Department of History

Varner Hall, Room 415
371 Varner Dr.
Rochester, MI 48309-4482
(location map)
(248) 370-3510
fax: (248) 370-3528

Yan Li

Photo of Yan Li

Title: Associate Professor
Office: 411 Varner Hall
Phone: (248) 370-3536
Fax: (248) 370-3528
Email: [email protected]

Education:
Ph.D., Northeastern University
M.A., Beijing Normal University

Major Fields:
Modern China, Sino-Soviet Relations, East Asia

Biography:
Yan Li received her Ph.D. in World History from Northeastern University, with a concentration in Modern China. Her first book China's Soviet Dream: Propaganda, Culture, and Popular Imagination examines China’s cultural interactions with the Soviet Union and the impact of Soviet culture on Maoist China. She is interested in cultural history, women and gender studies, and cinema studies related to the period of modern China. She teaches introductory courses on Chinese history and culture, as well as upper-division courses on Chinese women, the Qing Dynasty, Chinese revolutions, and contemporary China.

Publications:

Book

China's Soviet Dream: Propaganda, Culture, and Popular Imagination (London and New York: Routledge, 2018).

Articles and Chapters

"Envisioning Liberty and Equality: Soviet Films, Socialist Utopia, and Chinese Women in the 1950s," in Gender and Chinese Cinema: New Interventions, eds. Mary Ann Doane and Lingzhen Wang (New York: Columbia University Press, forthcoming).

"Building Friendship: Soviet Influence, Socialist Modernity, and Chinese Cityscape in the 1950s," Quarterly Journal of Chinese Studies 2:3 (Spring 2014): 48-66.