Publications
Books
The Silver Thread of the Deep: A Cultural History of Shark Fin in China and Beyond (under contract with Harvard University Press; expected August, 2026)
The Camphor War: Taiwan in the Age of Imperial Realignments (under contract with Columbia University Press; expected October, 2026)
A Sea Made into Empire: China and the Sea from the First Emperor to the Last Dynasty (under contract with Reaktion Books)
Shaping the Blue Dragon: Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2024).
- Reviews: The book has been reviewed in the International Journal of Maritime History, LSE Review of Books, Ming Qing Studies, and Maritime History Entangled.
Podcasts: New Books Network and Sea Control Podcast.
Turning the Tide: Historical Actors and Social Memory in Late Qing China 手挽銀河水：清季人物、歷史與記憶 (Taipei: China Times Publishing Co., 2022).
- Published in simplified Chinese as An Empire on the Wane: People and Society in Late Qing China 風雨山河：清季變局中的人物與社會 with the Social Sciences Academic Press.
The Placid Ocean: Qing China and the Asian Sea 海不揚波：清代中國與亞洲海洋 (Taipei: China Times Publishing Co., 2021)
- Prize: Shortlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the 2023 Humanities Chinese Edition Book Prize.
The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
- Prizes: Recipient of the International Convention of Asia Scholars 2019 Specialist Publication Accolade in the Humanities; Longlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the 2019 Humanities English Edition Book Prize.
- Translation: The refined Chinese version of the book was published by the National Taiwan University Press in 2024.
- Reviews: The book has been reviewed in China Quarterly, English Historical Review, Global Maritime History, New History (Xin Shixue), Frontier of History in China, and The Northern Mariner.
Podcast: The Chinese History Podcast
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
1. “Saving Souls from the Depths: The Society for Rescuing the Drowning (Zhengnitang) in Late Imperial China” (accepted for publication in the International Journal of Maritime History).
2. “除莠安良，肅謐洋面：道光朝的《閩浙總督奏辦洋匪盜稿文》(Suppressing the Outlaws, Pacifying the Maritime Frontier: A Study of The Memorial on Sea Bandits by the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang in the Daoguang Era),” Cheng Kung Journal of Historical Studies, issue 67 (2025), pp. 303-373.
3. "The Dunn Map: An American and a Long-forgotten Curio from Nineteenth Century China,” Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Asian Interactions, vol. 23 no. 1 (2024), pp. 1-35.
4. “Qing China and Its Offshore Islands in the Long Eighteenth Century,” The Historical Journal, vol. 67 no. 3 (2024), pp. 430-462.
5. "The Bohai Sea and Mount Penglai: In Search of a Maritime Religiosity in Imperial China,” Coastal Studies and Society, volume 2 issue 3 (2023), pp. 274-294.
6. "Yellow Sea Studies: Toward a Cross-Cultural and Transboundary Approach (co-authored with Choi Young Rae, Gao Xiaofei)," Coastal Studies and Society, volume 2 issue 3 (2023), pp. 263-273.
7. “Consuming China in Early Modern England and Beyond: A Critical Review and Re-examination,” Asian Review of World Histories, vol. 11 issue 2 (2023), pp. 180-209.
8. “Crafting a Nation, Fishing for Power: The Universal Exposition of 1906 and Fisheries Governance in Late Qing China,” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 57 no. 4 (2023), pp. 1219-1245.
9. “Fortifying the Maritime Frontier: Diagrams of Coastal Garrisons (Yingxun tu) in the Qing Empire,” Ming Qing Studies (December 2022), pp. 67-100.
10. “The Camphor War of 1868: Anglo-Chinese Relations and Imperial Realignments within East Asia” The English Historical Review, vol. 135, issue 577 (December 2020), pp. 1461-1487.
11. “Hero or Villain? The Evolving Legacy of Shi Lang in China and Taiwan,” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 53 issue 5 (September, 2019), pp. 1486-1515.
12. “China and the Global South: A Geostrategic Perspective,” Radical History Review, issue 131 (May, 2018), pp. 135-139.
13. “A Port City in Northeast China: Dengzhou in the Long Eighteenth Century,” The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (January, 2018), vol. 28 issue 1, pp. 161-187.
