{{Short description|Chinese historian}} {{family name hatnote|Xu|lang=Chinese}} {{Contemporary Chinese political thought|liberalism}} '''Xu Jilin''' (born 1957; {{zh|s=许纪霖|p=Xú Jìlín}}) is a Chinese historian. He is a professor of history at [[East China Normal University]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://faculty.ecnu.edu.cn/s/1475/t/16942/main.jspy|title=许纪霖|language=zh|website=East China Normal University|access-date=30 July 2019|archive-date=30 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190730032732/https://faculty.ecnu.edu.cn/s/1475/t/16942/main.jspy|url-status=dead}}</ref> and specializes in 20th century [[Chinese intellectual history]].
== Early life == Born in 1957 in [[Shanghai]], Xu Jilin dropped out of school and became a librarian because of the [[Cultural Revolution]]. As time passed, he eventually decided to pursue further education after passing [[National Higher Education Entrance Examination]]. He studied policy at [[East China Normal University]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=许纪霖_学术_专栏作者_天益思想库 |url=https://www.aisixiang.com/thinktank/xujilin.html |access-date=2023-04-04 |website=www.aisixiang.com}}</ref>
== Career == In 1982 Xu graduated with a Bachelor's degree. He became a university lecturer. From 1997 to 2003, Xu Jilin traveled to three universities as a visiting professor and visiting scholar: the [[Harvard–Yenching Institute]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://harvard-yenching.org/scholars/xu-jilin|title=Xu Jilin|website=Harvard-Yenching Institute|access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref> the [[National University of Singapore]], and the [[University of Tokyo]]. In 2003, he returned to the East China Normal University where he continued his career.<ref name=":1" />
Xu Jilin serves on the editorial board of the journal ''Twenty-First Century Bimonthly'', published by Chinese University of Hong Kong.<ref name=ChinaStory>{{cite web|url=https://www.thechinastory.org/key-intellectual/xu-jilin-许纪霖/|title=Xu Jilin 许纪霖|website=The China Story|access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref>
== Views == Xu is a [[Third Way]] [[liberalism in China|liberal]] who disavows what he terms the political extremes. He believes in "small government, big society",<ref name=ChinaStory /> and criticized the [[statist]], [[Conservatism|conservative]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=許紀霖 |date=2011-01-01 |title=近十年來中國國家主義思潮之批判 |url=https://www.airitilibrary.com/Publication/alDetailedMesh?DocID=a0000477-201101-201110180011-201110180011-83-120 |journal=思想 |language=zh-TW |issue=18 |doi=10.29848/SX.201101.0004}}</ref> intellectual current of the [[Chinese New Left]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Xu Jilin|editor-last=Davis|editor-first=Edward L.|year=2005|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2rLBvrlKI7QC&pg=PA951|place=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|pages=951–3|isbn=9780415777162}}</ref>
== Selected works in English == *{{cite journal|last=Xu|first=Jilin|title=The Fate of an Enlightenment: Twenty Years in the Chinese Intellectual Sphere (1978–98)|translator-last1=Barmé|translator-first1=Geremie R.|translator-last2=Davies|translator-first2=Gloria|journal=East Asian History|number=20|year=2000|url=http://www.eastasianhistory.org/sites/default/files/article-content/20/EAH20_06.pdf|pages=169–186}} *{{cite journal|last=Xu|first=Jilin|year=2004|author-mask=3|title=What Future for Public Intellectuals?: The specialisation of knowledge, the commercialisation of culture and the emergence of post-modernism characterise China in the 1990s|journal=China Perspectives|translator-last=Black|translator-first=Michael|number=52|pages=18–30|url=https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/799}} *{{cite journal|last=Xu|first=Jilin|year=2012|author-mask=3|title=Social Darwinism in modern China|journal=Journal of Modern Chinese History|volume=6|issue=2|pages=182–197|doi=10.1080/17535654.2012.718605}} *{{cite book|last=Xu|first=Jilin|year=2018|author-mask=3|title=Rethinking China's Rise: A Liberal Critique|translator-last=Ownby|translator-first=David|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-RfDwAAQBAJ|isbn=978-1108470759}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Jilin}} [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:1957 births]] [[Category:Educators from Shanghai]] [[Category:Academic staff of the East China Normal University]] [[Category:Historians from Shanghai]] [[Category:21st-century Chinese historians]] [[Category:Liberalism in China]]