Deng Xiaonan

Deng Xiaonan (born 1950) is a professor of history at Peking University's Centre for Research on Ancient Chinese History.^[1] She is known for her research on Song history, Ancient Chinese bureaucratic systems and female history of the Tang and Song.^[2]

Early Life

Deng was born in 1950 in Beijing. Her father is the noted Chinese academic Deng Guangming.^[3]

Career

Education

Deng completed her undergraduate degree in Chinese History at Peking University in 1982. She graduated from her Master's in 1985 from the same institution.^[1]

Academia

Deng became a lecturer in 1987. She became an assistant professor in 1991. She was made a professor in 1997.^[1]

Deng ran a 16 episode open-access class online with Yan Buke. Deng led the classes on Ancient Chinese governance and the Silk Road. As of 2016, the open class has had over 2,500 participants.^[4]

She attended Harvard University as a Coordinate Research Scholar specialising in Chinese History at the Harvard-Yenching Institute in 2014.^[5]

Deng has given lectures on women's development history and gender at Osaka City University, Academia Sinica in Taiwan and a United Nations workshop.^[6]

Fan Meizhong Incident

In 2008, a post by Fan Meizhong was spread among netizens prompting discussion. Fan wrote a description of several members of Peking University's history faculty, including Deng. He described Deng as a woman who, "never dresses up [and] completely lacks any feminine tenderness." He also lamented that, despite being Deng Guangming's daughter, she, "nevertheless seems to be nothing more than this - a woman."^[7] Fan had already received attention for publishing a blog post on why he abandoned his school pupils during the Sichuan earthquake earlier in 2008.^[8]

Selected Works

• Xiaonan Deng and Christian Lamouroux. "The "Ancestors' Family Instructions": Authority and Sovereignty in Song China." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, no. 35 (2005): 79-97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23496184.

• Xiaonan Deng and Christian Lamouroux. «Les "règles familiales des ancêtres". Autorité impériale et gouvernement dans la Chine médiévale». Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 3/2004 (59e année), p. 491-518.

• Xiaonan Deng. "Women in Turfan during the Sixth to Eighth Centuries: A Look at Their Activities Outside the Home." The Journal of Asian Studies 58, no. 1 (1999): 85-103. doi:10.2307/2658390.

References