About Professor Delia Davin

I worked in China as a teacher of English from 1963-5 and as a translator at the Foreign Languages Press 1975-6. I completed my BA and my PhD at Leeds in what was then the Department of Chinese Studies. For sixteen years I worked at the University of York as a lecturer in the Department of Economics and Related Studies and the Centre for Women's Studies before returning to Leeds to teach Chinese history and social studies.  I retired from full time work in 2004 but still do some work for WREAC and am active in research.

Recent Activities

Academic advisor on China for a two day British academy conference “China-India: Paths of Economic and Social Development” held 18-19 November 2010 at the King’s Fund Building.

I recently gave a lecture on Mao Zedong at a conference on post-socialist transitions at the Magdeberg Museum (former East Germany). I frequently review books on China for the Times Literary Supplement and Times Higher Education.

Key Publications and Activities

Books and Monographs

• Internal migration in Contemporary China, Macmillan, 1999.
• Mao Zedong, A Life, Sutton, 1997, reprinted by History Press 2009.
• Chinese Lives: an Oral History of Contemporary China, New York: Pantheon; London: Macmillan, 1988;
• Penguin edition, 1989, (co-editor with W. Jenner).
• China's One Child Family Policy, Macmillan, 1985 (co-editor with E. Croll and P. Kane).

Book Chapters

• ‘Gendered Mao: Mao, Maoism and Women’ in Timothy Cheek (ed) A Critical Introduction to Mao, Cambridge University Press. 2010.
• 'Dark Tales of Mao the Merciless' in Greg Benton and Lin Chun (eds) Was Mao really a monster? The Academic Response to Chang and Halliday's Mao: The Unknown Story. London: Routledge June 2009.
• 'Marriage Migration in China: The enlargement of marriage markets in the era of market reforms' in Rajni Palriwala and Patricia Uberoi (eds) Marriage migration and gender. New Delhi: Sage, 2008.
• 'Dark Tales of Mao the Merciless' in Greg Benton (ed) Mao Zedong and the Chinese Revolution. London: Routledge, 2007.
• "Women and Migration in Contemporary China', China Report 41:1 2005, New Delhi: Sage.
• "The impact of export-oriented manufacturing on the welfare entitlements of Chinese women workers" in Shahra Razavi, Ruth Pearson and Caroline Danloy eds, Globalisation, Export-oriented Employment and Social Policy: Gendered Connections, UNISD/London:Palgrave, 2004.
• "Country maids in the city: Domestic Service as an Agent of Modernity in China" in Françoise Mengin and Jean-Louis Rocca (eds), Politics in China: Moving Frontiers, London: Palgrave 2002.
• 'Chinese Women: Media Concerns and Politics of Reform' in Afshar.H. ed Women and Politics in the Third World. London: Routledge, 1996.
• 'Population Policy and Reform: the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China' in Shirin Rai et al (eds). Women in the Face of Change: the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China. London: Routledge, 1992

Articles in Reference Books

• "China's One-Child Policy" in Vandana Desai and Rob Potter (eds) The Arnold Companion to Development Studies, Edward Arnold, 2000.
• 'Gladys Yang', in B. Harrison (ed) Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• 'Marriage Law in contemporary China' and 'Gender Issues in contemporary China' in Das Grosse China-Lexikon, Stefan Freidrich and Hans-Wilm Schutte (eds), Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgellschaft and Primus Verlag, 2003.

Translations

• My 1997 book, Mao Zedong, has been translated into Polish and Norwegian.
• With Li Ruru I translated the essay 'Remembering Yang Bi' by Yang Jiang published in Zhu Hong (ed) A Frolic in the Snow, Shenyang, China :Liaoning Educational Press, China, 2002.

Funded Research Projects