14. “Mapping Maritime Power and Control: A Study of the Late Eighteenth Century Qisheng yanhai tu (A Coastal Map of the Seven Provinces),” Late Imperial China, vol. 37 no. 2 (December 2016), pp. 93-136.
15. “Writing the Waves: Chinese Maritime Writers in the Long Eighteenth Century,” American Journal of Chinese Studies, vol. 22, no. 2 (October, 2015), pp. 343-362.
16. “Maritime Countries in the Far West: Western Europe in Xie Qinggao’s Records of the Sea,” European Review of History, vol.21, no.6 (December, 2014), pp. 857-871.
17. “商、工、農、士：薛福成在西力衝擊下對四民的表述與解構 (Merchants, Artisans, Grangers and Intellectuals: Xue Fucheng’s Re-conceptualization of the Social Stratification in Late Imperial China),” Jiuzhou xuelin 九州學林, vol. 31 (April, 2013), pp. 81-101.
18. “(Re) Conceptualizing the World in Eighteenth Century China,” World History Connected, vol. 9, no. 1 (February 2012) [online publication]
19. “曾左李一簡稱的由來與內容涵義之演變 (The Triumvirate in Late Imperial China: A Discussion on the Abbreviation Zeng-Zuo-Li),” Si yu yan 思與言, vol. 48 no. 3 (September, 2010), pp. 1-36.
20. "When the Sea Dragon Roars: Hydrological Disasters and the High Qing Emperors,” The School of Historical Studies, Newcastle University: Postgraduate Forum E- Journal, edition seven (2010), pp. 1-9.
21. “清季華洋幕僚的合作與互動: 以馬士 (H.B. Morse), 馬相伯與馬建忠在李鴻章幕府的關係為例 (Cooperation between Chinese and Foreign Muliao in Li Hongzhang’s Think Tank: With References to Ma Xiangbo, Ma Jianjong and H.B. Morse).” Chungguksa Yongu (The Journal of Chinese Historical Researches), no. 63 (December 2009), pp. 121-135.
22. “清季洋員在臺之任職: 以馬士 (H.B. Morse) 在淡水關的角色與影響為例 (Western Advisers in the Late Qing: H.B. Morse in Taiwan, 1892-1895),” Xinbeida shixue, vol. 7 (October, 2009), pp. 59-82.
23. “香港出版中國近代史研究著述: 中文書目繫年 (1930-2009) A Selected Bibliography on Modern Chinese History Published in Hong Kong,” Contemporary Historical Review, vol. 10, no.2 (June, 2009), pp. 60-72.
24. “清季西方顧問在華的肆應: 以馬士之在幕生涯作例 (Western muliao in Late Qing: Hosea Ballou Morse Encountered with Li Hongzhang’s mufu),” Zhongzheng lishi xuekan , vol. 11 (December, 2008), pp. 23-48.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
1. “China in the Age of Unequal Treaties,” in Chehabi Houchang Chehabi and David Motadel (eds.), Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025), pp. 171-189.
2. “高塔列遠岑，曙日平煙彩 — 塔文化與長十八世紀英倫的中國風 (Tall Tower Rises: The Social History of Chinese Pagodas in England during the Long Eighteenth Century),” in Kang-Yen Chiu, Bo-Yuan Huang (eds.), British Literature, Art and History in the Long Eighteenth Century (Taipei: China Times Publishing Co., 2023), pp. 31-76.
3. “Defining Chinese Commodities in the Early Modern Era: A Historical and Conceptual Analysis,” in David Ludden (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, published online on May 24, 2023).
4. “China and the Sea in Literature and (Mis)Perception, 1644-1839,” in Paul D’Arcy (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), vol. 1, pp. 549-573.
5. “The Pearl by the Bohai Sea: Qinhuangdao in the Early Modern Period,” in Clara Ho, Ricardo Mak, and Y.H. Tam (eds.), Voyages, Migration, and the Maritime World: On China’s Global Historical Role (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), pp. 143-164.
6. “Tea, Porcelain, and Silk: Chinese Exports to the West in the Early Modern Period,” in David Ludden (ed.), Oxford Encyclopaedia of Asian History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016-17) [online publication]
7. “康雍年間的戰船修造與樟木採辦 (Camphor-harvesting and Warship Construction in Early Qing China),” in Ricardo Mak (ed.) History of Coastal Defense in Modern China: A Revisionist Approach (Hong Kong, Joint Publishing Co. Ltd., 2017), pp. 252-277.
