Mechthild Leutner, retired Professor for Chinese Studies at Free University Berlin, and since 2006 is Director of the Confucius Institute at the Free University. Her research focuses on modern Chinese political and social history, history of German-Chinese relations, and history of sinology in Germany. Among her numerous publications are Historiography between Politics and Science: On the Formation of Chinese Marxist Historiography in the 1930s and 1940s (Chinese edition 1997), Birth, Marriage, and Death in Beijing: Popular Culture and Elite Culture from the 19th Century to the Present (Chinese edition 2001).