 113-132.

 “Substantive governance in traditional China: land taxation in Huailu county” (傳統中國的實體治理：以獲鹿縣的田賦徵收為例), in Philip Huang ed., Research from archival case records: law, society, and culture in China (從訴訟檔案出發：中國的法律、社會與文化), Beijing: Falu chubanshe, 2009, pp. 203-232.

“Confrontation and Conciliation under the Socialist State: Peasant Resistance to Agricultural Collectivization in China in the 1950s,” Twentieth-Century China, vol. 33, no. 2 (2008), pp. 73-100.

“The First Encounter: Peasant Resistance to State Control of Grain in East China in the Mid-1950s,” The China Quarterly, no. 185 (2006), pp. 145-162.

“Everyday Strategies for Team Farming in Collective-era China: Evidence from Qin Village,” The China Journal, no. 54 (2005), pp. 79-98.

“Life Course, Labor Remuneration, and Gender Inequality in a Chinese Agrarian Collective,” The Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 32, no. 2 (2005), pp. 277-303.

“Family Life Cycle and Peasant Income in Socialist China: Evidence From Qin Village,” The Journal of Family History, vol. 30, no. 1 (2005), pp. 121-138.

“Power, Discourse, and Legitimacy in North China Villages: Disputes Over the Village Head Office in Huailu County in the 1910s and 1920s,” Twentieth Century China, vol. 28, no. 2 (2003), pp. 73-110.

“Village Regulations at Work: Local Taxation in Huailu County, 1900-1936,” Modern China, vol. 26, no. 1 (2000), pp. 79-109.

“The pattern of rural governance in traditional China: the case of Huailu county, Hebei province” (中國鄉村治理之傳統型式), Rural China (中國鄉村研究), vol. 1 (2003), pp. 64-111. 

“The xiangdi system in North China villages: 1875-1936” 晚(清及民國時期華北村莊中的鄉地制), Historical Research (歷史研究), no.6 (2001), pp. 75-88.

“Discourse and power in North China villages in the early twentieth century” (二十世紀早期華北鄉村的話語與權力), Twenty-first century (二十一世紀), no. 55 (1999), pp. 33-44.                       

BOOK REVIEWS

Brian DeMare, Tiger, Tyrant, Bandit, Businessman: Echoes of Counterrevolution from New China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022.  The China Journal, no. 90: 240-243 (2023).

Sheng, Muzhen 盛慕真 (Michael Sheng), Hongtaiyang de zhuore guanghui: Mao Zedong yu Zhongguo wuling niandai zhengzhi 紅太陽的灼熱光輝：毛澤東與中國五〇年代政治 (The scorching red sun: Mao Zedong and Chinese politics in the 1950s).  The China Journal,no. 89 (2023), pp. 242-243.

Bin Xu, Chairman Mao’s Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China.  Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 81, no. 2 (2022), pp. 401-403.

Dong Guoqiang and Andrew Walder, A Decade of Upheaval: The Cultural Revolution in Rural China.  The China Journal vol. 87, no. 1 (2022).

Klaus Mühlhahn, Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping.  The Historian, vol. 82, no. 1 (2020), pp. 94-95.

Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, eds., The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power.  The Historian, vol. 80, no. 4 (2018), pp. 840-841l.

Ralph A. Thaxton, Force and Contention in Contemporary China: Memory and Resistance in the Long Shadow of the Catastrophic Past.  The China Journal, no. 78 (2017), pp. 186-188.

Joseph Esherick, Ancestral Leaves: A Family Journey through Chinese History.  Social History, vol. 37, no. 3 (2012), pp. 349-350.

Ellen Oxfeld, Drink Water, but Remember the Source.  The Chinese Historical Review, vol. 18, no. 1 (2011), pp. 86-89.

Hao Zhidong and Hao Zhigang, Xijiao cun: yige Huabei nongzhuang de lishi bianqian (Xijiao village: historical changes in a North China village).  The China Journal, no. 66 (2011), pp. 185-187.

Xiaorong Han, Chinese Discourses on the Peasant, 1900-1949.  The Chinese Historical Review, vol. 13, no. 2 (2006), pp. 392-395.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

“The Modernization of Great Powers: a Preliminary Discussion” (浅议大国的现代化), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), No. 307 (January 2023), pp. 38-43.

“From Missouri to Texas: My Twenty-Year Teaching Careers in the United States” (从密苏里到德克萨斯——在美国从教二十年漫忆), in Yao Ping and Wang Xi (eds), Teaching History in the United States (在美国教历史), Beijing: Peking University Press, 2022, pp. 397-408.

“Why Did the Qing Dynasty’s Maritime Defense Strategy Fail?” (清朝的千里海防为何溃败), Yanhuang Chunqiu (炎黄春秋), No. 8 (2022), pp. 78-82.

“Revolution, Modernization, or State Formation” (革命·现代化·国家形成), Yunnan daxue xuebao (云南大学学报), vol. 21, no. 4 (June 2022), pp. 95-100.

“How China Will Benefit from a Trade War with America,” The National Interest (https://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-china-will-benefit-americas-trade-war-25873).

