Biography

Kankan Xie’s research and teaching deal with various historical and contemporary issues of the broadly defined "Nusantara" (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore), particularly the region’s leftwing movements, the intersection of colonialism, nationalism & decolonization, as well as China’s knowledge production about Southeast Asia throughout the 20th century.

 

Educational Experience

Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Dutch Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2012-2018

M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies, Cornell University, 2010-2012

B.A. in Malay Language & Culture, Beijing Foreign Studies University, 2006-2010

 

Work Experience

Associate Professor with Tenure (2025-present), Assistant Professor (2019-2025), Department of Southeast Asian Studies, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University

 

Research Interests

Modern history of Southeast Asia; Colonialism and decolonization; Cold War; Leftwing movements.

 

Teaching Courses

03534731: Malay (A, B)

03534529: Indonesian Culture and Society

03534779: Malaysian Culture and Society

03534551: Indonesian History (1, 2)

03534750: Indonesian Movies

03534560: Politics and Economy of Indonesia after World War Ⅱ

03535760: Introduction to Southeast Asian History and Current Affairs

03539001: Introduction to China’s Relations with Neighboring Countries

03539002: Introduction to Area Studies

03916650: Southeast Asian Studies Writing Seminar

03910013: Academic Writing for Graduate Students

03918370: Modern History of Island Southeast Asia (in Chinese and English)

20810200: Critical Thinking and Academic Writing (English course for the Yenching Academy)

 

Selected Publications

Academic:

Published Books in Chinese:

1.Edited volume: 谢侃侃、张忞煜、曹寅 主编：《季风亚洲：全球视野下的跨印度洋文化网络》[Monsoon Asia: Cross-Indian Ocean Cultural Networks from a Global Perspective]，北京：北京大学出版社 [Beijing: Peking University Press]，2024年；

2.Edited collection: 谢侃侃、闵申 编译：《文莱诗选》[Anthology of Selected Bruneian Poems]，北京：作家出版社 [Beijing: Writers Publishing House]，2024年；

3.Translation: [加]杰弗里·B.罗宾逊：《杀戮季节：1965——1966年印度尼西亚大屠杀历史》[The Killing Season: The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66 by Geoffrey Robinson]，谢侃侃、罗杰 等译，北京：世界知识出版社 [Beijing: World Affairs Press]，2023年。

 

Articles in English:

1.Xie, Kankan. “Foreign Policy and Area Studies Entangled: A Case Study of the PRC’s Southeast Asian Studies.” Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy. (forthcoming)

2. Xie, Kankan. “Polyglot Networks: Overseas Chinese Returnees and the Establishment of Indonesian Language Programs in China, 1945-1965.” The China Review 25, no. 2 (2025): 121-150.

3.Xie, Kankan. “Partai Republik Indonesia: Communist exiles and their noncommunist approaches to anticolonialism.” In Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia, edited by Matthew Galway and Marc H. Opper, 165-96. Canberra: The Australian National University (ANU) Press, 2022. DOI: 10.22459/EMLCWSA.2022.05.

4.Xie, Kankan. “Symptoms of Imperial Paranoia: Colonial Policing, Imprisonment, and Exile from a Southeast Asian Perspective.” The Foundation for Law and International Affairs Review (FLIA Review) 3, no. 1 (2022): 54-7.

5.Xie, Kankan. "Harnessing Nationalism: Competition in Chinese Education in the Late-Colonial Dutch East Indies." In Empire Competition: Southeast Asia as a Site of Imperial Contestation, edited by Amy Freedman and Joseph Tse Hei-Lee, 109-31. New York: Pace University Press, 2021.

6.Xie, Kankan. “Ambivalent fatherland: The Chinese National Salvation Movement in Malaya and Java, 1937–41.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 52, no. 4 (2021): 677-700. DOI: 10.1017/S0022463421000989.

