Xu Jilin

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisXu.

Xu Jilin(born 1957;Chinese:Hứa kỷ lâm;pinyin:Xú Jìlín) is a Chinese historian. He is a professor of history atEast China Normal University,and specializes in 20th centuryChinese intellectual history.

Early life

Born in 1957 inShanghai,Xu Jilin dropped out of school and became a librarian because of theCultural Revolution.As time passed, he eventually decided to pursue further education after passingNational Higher Education Entrance Examination.He studied policy atEast China Normal University.

Career

In 1982 Xu graduated with a Bachelor's degree. He became a university lecturer. From 1997 to 2003, Xu Jilin traveled to three universities as a visiting professor and visiting scholar: theHarvard–Yenching Institute,theNational University of Singapore,and theUniversity of Tokyo.In 2003, he returned to the East China Normal University where he continued his career.

Xu Jilin serves on the editorial board of the journalTwenty-First Century Bimonthly,published by Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Views

Xu is aliberalwho disavows what he terms the political extremes. He believes in "small government, big society",and criticized thestatist,conservativeintellectual current of theChinese New Left.

Selected works in English

• Xu, Jilin (2000)."The Fate of an Enlightenment: Twenty Years in the Chinese Intellectual Sphere (1978–98)"(PDF).East Asian History(20). Translated by Barmé, Geremie R.; Davies, Gloria: 169–186.
• ——— (2004)."What Future for Public Intellectuals?: The specialisation of knowledge, the commercialisation of culture and the emergence of post-modernism characterise China in the 1990s".China Perspectives(52). Translated by Black, Michael: 18–30.
• ——— (2012). "Social Darwinism in modern China".Journal of Modern Chinese History.6(2): 182–197.doi:10.1080/17535654.2012.718605.
• ——— (2018).Rethinking China's Rise: A Liberal Critique.Translated by Ownby, David. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1108470759.