王笛

Wang Di's publicly available biographical information is limited, and his identity can mainly be confirmed through the research directions shown in his works. The library holds four of his books, all falling under social science, social and cultural studies, and history. His representative work, Stepping Out of the Closed World: A Social Study of the Upper Yangtze Region, 1644–1911, examines long-term social change in the upper Yangtze region from a regional-history perspective; Paoge: Violence and Order in Rural Western Sichuan in the 1940s focuses on secret societies and local order in rural western Sichuan; while Entering the Interior of Chinese Cities: Looking at History from the Lowest Levels of Society and The Vanished Ancient City: Memories of Daily Life in Chengdu in the Late Qing and Early Republic turn to the urban lower classes and memories of everyday life in Chengdu. His writing often begins with the lowest levels of society and local detail, reconstructing historical scenes through archival and fieldwork-style materials. It combines scholarly rigor with readability and offers concrete, solid observations for understanding local society in modern China.