Geremie R. Barmé, BA, PhD (Asian Studies), FAHA
Professor, Division of Pacific and Asian History

Email: geremie.barme@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

After graduating in Asian Studies from the ANU (majoring in Chinese and Sanskrit), I studied at universities in the People's Republic of China (1974-77) and Japan (1980-83), with periods working as a journalist, freelance writer and translator in Hong Kong and China. My research work in Chinese culture and intellectual history has been interspersed with film, web site and writing projects in the United States, China and Hong Kong.

Research Interests

20th century Chinese intellectual and cultural history; contemporary Chinese cultural and intellectual debates; modern historiography; Ming-Qing literature and aesthetics; Cultural Revolution history (1950s-70s) and Beijing, its history and reconstruction.

Key Publications

• The Gate of Heavenly Peace, three-hour documentary film (associate director and main writer), 1995.
• Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader, Armonk, NY, M.E. Sharpe, 1996.
• In the Red: On Contemporary Chinese Culture, New York, Columbia University Press, 1999.
• An Artistic Exile: A life of Feng Zikai (1898-1975), Berkeley, University of California Press, 2002, awarded the Joseph Levenson Prize for Modern China, 2004.
• Morning Sun, two-hour documentary film (co-directed and co-produced with Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon; co-written with Carma Hinton), 2003, awarded the John E. O'Conner Film Award, The American Historical Association, 2005.
• (ed. with Miriam Lang) China Candid: The People on the People's Republic, by Sang Ye, University of California Press, 2006.
• (ed. with Claire Roberts) The Great Wall of China, Sydney, Powerhouse Museum, 2006.

Career Highlights

Premiere of The Gate of Heavenly Peace at the New York Film Festival in 1995; premiere of Morning Sun at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2003; being awarded the Joseph Levenson Prize for Modern China, 2004; work with the New York photographer Lois Conner on the Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuanming Yuan) in Beijing (1998-2003); and work on the sacred geography of China with the photographer Lois Conner and the Sinologist and translator John Minford.