About

Tobie Meyer-Fong is a professor of history and the Department Chair at Johns Hopkins University, specializing in the social and cultural history of China from 1600 to the present. She began teaching at Johns Hopkins in 2000 and holds a PhD from Stanford University, earned in 1998, as well as a bachelor's degree from Yale University obtained in 1989. Her research emphasizes the intimate and emotional effects of large-scale events at the individual and communal levels, with particular expertise in the history of the Jiangnan region, publishing, taste, information, and material culture. Meyer-Fong has served as editor of the journal Late Imperial China and is active on its editorial board. Her scholarly work includes two monographs and numerous articles, many of which have been translated into Chinese and Spanish, focusing on topics such as printing and book culture, civil war, commemoration, and civil society in late imperial China. She has conducted research and held visiting positions at institutions including Nanjing University, East China Normal University, the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, and others. Meyer-Fong is also an advocate of intensive language training and regional expertise, actively engaging in public scholarship through media appearances, articles, and commentary on contemporary issues related to Chinese history and culture.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Art
• Humanities
• History
• Biology
• Fishery
• Law

Selected publications

• Rethinking the Qing: A View from North America

  The Chinese Historical Review · 2025-07-03

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Lo personal y lo global en la guerra civil china de mediados del siglo XIX

  Ayer Revista de Historia Contemporánea · 2024 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Humanities
  • Political Science

  A mediados del siglo xix, decenas de millones de personas murieron en China a consecuencia de la devastadora guerra civil Taiping (1850-1864). Tanto coetánea como posteriormente, la guerra fue definida en términos morales absolutos: como un conflicto entre los honrados defensores del régimen dominante y el populacho rebelde, como un movimiento revolucionario para deponer justamente a una dinastía extranjera o como un incipiente movimiento protestante. No obstante, las dinámicas sobre el terreno fueron mucho más complejas. Este artículo abordará la guerra civil Taiping a partir de fuentes primarias que permitan entenderla a ras de suelo y más allá de sus marcos nacionales, es decir, como un conjunto impredecible y destructivo de eventos locales y globales vinculado a otras guerras del periodo.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Military Intelligence and the Taiping Civil War / Le renseignement militaire dans la révolte des Taiping (1851-1864)

  Éditions de la Sorbonne eBooks · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • History

  LA GUERRE CIVILE qui eut lieu en Chine pendant quatorze ans dans le milieu du XIXe siècle et que l’on désigne habituellement sous le nom de révolte des Taiping réduisit en ruines des communautés auparavant prospères. Cette guerre civile est généralement considérée comme la plus destructrice de l’histoire humaine, du fait d’une mortalité gigantesque que l’on compte par dizaines de millions1. Au cours de

  PublisherDOI

• 4. Bones and Flesh

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Art
  • Biology
  • Fishery
  PublisherDOI

• To Know the Enemy: The Zei qing huizuan, Military Intelligence, and the Taiping Civil War

  T oung Pao · 2018-10-30 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This article highlights the strategies and institutions that were mobilized in order to collect information during the Taiping Civil War (1851-1864). Through a close reading of the Zei qing huizuan 賊情彙纂 ( Compendium of Rebel Intelligence ), the article reveals that the Qing and its allies understood the Taiping as a political entity constituted on a familiar (dynastic) model and also in ethnographic terms (linguistic, sartorial, religious, regional). The article also demonstrates how individuals made use of their access to information to obtain patronage and employment within the pro-Qing camp. Finally, by spotlighting the political and moral language used by the authors of the Zei qing huizuan , the article makes obvious the deep relationship between intelligence and ideology.

  PublisherDOI

• In Memory

  Late imperial China · 2018-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In Memory Tobie Meyer-Fong As this issue of Late Imperial China went to press, the editors learned of the death at the age of 88 of Harold L. Kahn, who taught Chinese history at Stanford for most of his multi-decade career. A beloved teacher and leader in the field, Hal once described himself as an “inadvertent radical,” and professed that the three things at the core of his being were “food, words, and baseball.” While his culinary acumen, verbal wit, and love of the game were known to many, Hal defined himself and the field through his generous gifts as a friend and mentor. He will be remembered for his still-relevant work on the Qianlong emperor, published in 1971, and for the masterful and often humorous letters of recommendation that he wrote on behalf of his students (a medical school once called to offer him admission after reading a letter he wrote for an undergraduate). Having signed up for the PhD program in political science at Harvard following a Fulbright year in Sweden, he switched to Chinese history at the invitation of John King Fairbank, who observed that Kahn had already mastered a tonal language (Swedish). Hal followed an unconventional path, proudly telling his PhD students that he had not attended an Association for Asian Studies annual meeting since 1968—even as he urged them to attend and present papers themselves. He wore Birkenstock sandals and ancient flannel shirts and a Panama hat to the office, which was filled (literally) floor to ceiling with what seemed to be every important work published on Chinese history in English, Chinese, and Japanese. He stored articles and student work in precariously stacked file cabinets and declared fearlessness in the face of potential earthquake risk. He taught his students the vital importance of writing (and cooking) well, insisted that they find their own scholarly voices, and included them in Thanksgiving dinners and hiking trips to Mt. Tamalpais and the California coast. He regaled his friends with the stories of how he drove a taxi in New York during one sabbatical and about his experiences of onsen and the student movement in Japan in the 1960s. He gently engineered connections among his former students, creating a multi-generational network of friends and scholarly influences. He took tremendous pride in his students’ accomplishments, whether they remained in the profession or not. A rebel and an aesthete, he sought his own path, read voraciously, commented abundantly, and taught by example the signal importance of originality, generosity, rigor, and independence. He possessed wideranging knowledge of literature and the arts—and suggested novels and exhibits to all and sundry. He shared his office with students, friends, visiting scholars, and famously, with canine companions—one of whom, he observed, took his Qing documents course several times—and never learned a damn thing. The rest of us learned more than we can express. And for that, and for his remarkable example, we will always be grateful. December 2018 Copyright © 2019 Society for Qing Studies and Johns Hopkins University Press

  PublisherDOI

• A Companion to Chinese History. Edited by Michael Szonyi. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Blackwell, 2017. xiv, 459 pp. ISBN: 9781118624609 (cloth, also available as e-book).

