Published on 23 Apr 2026

New Book on Interpreting Chinese History by Els van Dongen

2026-04-23 SAGE Els2

We are happy to share the launch of the book The Sage Handbook of Interpreting Chinese History, edited by Professor Kristin Stapleton (University at Buffalo, SUNY), Professor Xin Fan (ShanghaiTech University), and Associate Professor Els van Dongen (NTU History).

The Sage Handbook of Interpreting Chinese History offers an in-depth exploration of the evolution of historical narratives in China over the past century. Bringing together some of the world’s leading scholars, this handbook provides both depth and breadth to our understanding of how Chinese leaders, intellectuals, and the public conceive of their place in the world. It examines the dramatic shifts in historical interpretation, documenting both the creative use and disastrous abuse of the Chinese past.

China's growing global influence has led to increased interest in its historical perspectives. Understanding contemporary Chinese conceptions of international politics and intercultural relations requires a deep dive into how history is interpreted and taught in China. This handbook aims to "look under the hood" at the motivations and methods behind historical storytelling, the role of historical knowledge in social and political stability, and the deployment of key terms and images in politics and social life.

The handbook is organized into several key sections. The first section provides an overview of key ideas such as the “tributary system” and constitutionalism, alongside critical analyses of intellectual history and Sino-foreign relations. The subsequent sections delve into how history was written and historical narratives disseminated and deployed in four different eras of modern Chinese history: the late-Qing period, the Republican era, the Maoist era, and the Reform era. Each era is examined through the lens of official and popular history, exploring the relationship between history and memory. The final section introduces perspectives on historical narratives from Chinese border regions, as well as Sinophone narratives produced outside the PRC state system, highlighting the diversity of views on Chinese history.

The Sage Handbook of Interpreting Chinese History is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners, and students seeking to understand the complexities of historical interpretation in modern China. It provides a comprehensive and nuanced exploration of the field, equipping readers to engage with the theoretical and practical aspects of Chinese historical narratives.

About the Editors:

Kristin Stapleton is a Professor of History at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Her research focuses on urban history, particularly the history of governance and social change, as well as the creation and influence of representations of historical events in works of literature. She is the author of Civilizing Chengdu: Chinese Urban Reform, 1895-1937 (Harvard Asia Center, 2000), Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin’s Family (Stanford, 2016), and The Modern City in Asia (Cambridge, 2022), among other works. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Twentieth-Century China and a participant in the Global Urban History Project.

Xin Fan teaches at ShanghaiTech University in China. He is a professor of history and vice dean at the Institute of Humanities. He is the author of World History and National Identity in China: The Twentieth Century (CUP, 2021), of Global History in China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), and the second editor of Receptions of Greek and Roman Antiquity in East Asia (Brill, 2018).

Els van Dongen is an Associate Professor of History at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Driven by her interest in how the transnational movement of people, ideas, and institutions has informed the making of modern China, her main areas of research are Chinese intellectual history and the history of Chinese migration. She is the author of Realistic Revolution: Contesting Chinese History, Culture, and Politics after 1989 (Cambridge, 2019) and has held visiting positions at Boston University, Peking University, the Academia Sinica, and the University of California, Berkeley. Her current book project examines the “return” of ethnic Chinese students from Southeast Asia to the PRC during the 1950s and 1960s.

For more information about the book, visit:

https://us2.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-sage-handbook-of-interpreting-chinese-history/book285426