I. EDUCATION

PhD   1991  University of California, Los Angles     History 

MA   1988   University of California, Los Angeles    History

       1986  Sophia University, Japan             Comparative Culture

MA   1981* Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences    History (*Terminal degree in the PRC prior to 1983)

BA     1979      East China Normal University    History

II. EMPLOYMENT

2001-present Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology                            

1996-2001   Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology                   

1994-1996   Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology                    

1991-1994   Assistant Professor, State University of New York,Oswego               

1990-1991   Teaching Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles              

1981-1986   Assistant Research Fellow, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences          

Visiting positions

2017   Fellow/Guest of Director, Humboldt University, Berlin                

2013-2014 William Bentinck-Smith Fellow, Harvard University                   

2012  Senior visiting fellow, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, ROC                

2006 Senior visiting scholar, Tsinghua University                                 

2000-2001 Research Fellow, National University of Singapore                      

1993-1994 Visiting Scholar, East China Normal University

Honorary position

1995-2014  Specially-appointed Research Professor, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences                 

Administrative responsibilities

2021-23 Interim Chair, School of History and Sociology, Georgia Tech           

2017-present Director, China Research Center (Atlanta)                             

2006-2007 &2019-2021     Chair, Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee

                        Ivan Allen College, Georgia Tech      

2019-2020   Georgia Tech Provost’s Advisory Committee          

2004-2008  Director of Graduate Studies, School of History, Technology, and Society, Georgia Tech                

1999-2001  President, Chinese Historians in the United States (CHU), affiliated with the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Association of Asian Studies (AAS)                          

III. FIELDS OF STUDY

Asian studies, Chinese socioeconomic history, urban studies, material culture, subaltern studies

IV. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books

Shanghai Taiji: The Art of Being Ruled in Mao’ China. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Press, 2023.

Award-winning Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century.  xv, 456 pp., illustrations, photographs, drawings, appendixes, bibliography, index. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999 (Paperback 2004; Chinese editions 2005, revised second edition, 2018).

Winner of the Best Book Award in Non-North American Urban History, the Urban History Association, 2001.

Award-winning Street Criers: A Cultural History of Chinese Beggars. xiv, 269 pp., illustrations, photographs, maps, drawings, appendixes, bibliography, index. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005.

Winner of the Cecil B. Currey Best Book Award, the Association of Third World Studies, USA, 2006. 

Korean translation published by Sungkyunkwan University Press (South Korea), 2009. Enlarged Chinese version published by Social Sciences Academic Press (Beijing), 2012.

Award-winning The Birth of a Republic: Francis Stafford’s Photographs of China’s 1911 Revolution and Beyond. x, 210 pp, maps, photographs, bibliography, index.  Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010. Winner of the 2010 Honor for Academic Excellence by the Chinese Historians in the United States, affiliate of the American Historical Association.

China in Family Photographs: A Peoples History of Revolution and Everyday Life (Bridge21 Publications (with Ed Krebs). Illustrations, map, 355 pages. Encino, CA: Bridge21 Publications, 2018.

Books published in Chinese:

Pathmakers: Conversations with Renowned Historians, co-edited with Wang Xi and Yao Ping, and contributed introduction and three chapters in Chinese, 290 pages. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2015.

Time, Space, and Hierarchy: The Subculture of Chinese Mendicants (Shikong shangxia: Zhongguo de qigai ciwenhua). 293 pp. Taipei: Daw Shiang Publishing, 2012.   

Street Criers: A Cultural History of Chinese Mendicants (Jiaojiezhe: Zhongguo qigai wenhuashi). Enlarged Chinese version, 310 pages. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2012.

A Man of Two Worlds: The Life of Sir Robert Hart, 1835-1911 (Zhongguo diyi keqing: Lubin Hede zhuan, 1835-1911). 250 pp, drawings, 82 illustrations, bibliography. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2009.

Modernity and Cultural Identity in Taiwan (Taiwan de xiandaihua he wenhua rentong), ed. xv, 301 pp, 12 illustrations, 9 tables. River Edge, NJ: Global Publishing, 2001.

The History of Shanghai (Shanghai shi), co-author. 1,073 pages, 82 illustrations, 6 appendixes. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1989.

 A Biography of Hart (Hede zhuan). 312 pages, 24 illustrations. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1986.

Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

“Yasu Gongshang 雅俗共赏 (Appreciated by All): Richard J. Smith’s Ardent Engagement with Chinese Culture,” The Chinese Historical Review, 30:1 (May 2023): 103-125.

“An Intrepid Pioneer: Sherman Cochran and Chinese Business History,” The Chinese Historical Review, 28:2 (December 2021): 166-190.

“A Perpetual Search: Mary Brown Bullock and American Philanthropy and Education in China,” The Chinese Historical Review, 28:1 (June 2021): 68-82.

“More than Half the Sky: Women and Urban Neighborhood Workshops in China, 1958-1978,” The China Quarterly, 243 (September 2020): 757-779.

“Versatility, Interdisciplinarity, and Academic Collaboration: Paul Pickowicz’s Insights on Chinese Studies,” The Chinese Historical Review, 27:1 (May 2020): 50-66.

“All Rivers Flow into the Sea: The Making of China’s Most Cosmopolitan City,” in Alan Baumler, ed., Routledge Handbook of Revolutionary China (New York: Routledge, 2020), 274-285.

“Bourgeois Comfort under Proletarian Dictatorship: Home Life of Chinese Capitalists before the Cultural Revolution,” Journal of Social History (Oxford University Press), vol. 52, Issue 1 (August 2018): 74–100.

“Shanghai Flora: The Politics of Urban Greening in Maoist China,” Urban History (Cambridge University Press), vol. 45, issue 4 (November 2018): 660-681.

“Between History and Memory: A Conversation with Paul A. Cohen,” The Chinese Historical Review, vol.23, no.1 (May 2016): 70-78. 

“The Tastes of Chairman Mao: The Quotidian as Statecraft in the Great Leap Forward and Its Aftermath,” Modern China, vol. 41, no.5 (September 2015): 539–572.

“Narrating the Past to Interpret the Present: A Conversation with Elizabeth J. Perry,” Chinese Historical Review, vol. 22, no. 2 (November 2015): 160-173.

“A Blessing in Disguise: Nanxun and China’s Small Town Heritage,” in Frontiers of History in China, vol. 8, no.4 (2013): 434-454.

“Small-Town China: A Historical Perspective on Rural-Urban Relations,” in Martin King Whyte, ed., One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 29-54.

“A Passion for Wartime Liberalism: A Conversation with John Israel,” in Chinese Historical Review, vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 90-103. 

“Mirrored Reflections: Place Identity Formation in Taipei and Shanghai” (co-authored with Jennifer Rudolph), in John R. Logan (ed.), Urban China in Transition (Blackwell Publishing, 2008), 161-181.

“Bridging the Pacific: Three Generations of Chinese Historians in the United States, 1945-2008,” in Chinese Historical Review, vol. 15, no. 1 (May 2008): 131-136. 

“A Double-sided Mirror: On Paul Cohen’s Discovering History in China,” part of the CHR special forum “Reflections on Paul A. Cohen’s Contribution to Chinese Historical Studies.” Chinese Historical Review, vol. 14, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 180-211.

 “Out of the Ordinary: Implications of Material Culture and Daily Life in China,” in Madeleine Dong and Joshua Goldstein (eds.), Everyday Modernity in China (Seattle: The University of Washington Press, 2006), 22-51.

 “Shanghai,” in John J. McCusker (ed.), History of World Trade since 1450 (Oxford: Macmillan Reference Books, 2005), vol. 2: 654-655.

“Confucianism and Science: A Conversation with Benjamin A. Elman.” The Chinese Historical Review, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 1-24.

“The Art of History: A Conversation with Jonathan Spence.” The Chinese Historical Review, vol. 11, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 1-22. 

“Shanghai Rising: Resurgence of China’s New York City?” in Aimin Chen et al. (eds.), Urban Transformation in China  (Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2004), 250-265.

“Significance of the Insignificant: Reconstructing the Daily Life of the Common People in China.” China: An International Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 144-159.

“Nostalgia for the Future: The Resurgence of an Alienated Culture in China.” Pacific Affairs, vol. 75, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 169-186.

“Urban Superiority, Modernity, and Local Identity,” in David Faure and Tao Tao Liu (eds.), Town and Country in China: Identity and Perception (New York: Palgrave Publishers, 2002), 126-144. 

