Key Areas of Research
Intellectual History of Modern China
- Contemporary Chinese Intellectuals and Knowledge Circulation
- Intellectual History and Historiography of Modern China
Chinese Migration and Diaspora
- History of Chinese Migration in Regional and Global Perspectives
- Comparative Migration and Diaspora Policies
Research Projects
2016-2021
Tier 1 Grant
Education Diplomacy and Soft Power: De-centering Diaspora Policies in the People’s Republic of China
This project has two main dimensions. Firstly, it discusses universities set up for Chinese overseas in the PRC in relation to ‘diaspora engagement strategies’ in the reform period (post-1978). Recent research has emphasized that these policies take place at different levels and involve non-state actors. Following these recent findings, this project looks at the role of two universities in diaspora policies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), namely Jinan University (Guangzhou) and Huaqiao University (Quanzhou). The project hence revisits the notion of ‘education diplomacy’ by placing it in a non-neoliberal framework and it argues for the revision of ‘soft power’ as Chinese language and culture education are increasingly directed at Chinese overseas.
Secondly, the project looks at universities for the Chinese overseas in the PRC as an entry point to study the relation between the PRC and the Chinese in Cold War Southeast Asia during the 1950s and 1960s. More specifically, through the case study of returned students from Southeast Asia and the re-founding of Jinan University, it analyzes the tension between efforts at cultural diplomacy and ideological re-education that was present in policies towards the Chinese overseas during this time period. As such, it seeks to contribute to studies on the ‘cultural Cold War’ and the role of education in war efforts from the angle of universities for ‘Chinese’ returnees.
2013-2018
Startup Grant
Project 1: Revolution Reconsidered: Debating Politics, Culture, and History in Early 1990s China
This project grew out of my dissertation and evolved into the book project Realistic Revolution: Contesting Chinese History, Culture, and Politics after 1989. It brings together debates on history, culture, and politics among Chinese intellectuals during the early 1990s. The study highlights the interconnection between the popularity of economically liberal and conservative theories in response to the international decline of socialism and the failed advocacy of political liberalism of 1989 and the new paradigm of ‘anti-radicalism’ (fan jijin zhuyi) that also manifested itself in cultural and historical debates of the time. Whereas the emphasis in political debates was on gradual reform, debates on culture and history reflected similar concerns in the form of a rejection of the May Fourth and revolutionary paradigms of ‘no making without breaking’ (bupo buli), the advocacy of historical continuity, and the rewriting of modern history as the history of modernization instead of the history of the struggle against feudalism and imperialism.
In addition to the book, this project also led to the publication of a special issue in Contemporary Chinese Thought on the liberal Zhu Xueqin, entitled: After Revolution: Reading Rousseau in 1990s China and to a book chapter on the Confucian philosopher Chen Lai, entitled “Confucianism, Community, Capitalism: Chen Lai and the Spirit of Max Weber” (see publications section).
Project 2: Inclusion Exclusion, Confusion: Chinese and Indian Diaspora Engagement Strategies and Changing Conceptions of the Nation
This project analyzes changing meanings of nationalism in China and India from the angle of the interconnection between diaspora policies, discursive forms of diaspora engagement, and conceptions of the nation. Whereas the rare existing comparative studies of Chinese and Indian diaspora policies have focused on recent periods following economic restructuring in both countries, this project has used a historical perspective. Comparing three specific periods – the early twentieth century, the period between the 1950s and the 1970s, and the period since the 1970s – the findings indicate that there was a similarity between China and India in terms of how conceptions of the nation expanded and contracted together with both domestic and international changes during these periods, in spite of differences in nationality laws. As such, it demonstrates that countries with nationality laws based on jus sanguinis are not necessarily always more inclusive towards diaspora populations than those with nationality laws based on jus soli. In both cases, there is a tension at work between a state-led paradigm that is territorial in nature and ethnic and cultural notions of nationhood. For details, see the article “Behind the Ties that Bind: Diaspora-making and Nation-building in China and India in Historical Perspective, 1850s-2010s” (see publications section).