Reframing Modern Chinese History: New and Renewed Approaches

Private Program at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

March 19-20, 2026

Organized by Elizabeth Perry (Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government, FAS, eperry@gov.harvard.edu) and Fei Yan (Associate Professor, Tsinghua University, fredyan@gmail.com)

Prof. Dr. Daniel Leese will also participate in the two-day conference.

Executive Summary

In modern authoritarian states, history is often used for legitimizing purposes while alternative narratives are suppressed. This is particularly evident in China where state institutions enjoy centralized control over virtually all critical historical materials and impose heavily limited access to archival resources. Additionally, scholars’ academic research is subject to intensive scrutiny and research efforts that deviate from the government’s agenda are strictly prohibited.

This research program, under the Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s new academic initiative on Academic Freedom and Connecting Across Difference, investigates the challenges of conducting historiographical research under these severe constraints in China. It focuses on the use of grassroots data, including fragments of archives, county gazetteers, legal documents, land deeds, private correspondence, village epigraphs, oral epic, family trees, and underground folktales. These sources are crucial for understanding socio-economic structures and conflicts at the local level across historical periods.

By combining historiographical, archival, and field methods, this interdisciplinary workshop brings together historians, sociologists, and political scientists from three generations of expertise in China studies worldwide. It advocates for a more comprehensive exploration of these often-overlooked Chinese grassroots sources and innovative field strategies to uncover new perspectives, challenge prevailing narratives, and foster a more nuanced understanding of modern Chinese history.

This approach aligns with the goals of the Radcliffe Institute, which strives to promote freedom in scholarship and foster interdisciplinary collaborations. It highlights the need to protect spaces for academic inquiry, particularly in subjects where political pressures could otherwise hinder the pursuit of truth and a comprehensive understanding of history.