“Becoming Urban: Mendicancy and Vagrants in Modern Shanghai.” Journal of Social History, vol. 33, no. 1 (Fall 1999): 7-36.

 “‘The Seventy-two Tenants’: Residence and Commerce in Shanghai’s Shikumen Houses, 1872-1951,” in Sherman Cochran (ed.), Inventing Nanjing Road: Commercial Culture in Shanghai, 1900-1945 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell East Asia Series, 1999), 133-184. 

“Creating Urban Outcasts: Shantytowns in Shanghai, 1920-1950,” Journal of Urban History, vol. 21, no.  5 (1995): 563-596.

 “Away From Nanking Road: Small Stores and Neighborhood Life in Modern Shanghai.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 54, no. 1 (1995): 92-123.

  “Arrested Development: Cotton and Cotton Markets in Shanghai, 1350-1843.” Modern China, vol. 18, no. 4 (1992): 468-499.

Articles Published in Chinese (abridged list)

“Carrying Out and Advancing the Humanities in a Technological Institute,” in Yao Ping and Wang Xi, eds, Teaching History in America: From Students to Professors (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2022), 167-182.

“On the Western Trend of ‘Idealizing China’ and Its Historical Continuity,” China Studies Quarterly, no. 6 (November 2015): 17-32.

 “Xifang chengshi shi yanjiu de fancho” (Urban history as a field in the West), in Wang Xi, ed., Zhongguo he shijie lishi shang de Chongqing (Chongqing in historical China and world) (Chongqing: Chongqing University Press, 2013), 16-33.

“Zhongguo conglai jiushi yige kanfang de guojia ma? Zailun Xifang changsheng Zhongguo” (Has China always been an open nation? Reexamining the trend of “Western Refurbishment of China”), in Tsinghua Journal of Philosophy and Social Sciences, v.27, no.3 (June 2012): 7-17.

“Mao zhuxi mao shang le yi ge qigai: Zhonggong jianzheng hou di yi chang quanguo xing qingli yishi xingtai de zhengzhi yundong” (Chairman Mao picked on a beggar: the first ideology-based national campaign since the communist takeover), in 21st Century International Review (Hong Kong) 4 (October 2011): 81-87.

“Zhongguo wenhua zhong de xiao chengzhen qingjie ji qi xiandai yiyi” (The small-town mentality and its significance in modern China), in Journal of Modern Chinese History 7 (December 2010): 1-19.

“Xifang changsheng Zhongguo: Meiguo Zhongguo xue yanjiu zhong de lishi fan’an wenti” (The West refurbishes China: Issues concerning revisionist views in America’s study of Chinese history), in Wang Xi and Yao Ping (eds.), Discovering History in America (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2010), 221-238.

“Feicheng feixiang, yicheng yixiang, bancheng banxiang: lun Zhongguo chengxiang guanxi zhong de xiao chengzhen” (Neither city nor country, both city and country, half city and half city: on small towns in China’s urban-rural relations), in Shilin (Historical Review), no. 115 (October 2009): 1-10. 

“Meiguo de Zhongguo chengshi shi yanjiu” (The historiography of Chinese urban history in the United States), in Tsing-Hua Journal of Philosophy and Social Sciences (published by Tsing-Hua University, Beijing), vol. 23, no. 1 (January 2008): 115-126.  Reprinted in Xinhua wenzhai (Xinhua digest) and in Li Xiaobing and Tian Xiansheng (eds.), New Historiography in the Contemporary West (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 2008), 24-48.

“Shikong shangxia: guanyu Zhongguo qigai wenhua shi wenti de ruogan tantao” (Time, space, upper, and lower: issues concerning the cultural history of Chinese beggars), in Jiang Jin (ed.), Popular Culture of the Modern Metropolis (Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2008), 113-125.

“Lishisuo de nei dong lou” (The building of the Institute of History), in The Memoirs of the Alumna and Alumni of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 2008), 38-43.

“Zhongguo qigai wenhua shi daolun” (An introduction to Chinses beggars' culture). New Social History, vol.3 (August 2006):56-68.

“Shi Jingqian lun shi” (Jonathan Spence on history). Shilin, no. 2 (March 2005): 1-7.

