Chen Jian, Distinguished Global Network Professor of History, authors a new book, Zhou Enlai: A Life. This is the first comprehensive biography of Zhou in English written with the support of multi-lingual, multi-archival, and multi-source research. It portrays Zhou as a devoted Communist revolutionary, an influential politician and statesman, an accomplished diplomatic giant and, in the final analysis, a human being. It also brings to light Zhou’s visions and aspirations, political acumen, and enormous administrative and executive capacity. More broadly, the Zhou story told by Chen epitomizes China’s tortuous path toward modernity, while helping the reader understand how China becomes the nation it is today.
About the author
Chen Jian is the Director of the NYU Shanghai-ECNU Center on Global History, Economy, and Culture, a Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU Shanghai, and a Global Network Professor in the Department of History at NYU. He is also Zijiang Distinguished Visiting Professor at East China Normal University. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he was the Michael J. Zak Professor of History for US-China Relations at Cornell University, Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics, and visiting research professor at the University of Hong Kong (2009-2013). He holds a PhD from Southern Illinois University and an MA from Fudan University and East China Normal University in Shanghai.