  The Journal of Asian Studies · 2018-08-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

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• Yangzhou: A Place in Literature, The Local in Chinese Cultural History

  CHINOPERL · 2016-07-02 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Writing in the mid-seventeenth century, Dong Yining 董以寧 explained how renowned literary figures made a place significant: “The fame of mountains and rivers is mostly due to outstanding people. Befo...

  PublisherDOI

• Civil War, Revolutionary Heritage, and the Chinese Garden

  Cross-currents · 2015-05-01 · 21 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The Chinese garden now symbolizes timeless national, cultural, and aesthetic values. But as real property in the past, gardens inevitably were subject to the vicissitudes of their times. This article focuses on gardens and the Taiping Civil War (1851–1864). During the war, many gardens were reduced to tile shards and ash. Surviving gardens functioned as objects of longing and nostalgia, sites of refuge (physical and emotional), or a means to display status under the new regime. In the postwar period, gardens served as status symbols, places to commemorate loss or celebrate restoration, and venues for renewed sociability. This article uses a series of case studies to explore the multiple meanings associated with gardens, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Qing dynasty—in the past and today.

  PublisherDOI

• Fifty years of Qing studies—and Late Imperial China

  Late imperial China · 2015-06-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Fifty years of Qing studies—and Late Imperial China Tobie Meyer-Fong, Editor Fifty years ago, in April 1965, a small group of Qing historians, including John King Fairbank and Mary Wright, gathered informally at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting in San Francisco. They gave themselves a name—the Society for Qing Studies—and they tasked a junior scholar—Jonathan Spence (Mary Wright’s student, who would receive his PhD from Yale later that spring) with the establishment of a new publication called Ch’ing-shih wen-t’i. They deliberately chose not to configure it as a typical peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Rather, they imagined it as the center of a developing scholarly community, as a place to publish inquiries, research notes, and to float new ideas informally. Among other things, the irregularly published journal produced a directory of Qing historians working outside of China. In the late 1960s, of course, contact with Qing historians in the People’s Republic was relatively challenging; the list thus featured scholars in Europe, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia, as well as the United States. Ch’ing-shih wen-t’i also announced the (two!) panels on Qing history at the next Association for Asian Studies annual meeting in order to encourage scholars to read the papers in advance. By the end of its first decade, the journal’s second editor, Ramon Myers, already had begun to question whether the un-translated and thus exotic title of Ch’ing-shih wen-t’i might deter potential readers. He also sought to make the articles more formal and subject to peer review. In 1979, Susan Naquin, Mary Rankin, and James Cole took over editorial responsibilities, which continued to include managing subscriptions and the Society’s finances. In 1984, Charlotte Furth and James Lee became the co-editors and the journal entered its third decade under a new name —Late Imperial China—and with a new cover design—both still in use now, 30 years later! Over time, Late Imperial China became a fully peer reviewed academic journal. Memorable special issues included those focused on gender, ethnicity, and print culture. These both reflected and shaped scholarly conversations. Gradually the research notes and translated bibliographical essays of previous years fell by the wayside. In 1993, in a move facilitated by William T. Rowe, a new co-editor (and later sole editor from 1999—2006), Johns Hopkins University Press took over publication and subscriptions management. Later, [End Page v] this allowed the journal to enter the digital age through Project Muse. In 2007, Janet Theiss and I took over as co-editors; last spring, I became editor-in-chief, with a team of nine associate editors. Over the past eight years, we have sought to attend to the community building goals that originally inspired the Society and the journal. A website, created by the press, meant that some of the intended communitarian functions of Ch’ingshih wen-t’i could be revived. In the same spirit, the Society for Qing Studies has taken on a more active role at the Association for Asian Studies with topically focused meetings-in-conjunction and sponsored panels. As Late Imperial China celebrates its 50th birthday, the editors remain committed to serving the field. We do so by mentoring younger and international scholars publishing for the first time—or for the first time in English. We also do so by seeking out and publishing the best work in our field. We try to shape the field by facilitating conversations about Ming and Qing studies whether at our sponsored panels at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting or (in a new move) through a series of workshops and lectures to be held at Johns Hopkins over the next three years. We anticipate the addition of new features to the journal—including scholarly conversations about the state of the field. We have also begun to consider ways to make use of new tools. Not only do we envision some imminent updates to our website, but we have created a Facebook Group named for the journal. We welcome all readers and friends to participate in our digital community! On the auspicious occasion...

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• William A. Sewell

  1 shared

• Janet Theiss

  University of Utah

  1 shared

• Murata Yujiro

  National Humanities Center

  1 shared

• J.W. Sweet

  1 shared

• Shuo Wang

  Nankai University

  1 shared

• Richard J. Smith

  Brigham and Women's Hospital

  1 shared

• Andrew Kirkendall

  National Humanities Center

  1 shared

• Chester Dunning

  Simmons University

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Historical Review (2015)