Frank-Dikötter
Work in Progress. Some info might be incorrect or improperly cited
Frank Dikötter is a Dutch historian, author, and chair professor of humanities at the University of Hong Kong. He is also a senior fellow (adjunct) at the Hoover Institution. Dikötter holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Leiden.
He was born in the Netherlands, educated in Switzerland, and received his PhD from the University of London in 1990. Before moving to Asia in 2006, he was professor of the modern history of China at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. [1] [2]
Life
Born in the Netherlands in 1961, Frank was educated in Switzerland and graduated from the University of Geneva with a Double Major in History and Russian. After two years in the People’s Republic of China, he moved to London where he obtained his PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1990.
He stayed at SOAS as British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and as Wellcome Research Fellow before being promoted to a personal chair as Professor of the Modern History of China in 2002. Dikötter is married and lives in Hong Kong.
Work
Frank has published dozens of books examining the history of China, from The Discourse of Race in Modern China to China before Mao: The Age of Openness. In his 2014 novel, Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China Frank used archives from China, Europe, and the United States to challenge one of the cornerstones of current international drug policy, namely - the idea that opium changed China into a nation of addicts.
His research and writing has been funded by over $2 million in grants from various foundations including the Wellcome Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Economic and Social Research Council the Research Grants Council and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. [2] [4]
The People’s Trilogy
Dikötter is the author of the People’s Trilogy, a series of books that document the impact of communism on the lives of ordinary people in China. Frank uses freshly unsealed documents from the Chinese Communist Party to meticulously chronicle the impact of communism on the lives of ordinary people during Mao Zedong’s era. The trilogy delves into significant historical events in China from 1945-1976.
Mao’s Great Famine
Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962, is the first book in the Peoples Trilogy. It chronicles the Great Chinese Famine that unfolded between 1958 and 1962 during Mao Zedong’s rule in the People’s Republic of China.
The book sheds light on the tragic consequences of Mao Zedong’s policies during the Great Leap Forward. It has been translated into thirteen languages and received critical acclaim from prestigious publications. The novel draws upon an extensive collection of archival documents - including reports, party meetings, uncensored leadership speeches, surveys, investigations, confessions, inquiries, and many other sources. It won the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2011.
The Tragedy of Liberation
The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 explores the period following World War II, as China transitioned from civil war to communist rule. “The Tragedy of Liberation” serves as the second volume in the People’s Trilogy. It was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2014.
The Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976 examines the upheaval and social transformation during the Cultural Revolution from the years 1962 to 1976. It was published in May 2016. [1] [3]
Published works
1992: The Discourse of Race in Modern China
1995: Sex, Culture and Modernity in China: Medical Science and the Construction of Sexual Identities in the Early Republican Period
1997: The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan
1998: Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects and Eugenics in China
2002: Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China
2003: Patient Zero: China and the Myth of the Opium Plague
2004: Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China
2007: Exotic Commodities: Modern Objects and Everyday Life in China
2008: The Age of Openness: China Before Mao
2010: Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962
2013: The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945–1957
2016: The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962–1976
2019: How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century
2022: China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower
Awards
2011: Samuel Johnson Prize for Mao’s Great Famine
2017: Honorary Doctorate from Leiden University
Sources
[1] https://www.hoover.org/profiles/frank-dikotter [2] https://www.frankdikotter.com/ [3] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/01/china-communist-party-history-propaganda [4] https://history.hku.hk/staff-f-dikoetter/ [5] https://frankdikotter.com/books/maos-great-famine/synopsis.html
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