Caijun Chen

Professor Chen Caijun (陈才俊)  is a professor of World History at Jinan University (暨南大学）in Guangzhou and also serves as a visiting professor of Modern Chinese History at the Macao University of Science and Technology (澳门科技大学） in Macao. For over a decade, he has been the director of the Research Center for the History of Christianity in China at Jinan University. His research interests focus on the intersections of religious propagation and Sino-Western cultural exchanges, with a particular emphasis on the history of Christianity in China, the history of Western missionaries in China, and the history of modern Sino-American relations.

Prof. Chen pursued his academic studies at Central China Normal University （华中师范大学）in Wuhan, where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature from the Department of English, a Master’s Degree in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature from the Department of Chinese, and a Ph.D. in Modern Chinese History from the Institute of Modern Chinese History. His doctoral dissertation is titled “American Missionaries and Sino-US Diplomatic Relations in the 19th Century (1830–1899).”

Prof. Chen has published more than 100 academic articles, reviews and a number of books. His new book Convergence and Changes: Knowledge, Culture and Belief in Late Imperial China (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2022) represents his recent research into the history of Sino-Western cultural exchanges from the mid-16th century to the mid-20th century, mainly discussing the ideological collisions and dialogues resulting from the spread of Christianity in China, as well as intellectual transformation, cultural change, educational innovation, and conflict between beliefs in modern China, covering such fields as history, philosophy, religion, education, linguistics, and communication.

Prof. Chen has extensive experience in international academic exchanges. During the past two decades, he has been a visiting scholar at various universities and academic organizations in Asia, North America, and Europe, such as Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland) in 2012, Bridgewater State University (USA) in 2014-2015 and 2019, Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa (Poland) in 2017 and 2023, Russian Academy of Science in 2018, Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (Germany) in 2019, Stony Brook University in 2024, and others.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Prof. Chen has a keen interest in self-driving travel. In 2015, he drove through most of the U.S. states. He has also made several trips to the Base Camp of Mount Qomolangma (Mount Everest).