“The Study of Rural Chinese Society in Microhistorical Perspective” (谈谈中国乡村社会研究的微观史视角), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), No. 275 (May 2017), pp. 14-15.

“Land Reform and Political Life in Rural Communities in the Mao Era” (土地改革与毛泽东时代的乡村社会政治生活), Kaifang shidai (开放时代), No. 271 (January 2017), pp. 16-20.

(Co-authored with Thomas DuBois)“Chinese Agriculture and Rural Development  Reexamined: Western and Chinese Perspectives,” in Thomas DuBois and Huaiyin Li, eds,. Agricultural Reform and Rural Transformation in China since 1949 (Brill 2016), pp. 1-21.

“Mao Zedong shidai guoying qiye zhigong de diwei, renting he laodong jijixin” (State-owned enterprise workers in the Mao era: social status, identity, and work incentives), Zhongguo shehui kexue (Social sciences in China), no. 1 (2015), pp. 96-107.

“Mao Zedong shidai guoying qiye zhigong de diwei, renting he laodong jijixing” (Workers’ status, identity, and work incentives in state-owned enterprises of Maoist China), in Jiceng zhili: lishi xushi yu dangxia shijian (Grassroots governance: historical narrative and present-day practice) (Kaifeng: Henan University, 2014), pp. 1-28.

“Toward a Within-time and Open-ended History of Modern China,” in ECNU and CHUS eds., Chinese History in a Global World: New Approaches to Chinese Historical Studies, Shanghai: East China Normal University, 2014, pp. 103-122.

“In Search of Territorial Integrity: China and the Cairo Conference of 1943 in Retrospect,” in Guo Xiangang ed., Papers of the International Conference Commemorating the 70^th Anniversary of the Cairo Declaration, Beijing: World Affairs Press, 2013, pp. 33-42.

“State-Building and Everyday Governance under the Qing: A Comparative Analysis,” in Collected Papers on the Comparative Studies on State, Law, and Economic-Social Changes in China and England, Kaifeng: Henan University, 2013, pp. 7-43.

“Reconstructing Master Narratives in the Historiography of Modern China,” in Zhongguo renmin daxue Qingshi yanjiusuo (The Institute of Qing History, the Renmin University of China), Qingdi sunwei yu Minguo zhaojian yibai zhounian guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (Collection of articles contributed to the International Symposium on the 100^th Anniversary of the Fall of the Qing and the Founding of the Republic of China), Beijing: Zhongguo Renmin Daxue, 2012, pp. 115-125.

“Chongxin renshi xiangcun Zhongguo: jian tan wo de zhixue jingli” (Rediscovering rural China, with a postscript on my academic career), in Wang Xi and Yao Ping, eds. Zai Meiguo faxian Zhongguo lishi (Discovering history in the United States), Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2010, pp. 465-485.

“Zhongguo wenhua chuantong yu Zhongguo zaoqi xiandaihua” (Chinese cultural tradition and China’s early modernization), in Luo Rongqu ed., Geguo xiandaihua bijiao yanjiu (Modernization of nations: a comparative study). Xi’an: Shaanxi renmin chubanshe, 1993.

“Zhongguo xiandaihua sixiang de zaoqi licheng” (The evolution of Chinese perceptions of modernization: the early stage), Beijing daxue xuebao (Journal of Beijing University), no. 2, 1993.

“Xiandaihua-fazhan lilun de Zhongguohua wenti chutan” (Towards the Sinification of modern development theories), Shehui kexue yanjiu (Social sciences research), no. 6, 1993.

“Zhongguo jingyan yu xiandaihua lilun de fanshi chuangxin” (The Chinese experience and modernization theories: paradigmatic implications), Shixue lilun yanjiu (Historiography Quarterly), no. 2, 1993.

“Ping xiandaihua-fazhan lilun de liangda duili fanxing” (Contrasting paradigms in the studies of modern development: a critical review), Jiangsu shehui kexue (Social sciences in Jiangsu), no. 2, 1993.

“Ruxue chuantong yu Zhang Jian de yisheng” (Confucian tradition and industrialism: the life of Zhang Jian, 1853-1926), Xuehai, no. 1, 1992.

“Zhengzhi xiandaihua: xianxingzhe yu houlaizhe zhijian de bijiao” (Political modernization: a comparison between first-comers and latecomers), Jianghai xuekai (Jianghai academic journal), no. 5, 1989.

“Guowai zhengzhi xiandaihua yanjiu zhong de bijiao shixue liupai” (The "comparative history" approach in the studies of political development), Zhengzhixue yanjiu (Journal of political science), no. 6, 1988.

“Zhongguo zhengzhi xiandaihua de lishi toushi” (China’s political modernization in historical perspective), Jianghai xuekan (Jianghai academic journal), no. 5, 1987.

“Xiandaihua yu chuantong: cong duili dao shentou” (Beyond tradition and modernity: a critical review of Western studies on China’s modernization), Shehui kexue pinglun (Social sciences review), no. 11, 1986.