Eric N. Danielson Author Profile
Eric N. Danielson graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a Bachelor’s degree in History in 1988, and later completed his Master’s degree in History at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1994. After earning his teaching certificate in Washington, D.C. in 1997 he received an offer to teach at a small business college in Shanghai in 1998 and has lived there ever since.
During his more than a dozen years of living in China, Eric has traveled widely throughout the country, including rural areas and small towns seldom visited by foreigners. His eyewitness investigations and historic research into little known local publications have resulted in the publication of numerous books and journal articles about China.
In 2001 he was the co-author of the sixth edition of the Odyssey guide to the Yangzi River, and was responsible for the chapters on Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan. Between 2003 and 2005 he was the author of a series of books called the New Yangzi River Trilogy, which covered the major Chinese cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing, as well as all the villages, towns, temples and mountains in between. The series also included long topical sections on Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. The New Yangzi River series received rave reviews from periodicals such as That’s Shanghai, City Weekend, Shanghai Talk, and Nanjing’s Map magazine. Discover Shanghai (2010) was Eric’s fifth book about China.
Eric has written journal articles about China for the Royal Asiatic Society and the China Heritage Quarterly, covering topics such as Buddhist temples, imperial tombs, Chongqing as the Guomindang’s wartime capital during WWII, and the rediscovery of China’s lost libraries which temporarily vanished after 1949. He also served as a guest editor for the weekly newspaper the Shanghai Star.
With his deep knowledge of China’s long history and fascinating culture, Eric’s written works make the perfect guide for any overseas visitor to China hoping to make the most of their short time there. He is a cultural intermediary who can explain the mysteries of the Chinese enigma to the English speaking world in a way they can easily understand.
