Ning Zhang

Position:

From 2022 to 2024, I was a Newton International Fellow at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and a College Advisor at St Antony’s College. Currently, I am a research associate at the Faculty of AMES.

Education Background:

I hold a PhD in Modern Chinese History from Fudan University (Sep. 2017–Jan. 2022), where my dissertation examined the relationships between sent-down youth, local peasants, and rural cadres in Jiangxi Province (1968–1980). Prior to this, I earned a Master’s degree in Modern Chinese History from Nanjing University (Sep. 2011–Jul. 2014), with a thesis on Yen His-shan’s political choices during the Northern Expedition (1924–1927). I completed my undergraduate studies at Lanzhou University (Sep. 2007–Jul. 2011), graduating with a thesis on the livelihood of the offspring of the Eight Banner Manchu Clan after the 1911 Revolution (1912–1924).

Current Projects: 

My current project, funded by the British Academy from 2022 to 2024, is titled “Chinese Sent-Down Youth and the Communist Movement in Burma (1968-1989).” This book-length study explores the lived experiences of Chinese volunteers in Burma who supported the Burmese Communist Party against the Burmese government during the years 1968 to 1989. The project sheds light on lesser-known aspects of “international communism” and its implications in Southeast Asia.

Research interests:

The history of everyday life and how people coped with continuous revolution or a rapidly changing society has long been a central focus of my research. My earlier studies, spanning the Late Qing to the Republican Era, explored topics such as the experiences of marginal party members in the early history of the Chinese Communist Party and Guomindang, and the life stories of ordinary soldiers during the War of Resistance Against Japan. Currently, my research centres on social and political history of Mao era, with a particular focus on Global Maoism, the Cultural Revolution, the Down to the Countryside Movement, and the collectivization of agriculture and the People’s Communes.

Selected publications:

Monograph: Yen Hsi-shan in 1927, Taipei: Mulan Culture Co., Ltd, 2015. 《1927年閻錫山易幟研究》，臺北：木蘭文化出版社，2015.

Research papers:

‘Fighting for International Communism? Two Beijing Red Guards in Burma,’ The Chinese Historical Review, 2024, Vol. 31, Issue 2 (2024), pp. 147-169. ttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1547402X.2024.2422307?src=exp-la

Forthcoming: ‘The Death of Wang Xiaomei from the Perspective of Emotion History’情感史視野下的“可教子女”王效梅之死, Contemporary Chinese History Studies (Volume 5) edited by the Research Centre for Contemporary Chinese History, East China Normal University.

‘Revolution, Work Points and Re-education: Yunzhuang Village in Jiangxi Province During the Sent-Down Youth Movement’ 革命、工分與再教育：上山下鄉運動時期江西雲莊村的案例, Twenty-First Century (Hong Kong), October 2021, pp. 82-101.

Co-authored with Jin Guangyao. ‘Comrades in all Rural Areas should Welcome the Sent–Down Youth: Investigation on the Sent–Down Youth’s Resettlement in Jiangxi Province’ 各地農村的同志應當歡迎他們去：江西省接受上海知青的考察, REMEMBERANCE, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2022), pp. 30-38; Vol.4, No. 3 (2022), pp. 31-40.

‘Some Thoughts on Research on the History of Sent–Down Youth Movement through the Prism of Peasants’ 對以農民視角為切入點的知青史研究的思考, CPC History Studies, No.9 (2018), pp. 61-64.

Conference Papers:

• “The ‘Work-Point Argument’ in a Revolutionary Discourse: An Examination Centred on a Shanghai Sent-Down Youth Group in Jiangxi,” “Collecting, Collating and Employing Unofficial Materials in Contemporary China History”, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 17-18 October 2020, pp.157-179.
• “The Death of One Re-Educable Youth: A Case Study from the Perspective of Oral History”, 2019 Annual Conference of Chinese Sociology, “Contemporary China Studies: Oral History, Collective Memory and Social Identity”, Kunming, China, 12-14 July 2019, pp.31-39.