“Shanghai chengshi de wenhua rentong ji qi kaifang yu rongna” (The cultural identity, openness, and inclusiveness of Shanghai). Xueshu yuekan (Academic monthly), no. 7 (July 2004): 18-22. 

“Shidai, zhengzhi, xueshu: liang an san di shixue sanlun” (Time, politics, and the academia: A comparative analysis of the historiography in the United States, the PRC, and Taiwan,” in Zhang Jie et al. (eds.), Taiwan in the 21 Century (New York: Global Publishing, 2000), 197-216.

“Zhongguo jindai chengshi shi yanjiu de ruogan lilun wenti” (Theoretical issues concerning modern Chinese urban history), in Zhang Zhongli (ed.), Zhongguo jindai chengshi qiye, shehui, kongjian (Entrepreneurship, society, and public space in modern Chinese cities) (Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Science Press, 1998), 392-410.

“Ai er man jiqi Qing dai xueshushi yanjiu” (Elman and Qing intellectual history). Qingshi yanjiu tongxun, no. 32 (June 1990): 35-41.

“Xifang wuzhi wenming zai jindai Shanghai” (Western material culture in modern Shanghai), in Tang Zhengchang (ed.), Shanghai shi yanjiu (Research on the history of Shanghai) (Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 1988), vol. 2: 28-40.

“Guangchang xuehui zazhi” (On Guangchang xuehui zazhi),  in Xinhai gemin shiqi qikan jieshao (An introduction and guide to periodicals published during the 1911 revolution) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987), vol. 5: 126-138. 

“Kaifu chuqi de Shanghai” (Shanghai in the early days as a treaty port). Shilin, vol. 1, no. 1 (December 1986): 38-51.

“Zhonghua jiaoyujie” (On Zhonghua jiaoyujie),” in Xinhai gemin shiqi qikan jieshao (An introduction and guide to periodicals published during the 1911 revolution) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), vol. 4: 44-57.  

 “Qunxuehui zazu” (On Qunxuehui zazu), in Xinhai gemin shiqi qikan jieshao (An introduction and guide to periodicals published during the 1911 revolution) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985),

vol. 3: 225-233.

“A mei shi de hao zai Shanghai” (Lord Amherst in Shanghai), in Dang’an yu lishi (Archives and History), vol. 2, no. 3 (September 1985): 18-32.

“Shanghai zujie Huaren canzheng yundong shulun” (On the Chinese political participation in Shanghai’s foreign concessions). Social Sciences (May 1984), no. 4: 22-39. 

* This article received an award for Best Publications issued by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in 1985.

“Lun Shanghai gongbuju yu Beijing gongshituan de maodun” (On the conflicts between the Shanghai Municipal Council and the diplomatic envoys accredited to Beijing), in Shanghai shi yanjiu (Research on the history of Shanghai) (Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 1984), vol. 1: 146-170.

“Shanghai tudi zhangcheng yanjiu” (On the Shanghai Land Regulations), in Zhongguo difangzhi (ed.), An Anthology of the Chinese Local History and Records (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984), 129-158.

“Zhang Xuecheng (1738-1801) de fangzhixue sixiang” (Zhang Xuecheng’s theory on the study of local gazetteers). Qingnian shixue (Young historians), vol.  9 (1982): 32-38.

Other Publications (abridged list)

“A Century of Struggle for a Modern Nation: The May Fourth Movement,” in US-China Review, vol. XLIII, no.1 (Winter 2019): 14-15.

“Two Chinas: The Struggle for Dismantling the Rural-Urban Apartheid.” Vanguardia Dossier, a Spanish quarterly, no. 40 (July-September, 2011): 32-37.

“Shanghai,” in David Pong, ed., Encyclopedia of Modern China (Gale Cengage, 2009), vol. 3: 373-378.

“Beggar,” in David Pong, ed., Encyclopedia of Modern China (Gale Cengage, 2009), vol. 1: 137-139.

“From Elite to the Common People: The Downward Trend in the Studies of Chinese Urban History in the United States.” Frontiers of History in China, vol. 3, no. 4 (December 2008): 527-532.

“Foreword” for Jen Green, Countries of the World: China (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006), 4-5.

“Cotton and Cotton Goods in Shanghai, 1600-1843,” in Chinese Historians, vol.4, no.1 (May 1990): 10-33.