8. “佐主為治: 丁日昌 1843年至1864年的在幕生涯 (Assisting the Patron: Ding Richang as a muliao, 1843-1864),” in Modern History Research Centre (ed.) Ding Richang yu jindai Zhongguo (Ding Richang and Modern China) (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 2011), pp. 17-36.
Reviews and Review Articles
1. "Teaching the Frontier to Read: Language, Literacy and the Making of Modern China," LSE Review of Books (November, 2025).
2. “Editors’ Note: China in the Maritime Worlds of Asia (co-authored with Xing Hang),” China and Asia: A Journal in Historical Studies, vol. 7 issue 1 (October, 2025), pp. 1-2.
3. “Book Review on Distant Shores: Colonial Encounters on China’s Maritime Frontier. By Melissa Macauley,” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 81 issue 1 (February, 2022), pp. 173-174.
4. “Book Review on Boundaries and Beyond: China’s Maritime Southeast in Late Imperial Times by Ng Chin-keong,” Journal of World History, vol. 30 no. 3 (September, 2019), pp. 464-467.
5. “Book Review on Silk, Slaves and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield,” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 78 no. 1 (March, 2019), pp. 184-186.
6. “Book Review on Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550-1700 ed. by Tonio Andrade and Xing Hang,” Journal of World History, vol. 29 no. 1 (March, 2018), pp. 118-120.
7. “Book Review on Gang Zhao’s The Qing Opening to the Ocean,” Business History, vol. 59, no. 2 (2017), pp. 312-313.
8. “The history of Sino-foreign relations from a maritime historical perspective,” Chinese Studies, vol. 30 no. 1 (March, 2012), pp. 351-357.
9. “Book Review: Old Worlds, New Worlds: European Cultural Encounters, c. 1000- 1750 edited by Lisa Bailey, Lindsay Dieleman, and Kim M. Phillips,” Journal of the Oxford University History Society, Issue 8 (Hilary, 2012).
10. “Book Review: Leprosy in China: A History by Angela Ki Che Leung," Twenty-First Century, vol. 119 (June, 2010), pp. 152-155.
Other Contributions
1. “天下航路：宋代中國與維京人的四海競航 (A Review on Valarie Hansen’s The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began),” UNL Global Blog (May 16, 2022).
2. "黃東的故事：一個清代廣州「普通人」的大世界歷險 (Huang Dong’s Story: The Worldly Adventures of an Ordinary Man in Qing Guangzhou)," UNL Global Blog (Sept 21, 2022).
3. "布勞岱爾的「地中海研究範式」（上）：人海扣連的歷史再思考 (Braudel’s ‘Mediterranean Paradigm’ [Part I]: Rethinking the History of the Human–Sea Connection)," UNL Global Blog (Oct 19, 2023).
4. "布勞岱爾的「地中海研究範式」（下）：全球複雜多元的海洋性格 (Braudel’s ‘Mediterranean Paradigm’ [Part II]: The Complex and Plural Character of the Global Seas)," UNL Global Blog (Oct 20, 2023).
5, "海洋史研究的新啟蒙──淺論《遙遠的海岸：中國海疆上的殖民擴張》(A New Dawn for Maritime History: On Distant Shores: Colonial Expansion along China’s Maritime Frontier)," Voicetank, (Oct 20, 2023).
6. "大象的退卻：紀念歷史學家伊懋可 (1938 - 2023) (The Retreat of the Elephants: In Memory of the Historian Mark Elvin, 1938–2023)," UNL Global Blog (Jan 14, 2024).
7. “The Great Qing and the Third Frontier in the Eighteenth Century,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 56, no. 3 (October, 2011), p. 22.
8. “The East Asian Mediterranean?: The ‘Braudelian Framework’ and Maritime History in East Asia,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 56, no. 2 (May, 2011), p. 20.
9. “Report on International Symposium: Globalization, Identity, and Regional Integration in East Asia, 1861-2011,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 56 no. 2 (May, 2011), p. 24.
10. “Report on Annual Conference of the Cluster of Excellence: Asia and Europe in a Global Context, Heidelberg University,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 55 no. 4 (December, 2010), pp. 12-14.