7.Xie, Kankan. "(Un)Preparing a Revolution: The Comintern in the Prelude to the 1926–1927 Uprisings in Indonesia." In The Russian Revolution in Asia: From Baku to Batavia, edited by S. Dullin, É. Forestier-Peyrat, Y.R. Lin and N. Shimazu, 122-37. London: Routledge, 2021. DOI: 10.4324/9780429352195-10

8.Xie, Kankan. “Experiencing Southeast Asian Studies in China: A Reverse Culture Shock.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 52, no. 2 (2021): 170-187. DOI: 10.1017/S0022463421000473.

9.Xie, Kankan. "Various Forms of Chineseness in the Origins of Southeast Asian Communism." In Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial, and Racial Questions, edited by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay, 286-314. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvt6rn2c.16.

10.Xie, Kankan. “Encountering Communism in a Cosmopolitan City: The Ducroux Case in the Eyes of the Singapore Press,” Berita: The Official Publication of the Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group, Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Winter 2018/19, 16-21.

11.Xie, Kankan. “The Netherlands East Indies 1926 Communist Revolt Revisited: New Discoveries from Singapore’s Digital Newspaper Archives.” Chapters on Asia. Singapore: National Library Board, 2018, 267-294.

12.Xie, Kankan. “Beyond Ideology: China-Indonesia Engagement and the Making of the Guided Democracy, 1955-1959,” Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities (JISSH), Vol. 6, Issue 1, (2016): 25–38. DOI: 10.14203/jissh.v6i1.57

13.Xie, Kankan, “How Does Ethnicity Affect Current China-Malaysia Relations?” Berkeley Student Journal of Asian Studies (BSJAS), Vol. 3, (2013): 1-25.

 

Articles in Chinese:

1.谢侃侃：《国际共运视野下的印度尼西亚共产党1926年起义——基于共产国际档案的重新解读》（The International Aspects of the 1926 Uprising of the Communist Party of Indonesia: A Reinterpretation Based on the Communist International Archives），《世界历史评论》（The World History Review），2025年第3期，第32～51页；

2.谢侃侃、粟琳：《双边共识、多边互动与系统性制约：中马关系50周年回顾》（Bilateral Consensus, Multilateral Interaction, and Systemic Constraints: A Review of Fifty Years of China-Malaysia Relations），《南洋问题研究》（Southeast Asian Affairs), 2025年第1期，第1～18页；

3.谢侃侃：《局外人的“局内观”：韩素音笔下的马来亚“紧急状态”》（An Outsider’s View on “People Inside”: Han Suyin and the Malayan Emergency），《区域》 （Remapping）第10辑，2023年，第81～95页；

4.谢侃侃.：《印度洋作为反殖民场域: 去地域化视角下的印度尼西亚民族解放运动》（The Indian Ocean as Space for Anti-Colonialism: Indonesian Nationalism in De-Territorialized Perspectives），《海洋史研究》（Studies of Maritime History）第18辑，2022年，第399～414页；

5.谢侃侃：《在中国体验东南亚研究：一次逆向文化冲击》（Experiencing Southeast Asian Studies in China: A Reverse Culture Shock），《北大区域国别研究》（Journal of Area Studies）第5辑，2022年，第159～179页；

6.谢侃侃：《英属马来亚与荷属东印度群岛华人抗日救亡运动比较研究（1937—1942）》（The Chinese National Salvation Movement: A Comparative Study of British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, 1937-1942），《南洋问题研究》（Southeast Asian Affairs），2021年第3期，第96～114页；

7.谢侃侃：《深耕与跨界：本尼迪克特·安德森和他的“椰壳碗之战》（Delving and Border-Crossing: Benedict Anderson and His Struggles Against Six “Coconut Half-Shells”），《亚非研究》（Journal of Asian and African Studies）第16辑，北京：外语教学与研究出版社 ，2021年，第120～135页；

