CHEN Yunqian
陈蕴茜

Chen Yunqian (1965-2020)

Professor Chen Yunqian (陈蕴茜) was born in 1965. She got her BA, MA and PhD from the History Department of Nanjing University and had been a faculty member in the History Department since 1990. She was a visiting fellow at the Harvard-Yenching Institute from August 2001 through the end of 2002. She spent time as a visiting scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Throughout her teaching and research career, she actively participated in academic events and conferences held in Japan, Germany, Poland, Israel as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Professor Chen Yunqian’s research covered a wide range of areas including Modern Chinese History, New Cultural History, Social Memory, Urban Space, and Gender Studies. Among her many publications, a groundbreaking work resulted from her decade-long work on Sun Yat-sen entitled Worship and Memory: The Construction and Dissemination of Sun Yat-sen Symbol, Memorial Space and Collective Memory about the Revolution of 1911 (Nanjing University Press, 2009). With a new perspective, and through sharp analysis and thorough and meticulous research on archival materials, this book illuminated complicated aspects of social, political and cultural transformation of modern China and was acclaimed as one of the most important works on Chinese political cultural history. This book has been widely cited and listed as a must-read book for courses on modern Chinese history. She published more than 50 papers in the leading journals in her field. Many of her papers were published in the Journal of Modern Chinese History (《近代史研究》), Open Times (《开放时代》), Shilin (《史林》) and Scholarship Monthly (《学术月刊》), and they were widely cited in research on public space, urban life and historic memory.

Professor Chen was a wonderful colleague and a dedicated and responsible teacher. Her passing is an immeasurable loss to everyone who knows her, and to the field of history, to the History Department of Nanjing University and beyond. She is dearly missed.

July 2020
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Prof. Chen Yunqian, who was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard-Yenching Institute from 2001-2002. Many of her colleagues, students, and friends have shared eulogies and tributes:

陈蕴茜教授哀悼集 | 哈佛燕京学社同仁专辑 (from Harvard-Yenching colleagues)

陈蕴茜教授哀悼集 | 学生追忆 (from students)

陈蕴茜教授哀悼集 | 师友追忆 (from teachers and friends)

学衡研究院 | 陈蕴茜教授论文微合集 (A collection of papers by Prof. Chen Yunqian)

In Memory of Chen Yunqian (posted on HYI website)

Prof. Chen in the HYI group photo, 2001-2002: