Qiang Zhang

Contact

• workAsh Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School
• Qiang.Zhang1@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Dr. Zhang is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow (selected by the European Commission and funded by UK Research and Innovation) jointly hosted by Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Nottingham.

Dr. Zhang's research has focused on the political use of history in China and the evolving historiography of modern China. He is completing a book manuscript on the surprising phenomenon known as 'Republican fever' - the widespread nostalgia for pre-communist China in the post-Mao era.

At Harvard, he has embarked on a new project evaluating the Chinese Communist Party's decades-old campaign against 'historical nihilism', i.e. counter-memories which deviate from the regime's orthodox view of history.

Dr. Zhang holds a DPhil in Politics from Oxford University and an MSt in International Relations from Cambridge University. From 2023 to 2024, he was an ESRC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Nottingham. Prior to academia, he worked as a BBC journalist for over a decade, reporting on Chinese political developments and analysing PRC media content.

Recent Publications

• 2024. Rehabilitating Republican China: Historical Memory, National Identity and Regime Legitimacy in the Post-Mao Era The China Quarterly.
• ROBERT WEATHERLEY and QIANG ZHANG, 2017. History and Nationalist Legitimacy in Contemporary China: A Double-Edged Sword Palgrave Macmillan.
• ROBERT WEATHERLEY and QIANG ZHANG, 2017. History and Legitimacy in Contemporary China: Towards Competing Nationalisms. In: CHENG-TIAN KUO, ed., Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies Amsterdam University Press.
• QIANG ZHANG and ROBERT WEATHERLEY, 2013. The rise of “Republican fever” in the PRC and the implications for CCP legitimacy China Information. 27(3), 277–300

• View all publications

• 2024. Rehabilitating Republican China: Historical Memory, National Identity and Regime Legitimacy in the Post-Mao Era The China Quarterly.
• ROBERT WEATHERLEY and QIANG ZHANG, 2017. History and Nationalist Legitimacy in Contemporary China: A Double-Edged Sword Palgrave Macmillan.
• ROBERT WEATHERLEY and QIANG ZHANG, 2017. History and Legitimacy in Contemporary China: Towards Competing Nationalisms. In: CHENG-TIAN KUO, ed., Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies Amsterdam University Press.
• QIANG ZHANG and ROBERT WEATHERLEY, 2013. The rise of “Republican fever” in the PRC and the implications for CCP legitimacy China Information. 27(3), 277–300
• QIANG ZHANG and ROBERT WEATHERLEY, 2013. Owning up to the Past: The KMT’s Role in the War Against Japan and the Impact on CCP Legitimacy The Pacific Review. 26(3), 221–242