Spend an evening with Professor Rana Mitter, celebrated Historian, television and radio presenter, and Director of the University of Oxford China Centre.

Rana is an expert on the emergence of nationalism in modern China, both in the early twentieth century and in the present era.  He is the author of several books, and his recent title China’s War with Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival (US title: Forgotten Ally) was named as a 2013 Book of the Year in the Financial Times and the Economist, was named a 2014 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, and won the 2014 RUSI/Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature.

Rana regularly presents and contributes to programmes on television and radio, commenting on contemporary Chinese politics and society. His television documentary The Longest War: China’s World War II was broadcast on the History Channel Asia in summer 2015.  His reviews and essays have appeared in newspapers including the Financial Times, International New York Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Caijing, and Outlook (India).

You can currently hear him on the BBC Radio 4 series Chinese Characters, exploring the country’s most notable figures that have shaped modern day China.