Chunmei Du
Chunmei Du
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Princeton University, 2009
Fields: Modern China and East Asia
Office: Cherry Hall 236
Phone: (270) 745-5743
Email: chunmei.du@wku.edu
Research Interests
My research examines modern Chinese intellectual and cultural history in global contexts. My first book manuscript, “Travel along the Mobius Strip: Gu Hongming and the Reinvention of Chinese Civilization,” examines the controversial life and ideas of Gu Hongming (1857-1928), a former British colonial subject who became a renowned Confucian philosopher. It shows how global discourses of Eastern spirituality, advocated by representatives like Gu, affected certain core civilizational identities of the West in the early twentieth century.
My second book project studies the controversial rape case of a young Chinese college student by two American GIs in 1946, and the consequent “anti-atrocity movements” across China. The Peking Rape Case marked a turning point in the Chinese perceptions of America, changing from a liberator and ally in the prewar era to an imperialist aggressor. Contrary to the common blaming of Communist propaganda and irrational prejudice, the project shows how Chinese grievances caused by U.S. military presence in China and the rising tensions in local societies concerning race, gender, and class fueled anti-American sentiment among a broad range of urban elites.
I have published in various journals including Journal of World History, The International History Review, Visual Studies, Asian Ethnicity, and Frontiers of History in China. I have extensive research experience in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and have received grants from the American Philosophical Society and Fudan University of China. I served on the board of Chinese Historians in the U.S. from 2012 to 2014. Besides my regular teaching and research, I am also a National Certified Counselor and interested in the mental health issues of international students and immigrant communities.
Teaching Interests
I teach undergraduate courses on Chinese, East Asian, and World History, and graduate-level courses on modern China and Japan.
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