8.谢侃侃：《战前东南亚共产主义运动中的“中国性”与“华人性”问题——以印马越泰为例》（Conceptualizing“Chineseness” in Southeast Asian Communist Movements during the Interwar Period: Indonesia, Malaya, Vietnam, and Thailand in Comparative Perspectives），《东南亚研究》（Southeast Asian Studies），2019年第6期，第130～151页；

9.谢侃侃：《印尼青年一代的中国观调查》（Indonesian Young Generation’s Perception of China）《东南亚》（现南亚与东南亚研究）（Southeast Asia, currently known as Southeast Asian & South Asian Studies）, 2008年第2期，第 67～74页。

 

Book Reviews

1.Xie, Kankan. Review of The Phantom World of Digul: Policing as Politics in Colonial Indonesia, 1926–1941, by Takashi Shiraishi, Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI), Vol. 179, Issue 2, (2023): 307-309. DOI:10.1163/22134379-17902010

2.Xie, Kankan. Review of Inventing the English Massacre: Amboyna in History and Memory, by Alison Games, Journal of Military History (JMH), Vol. 86, Issue. 1 (2022): 171–73.

3.Xie, Kankan. Review of Subversive Seas: Anticolonial Networks across the Twentieth-Century Dutch Empire, by Kris Alexanderson, Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI), Vol. 176, Issue 2-3, (2020): 405-407. DOI:10.1163/22134379-17601004

4.Xie, Kankan. Review of The Special Operations Executive in Malaya: World War II and the Path to Independence, by Rebecca Kenneison, Journal of British Studies (JBS), Vol. 59, no. 2 (2020): 449–51. DOI:10.1017/jbr.2019.279.

5.Xie, Kankan. Review of The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66, by Geoffrey Robinson, Newbooks Asia, 2019, https://www.iias.asia/the-review/killing-season.

6.Xie, Kankan. Review of The Men Who Lost Singapore, 1938-1942, by Ronald McCrum, Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI), Vol. 174, Issue 1, (2018): 36-37.

 

Media:

1.谢侃侃、王政皓：《冷战与流亡：反思印度尼西亚左翼人士在中国度过的二十年》(Cold War and Exile: Reflections on the Two Decades Indonesian Leftists Spent in China)，北京大学人文社会科学研究院·未名学者讲座122，2025年1月7日 (in Chinese)；http://www.ihss.pku.edu.cn/templates/learning/index.aspx?nodeid=124

2.Xie, Kankan. “From West Sumatra to the Wider World: Minangkabau Networks and Jeff Hadler’s Intellectual Journey as a Historian, Southeast Asianist, and Academic Mentor” In From Minang to Roman Picisan: In Fond Memory of Jeff Hadler, edited by Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez and Virginia Shih. University of California, Berkeley, 2024.

3.《季风、海洋与热带文化网络》（Monsoon, Ocean, and Cultural Networks of the Tropics），《启笛说》播客（Podcast Qidishuo），2024年6月2日 (in Chinese) https://www.xiaoyuzhoufm.com/episode/665c3fab94977a26ef9fbd2d

4.《海峡、大马与热带雨林中最后的红色电波》（Straits, Malaya, and the Last Red Broadcast in the Tropical Jungle），《中间地带》播客（Podcast Zhongjian Didai），2023年11月13日 (in Chinese) https://www.xiaoyuzhoufm.com/episode/6551ec6bab71c067fefdd291

5.Yu, Yiming; Xie, Kankan. Southeast Asian Studies in China: Interview with Dr. Xie Kankan, Peking University. Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai, 2022. https://cga.shanghai.nyu.edu/southeast-asian-studies-in-china.

