Frank Pieke is a Professor Emeritus of Modern China Studies at the Institute for Area Studies.

More information about Frank Pieke

Fields of interest

• Modern Chinese studies;
• Social anthropology;
• Chinese Communist Party;
• Administrative modernization in China;
• Local Chinese politics;
• Chinese migration and overseas Chinese communities;
• Immigration in China;
• Migration policies and development

Research

Frank Pieke’s research revolves around two long-term themes. The first theme of his research is the anthropology of the state and socialism in modern Asia, investigating the rule and organization of the Chinese Communist Party in the context of China’s globalization and market reform. The second theme revolves around international migration, transnationalism and cultural diversity, including a long-term interest in Chinese migration and ethnicity in Europe and, more recently, the emergence of international immigrant groups in China.

Curriculum Vitae

Current post

• Adjunct Professor, Modern China Studies, University of Leiden

Previous posts held

• Director and CEO, Mercator Institute for China Studies (Berlin) (2018-2020)
• Professor and Chair, Modern China Studies, University of Leiden (2010-2018)
• University Lecturer,Modern Politics and Society of China, University of Oxford (1995-2010)
• University Lecturer, Anthropology and Sociology of Contemporary China, Sinological Institute, University of Leiden, the Netherlands (1986-1995)

University education

• Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley (1992)
• Non-degree program, Modern Chinese History, Beijing University, (1983)
• Non-degree program, Modern Chinese, Beijing Language Institute, (1982)
• Doctoraal (cum laude), Cultural Anthropology, University of Amsterdam (1982)

For more information, see this CV.

Key publications

• Party Spirit: Producing a Communist Civil Religion in Contemporary China, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 24(5): 663-891.
• Knowing China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2016)
• “Anthropology, China, and the Chinese Century”. Annual Review of Anthropology 43: 123-138 (2014)
• The Good Communist: Elite Training and State Building in Today’s China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2009)
• Transnational Chinese: Fujianese Migrants in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press (first author with Pál Nyíri, Mette Thunø and Antonella Ceccagno, 2004)
• The Ordinary and the Extraordinary: An Anthropological Study of Chinese Reform and the 1989 People's Movement in Beijing. London: Kegan Paul International (1996)
• “Marketization, Centralization and Globalization of Cadre Training in Contemporary China”. The China Quarterly 200: 953-971 (2009)
• “The Genealogical Mentality in Modern China.” The Journal of Asian Studies 62(1): 101-128 (2003)

Frank Pieke in de media

• Interview with CNPolitics.org 3 July 2013 about The Good Communist (in Chinese)
• Interview with NOS radio 18 november 2012 (in Dutch)
• Interview for Leiden University website 2011 (in Dutch)
• Interview in Chinese Social Sciences News 19 Augustus 2010 (in Chinese)
• Article in BBC World Service (Chinese)

Inaugural lecture

English
Dutch

Activities