Prof. Dr. Zhou Yuefeng holds a Professorship in Chinese History at Sichuan University. He is the author of Alternative New Culture Movement: The Cultural Activities of Liang Qichao’s Circle and the Intellectuals around the May Fourth Movement (Peking University Press, 2023). He has published articles on Modern Chinese intellectual history in  peer-reviewed journals, including Historical Research, Modern Chinese History Studies, Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History Academia Sinica, Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), etc. He serves as the vice president of Sun Yat-Sen Research Association and the vice chief director of “Data Platform of Chinese Modern history”. He is also an elected member of the “Centre for the Study of Modern Chinese Thought” at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

His current research interests cover three key topics: the cultural activities of Liang Qichao’s circle and the intellectuals around the May Fourth Movement, with an emphasis on the polyphonic progression of the history of the New Culture Movement; the wide diffusion and competition of different socialism ideas before and after the May Fourth Movement; the collation and study of the archives of Le Corps Diplomatique de Pékin located in the Netherlands. His work emphasizes the importance of placing the intellectual thought in the historical setting and examining the texts of the intellectuals around the May Fourth Movement from the social and cultural perspectives, and thus partially differs from the traditional study of abstract ideas.

Education: B.A. (2004) Zhejiang University; M.A. (2006) Zhejiang University; Ph.D. (2013) Peking University.

Research and teaching specializations: political thought, culture and society of modern China, with a particular emphasis on the intellectual history of modern China, including ideas of New Culture Movement, Bolshevism, socialism, revolution, etc.

Selected Publications

Books

Alternative New Culture Movement: The Cultural Activities of Liang Qichao’s Circle and the Intellectuals around the May Fourth Movement, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2023.

Ed, An Overview of Chinese Politics Ten Years before the Revolution of 1911, Beijing: Zhong Hua Book Company, 2012.

Articles

• “Lan Gongwu in the ‘Problems and Isms’ Debate”, Historical Research, No.12 (2024), pp.113-136.
• “‘Problems’ between Politics and ‘Isms’: Hu Shi’s Ideological Stance before and after the May Fourth Movement”, Modern Chinese History Studies, No.2 (2025), pp.74-90.
• “The Eclectic ‘Transvaluation’: the Plural Meanings of the May Fourth New Culture Movement Illustrated by the Slogan of ‘Transvaluation of all Values’”, Modern Chinese History Studies, No.3 (2020), pp.70-86.
• “The Popularization of the Term ‘New Cultural Movement’ after the May Fourth Movement and the Evolution of Its Early Meaning”, Modern Chinese History Studies, No.1 (2017), pp.28-47.
• “Alternative New Culture Movement: The Cultural Activities of Liang Qichao’s Circle and the Intellectuals around the May Fourth Movement”, Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 105 (2019), pp.49-89.
• “Position and Proposition: Liang Qichao’s Circle in the Socialism Debate”, Revista da Universidade Politécnica de Macau, Vol.28, No.1 (2025), pp.173-188.
• “Undetermined Reform Paradigms: The New Culture Proposals of Liang Qichao’s Circle in the Early 1920s”, Social Science Front, No.9 (2023), pp.126-140.
• “Zhang Dongsun’s Changing Attitudes towards Bolshevism before and after the Socialism Debate”, Social Science Research, No.3 (2023), pp.159-170.
• “Response and Criticism: Interaction between Lan Gongwu and Comrades of La Jeunesse before the May Fourth Movement”, CPC History Studies, No.6 (2021), pp.134-149.
• “From Revolution to Reform: Reorganizing The Emancipation and Reconstruction Semi-monthly and the Progressive Orientation of the Liang Qichao School”, Academic Monthly, Vol.28, No.12 (2021), pp.182-194.
• “Building Foundations and Creating Power: The Political Orientation of Liang Qichao’s Circle’s Cultural Activities before and after the May Fourth Movement”, Tianjin Social Sciences, No.3 (2021), pp.132-142.
• “The Disjoint ‘Battlefield’: Sun Yat⁃sen and Hu Shih in the New Culture Movement”, Social Sciences in Guangdong, No.1 (2021), pp.87-101.
• “The Modernity Denied by the Future: The First World War and the Making of the Hybridity of the May Fourth New Culture Movement”, Academic Monthly, No.3 (2020), pp.167-178.
• “‘Revolutionary’ Cultural Movement: Zhang Dongsun’s New Culture Programme after the May Fourth Movement”, Tianjin Social Sciences, No.3 (2019), pp.139-149. “The May Fourth Movement and the Formation of Zhang Dongsun’s ‘Total Solution’”, Journal of Central China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences), Vol.58, No.1 (2019), pp.118-127.
• “The Lenin Moment: The First Soviet Russia’s Declaration to China and the Turn Point in Intellectual Circles after the May Fourth Movement”, Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), Vol.32, No.5 (2017), pp.113-128.