6.谢侃侃：《战前印尼和马来亚共产主义运动的比较研究》[Comparative Study of the Communist Movements in Indonesia and Malaya before WWII]，《澎湃新闻·思想市场》[http://thepaper.cn/]，2020年12月3日 (in Chinese)；https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_10232141

7.谢侃侃：《印尼的行政区划和地方政府架构》[Indonesia's Administrative Divisions and Local Government Structure]，《城市中国》(Urban China), 2020年第87期，第66～69页；(in Chinese)

8.“打开区域与国别研究的新视野”[Broadening the Vision for Area Studies], 北京大学研究生教育 [PKU Graduate School], 11 May 2021. (In Chinese)

9.“讲座︱混血的游荡者：查理·罗宾逊与荷印混血社群身份认同的塑造与流变”[Lecture: Tjalie Robinson and the Construction of a Hybrid Identity Concept for the Dutch-Eurasian “Indo” Community from Indonesia], 燕京书评  [Peking Review], 9 January 2021 (in Chinese)

10.“讲座︱文学作为抵抗:纳粹占领时期的荷兰地下文学”[Lecture: Literature as Resistance: Dutch Clandestine Literature during the Nazi Occupation], 澎湃新闻  [http://thepaper.cn/], 30 December 2020 (in Chinese)

11.“讲座︱互动与皈依：东南亚华⼈信仰体系构建”[Lecture: Interaction and Conversion: Three Historical Moments in the Making of the Overseas Chinese Belief System in Southeast Asia], 澎湃新闻  [http://thepaper.cn/], 18 January 2020 (in Chinese)

12.“讲座︱去殖民、民族国家、冷战及东南亚威权主义的崛起”[Lecture: Decolonization, Nation-states, and the Rise of Southeast Asian Authoritarianism], 澎湃新闻  [http://thepaper.cn/], 10 December 2019 (in Chinese)

13.“本尼迪克特·安德森和他所经历的东南亚研究”[Benedict Anderson and his Southeast Asian Studies], 界面新闻·文化 [Jiemian.com], 15 September 2018 (in Chinese)

14.“Gordon wist precies wat hij deed tegen Xiao Wang” [Gordon knew exactly what he did to Xiao Wang], de Volkskrant, 28 November 2013 (in Dutch)

15.“苏禄王朝末代皇帝挑起菲律宾与马来西亚冲突” [Sulu Sultan Provoked the Philippines-Malaysia Conflict], 环球时报 [Global Times], 8 March 2013 (in Chinese)

16.“浪静风恬明古鲁” [The Tranquil Spray in Bengkulu], 环球时报 [Global Times], 5 July 2010 (in Chinese

17.“吉隆坡：半壁保守，半壁光鲜” [Kuala Lumpur—Half Conservativeness, Half Shininess], 环球时报 [Global Times], 26 April 2010, (in Chinese)

18.“让人心醉的爪哇之美” [Glamorous Java], 国际先驱导报 [International Herald Leader], 16 April 2009 (in Chinese)

19.“巴厘岛的狗” [Dogs in Bali], 国际先驱导报 [International Herald Leader], 28 May 2009 (in Chinese)

20.“废矿湖上的奇迹” [The Miracle on The Tin-Mining Lake], 环球时报 [Global Times], 28 July 2009 (in Chinese)

21.“恋恋三岛: 爱上大马的纯净自然” [Three Pearls off The Coast of Malay Peninsula], 环球时报 [Global Times], 4 Aug 2009 (in Chinese)

22.“苏岛雨林梦“ [Jungle Dream in Sumatera], 环球时报 [Global Time], 4 Aug 2009 (in Chinese)

 

Honors and Awards

2025 Ng Teng Fong/Sino Outstanding Young Scholar Award

2025 Teaching Excellence Award, Peking University

2024 Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) Scholars Award

2016-18 The Elvera Kwang Siam Lim Fellowship, UC-Berkeley

2016-17 John L. Simpson Memorial Fellowship, UC-Berkeley

2016-17 Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow, Natioal Library Board, Singapore

2017 The Magistretti Award, UC-Berkeley

2017 Brill Fellow of the Scaliger Institute, Leiden University Library

2015-16 T4D Pre-doctoral Fellow of the Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School

2011-12 Clarke Fellowship for East Asian Law and Culture, Cornell University

2011 The Milton L. Barnett Scholarship, Cornell University