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Prof to lead creation of major China reference work
3:56 p.m., Dec. 15, 2006--David Pong, professor of history and director of the East Asian Studies Program at UD, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Modern China, scheduled to be published in February 2009 by Thomson Gale, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The publication, which will be four volumes with an estimated 1.2 million words and 600 entries, from biographies to essays on numerous aspects of China's development from the 19th century to the present, will be the largest encyclopedia on modern China with an electronic edition that will be updated periodically, Pong said. “I'm certainly thrilled by the opportunity,” Pong said. “It's a great challenge and an opportunity to reach out to the larger reading public and, hopefully, to present modern China in a new light by bringing the products of more current research to the reading public.” Pong will head an editorial board of distinguished scholars from four countries and three continents: Julia Andrews, Bliss M. and Mildred A. Wiant Designated Professor of Chinese Literature and Culture and associate director of the East Asian Studies Center at Ohio State University; Marianne Bastid-Brugui¸re, member of the French Institute, emeritus research professor at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris; Flemming Christiansen, professor of Chinese studies at Leeds University and director of the National Institute of Chinese Studies in the United Kingdom; Antonia Finnane, associate professor of history at the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia; and Xiaobo Lu, professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University. Pong's new appointment was bolstered by his contribution to the Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism, which was published recently by Thomson Gale. “This is a great thing for a faculty member at the University of Delaware to be involved in, not only as a party but to take a leadership role. Members of UD's East Asian Studies faculty are likely to be involved in the project,” Pong said. “It puts us on the map: The reference work is expected to have wide circulation among academic and public libraries, as well as international organizations and commercial firms.” Pong earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He joined the University of Delaware in 1969. He took leave from UD to serve as a research fellow in the School of Pacific Studies, Institute of Advanced Studies, at the Australian National University from 1978-81, and as a visiting associate professor at Princeton University from January-June, 1988. He chaired UD's Department of History from 1992-98 and has been director of the East Asian Studies Program since its inception in 1989. His research interests focus on the history of late Imperial China before 1912, including industrial development and Industrial Relations in late Qing China, interactions between China and the West, aspects of naval construction, training and culture, public finance in late imperial China, Taiwan up to 1895, and the teaching of Asian history in schools. Pong has written dozens of scholarly articles and book reviews, given numerous conference presentations and lectures and authored several books, including A Critical Guide to the Kwangtung Provincial Archives Deposited at the Public Record Office of London, Ideal and Reality: Social and Political Change in Modern China, 1860-1949, Shen Pao Chen and China's Modernization in the 19th Century and A Critical Biography of Shen Baozhen: China's Venture in Modernization. Article by Martin Mbugua |
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