Headshot of Yidi Wu

Yidi Wu

O'Briant Developing Professor and Associate Professor of History

Department: History and Geography

Office and address: Lindner Hall - Arts & Sciences, Office 112F 2335 ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ Box Elon, NC 27244

Phone number: (336) 278-6421

Professional Expertise

modern Chinese history

Brief Biography

Born and raised in Beijing, I moved to the US for college. Trained as a modern China historian, I teach China, East Asia, and world history. My research interests include student activism, social movements, higher education, documentary film, democracy, and authoritarianism. I use Reacting to the Past, a role-playing game pedagogy, in my classes to teach historical contingency and empathy. I am also interested in ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ history through graphic non-fiction, learning through games, and Argentine tango. 

News & Notes

Education

BA - Oberlin College

MA, PhD - University of California, Irvine

Employment History

¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ, 2020- present

Saint Mary's College, Indiana 2017-2020

Courses Taught

History in Twentieth-Century World

Modern East Asia through Games

Modern Chinese History

Research Methods

Senior Research Seminar

Winter Term: Argentine Tango

The Global Experience

Honors: Learning through Games

Winter Term: History, Culture and Identity of Taiwan

Leadership Positions

President of Historical Society of Twentieth Century China, 2026-2028

director, PRC History Review, 2021- present

book review editor, PRC History Review, 2018-2024

Current Projects

My first book, Student Activism Across Borders: China and the Communist World in the Late 1950s (Cambridge University Press, 2027) studies student activism and campus politics in 1950s' China. I conducted archival research and oral history interviews during my dissertation fieldwork across China, as well as summer research trips in China. 

Using the Reacting to the Past () pedagogy, I'm designing a game based on the 1989 Tiananmen Protests, especially the dialogues between student activists and government officials. I have invited students to create role sheets for historical characters, and test played the game in class.

My second book project focuses on the transformation of Chinese higher education after 1952 and the parallel development between Sovietized technocratic universities in China and rebirth of missionary colleges in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Grants Awarded

2026-28, Public Intellectual Fellow, National Commitee on US-China Relations

2026-28, CATL Scholar Award

2025, Artz Summer Scholar, Oberlin College

2023-27, O'Briant Developing Professorship

2023, Elon Faculty Summer Research Fellowship

2021-23, Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Academy of Education

 

Publications

2027, Student Activism Across Borders: China and the Communist World in the Late 1950s. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in the History of the People’s Republic of China Series.

2026, “Dissent – Between Disagreement and Opposition: The 1980 Elections and the Boundaries of Socialist Democracy in China,” in Melissa Feinberg and Lisa Kirschenbaum eds., Routledge History of Communism, Routledge.

2025, “Crises Beyond Borders: The Impact of Khrushchev’s Secret Speech on Chinese ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ, 1956-1957,” Twentieth Century Communism, vol. 2025 issue 28 Globalising 1956, 77-100.  

2022, "Reacting to the Past: Teaching Asian and World History through Role-Playing Games," Education About Asia, vol. 27:1 (Spring 2022).

2021, “The Secret Police, A Funeral, and Lunch Gatherings: My Story of Doing Oral History Interviews in China,” Special Issue: PRC History in the Era of COVID, Censorship, and Sino-US Confrontation, PRC History Review, volume 6, number 3,

2021, published under pseudonym You Xi, “Role-Playing Game: The Quandary of Muslim Minorities in Xinjiang,” Xinjiang Documentation Project, University of British Columbia,  

2021, Review of A Century of Student Movements in China: The Mountain Movers (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington, 2020), Twentieth-Century China, volume 46, number 1, E-5 – E-6.

2021, Review of Creating the Intellectual: Chinese Communism and the Rise of a Classification (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019), The China Journal, volume 85, 229-231.

2020, “Performing Loyalty: Classification of College ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ in the Anti-Rightist Campaign,” in Timothy Cheek ed., Special Issue “60 Years Later: New Scholarship on the 1957 Anti-Rightist Campaign,” Twentieth-Century China, vol. 45, no. 2.

2020, Review of Defining a Nation: India on the Eve of Independence, 1945 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2017), American Historical Review, volume 125, issue 1, 156–158. 

2019, Review of The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China (Columbia University Press, 2016), Journal of Asian Studies, volume 78, issue 2, 442-444.

2019, Co-author with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “The Russian Revolution through Chinese Eyes, 1917-2017,” in Choi Chatterjee et al. eds., Wider Arc of Revolution. Volume 2. Bloomington: Slavica Press of Indiana University.

2017, Co-author with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “Airbrushing History.” Index on Censorship, vol. 46, issue 2,

2016, “Should I Stay or Should I Go? A ChinaFile Conversation.” ChinaFile,  

2016, “Chinese Documentaries.” In Popular Culture in Asia and Oceania, edited by Kathy Nadeau and Jeremy Murray. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2015, “Yan’an’s Iron Bodhisattva: Hunting Spies in the Rectification Movement.” In 1943: China at the Crossroads, edited by Matt Combs and Joseph Esherick, 203-241. Ithaca, NY: Cornell East Asia Series.

2015, Co-author with Jeffrey Wasserstrom. “You Say You Want a Revolution: Revolutionary and Reformist Scripts in China, 1898-2012.” In Scripting Revolution: A Historical Approach to the Comparative Study of Revolutions, edited by Keith Baker and Dan Edelstein, 231-250. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

2014, Co-author with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “1989 People's Movement.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies, edited by Tim Wright. New York: Oxford University Press,

Presentations

2024, “Contingent Pasts: Creating Role-Playing Games on Modern China,” Historical Society of Twentieth-Century China (HSTCC) Conference, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

2024, “Teaching Asia through Role-Playing Games,” ASIANetwork Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia

2024, “Addressing Challenges and Opportunities in Teaching PRC History,” Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (SEC/AAS), Winston-Salem, North Carolina

2024, “Breadth, Depth, or Both? Teaching Surveys on China, East Asia, and World History,” American Historical Association (AHA) Annual Conference, San Francisco, California

2023, “Socialist Democracy at Stake: Voices from Disunited Front, 1957,” Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts

2023, “Teaching Contentious China in Polarized American Universities,” sponsored panel by the Chinese Historians of the United States, AHA annual conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2022, “Teaching Asian and World History through Role-Playing Games,” AAS Annual Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii

2021, “Democracy Torch Relay: ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ Alliance and Divergence in Political Campaigns of 1957,” SEC/AAS, virtual conference

2021, “Documenting Legitimacy: Contesting Narrative of the 1949 Divide in an Anti-Rightist Film, 1957,” HSTCC Conference, 2021, virtual conference

2021, “Documenting Legitimacy: Contesting Narrative of the 1949 Divide in an Anti-Rightist Film, 1957,” ASIANetwork Annual Conference, Columbus, Ohio, 2021, virtual conference

Professional Activities

2024, podcast interview, Lights, Camera, Media: An Exploration of U.S. and Chinese News Coverage, episode one: “A Professor’s View of Chinese and U.S. Media and News Coverage,”

2023-2024, consultant, AM Primary Source Reimagined, China on Film Collection,

2024, manuscript reviewer, Twentieth-Century China.

2021, 2017, manuscript reviewer, Modern China.

Personal Information

Beyond my academic life as a China historian, I'm an avid Argentine tango dancer, and I travel around the world for tango marathons and festivals.  

I'm also a cat lover, and currently I have two tabbies - Georgi and Gabbie.