Yan Li

Title: Associate Professor
Office: 411 Varner Hall
Phone: (248) 370-3536
Fax: (248) 370-3528
Email: [email protected]

Education:
Ph.D., Northeastern University
M.A., Beijing Normal University

Major Fields:
Modern China, Sino-Soviet Relations, East Asia

Biography:
Yan Li received her Ph.D. in World History from Northeastern University, with a concentration in Modern China. Her first book China's Soviet Dream: Propaganda, Culture, and Popular Imagination examines China’s cultural interactions with the Soviet Union and the impact of Soviet culture on Maoist China. She is interested in cultural history, women and gender studies, and cinema studies related to the period of modern China. She teaches introductory courses on Chinese history and culture, as well as upper-division courses on Chinese women, the Qing Dynasty, Chinese revolutions, and contemporary China.

Publications:

Book

China's Soviet Dream: Propaganda, Culture, and Popular Imagination (London and New York: Routledge, 2018).

Articles and Chapters

"Exploring the Boxer Era through Animation: The Fisherboy, Anti-Imperialism, and Historical Memory," Studies on Asia, Vol. 11, Issue 1 (2026): 130-39.

"Building Friendship: Soviet Influence, Socialist Modernity, and Chinese Cityscape in the 1950s," Quarterly Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Spring 2014): 48-66.

Work in Progress

Women and Gender in Modern China: From Empire to the Digital Age (New York: Routledge, under contract).