Keynote Speeches
“An International Fisheries Exhibition in Milan: The Qing Empire and the World,” University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), April 12, 2024.
“Socioeconomic Diplomacy and the Qing Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century” Institute for History, Leiden University (The Netherlands), June 26, 2023.
"China and the Sea: Three Fallacies,” in “The Third Annual China Humanities Graduate Conference” University of Oxford (United Kingdom), April 23, 2019.
Guest Lectures / Conference Presentations
Oct 23, 2025: "Three Cultures Forum: Of Relevance - The Fine Line between Research and Engagement," Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
Sep 30, 2025: "From Luxury to Crisis? A Cultural History of Shark Fin in China and Beyond," Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
July 9, 2025: “Sea Charts in Early Modern China: Mapping Power and Control,” ISHMap Conference, Paris.
May 15, 2025: “Where to Go Next? Charting the Future of Maritime History,” National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei.
May 9, 2025: “Islands, Power, and Governance: The Qing and the British Empires in the Long Eighteenth Century,” National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.
May 6, 2025: “Is It Disrespectful Not to Serve It? Shark Fin Consumption and Rethinking Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,” National Taiwan University, Taipei.
April 18, 2025: “The Island Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire,” What is China? New Perspectives in New Eras, Harvard University.
Feb 18, 2025: “The Temple Archipelago: Power and Governance in Eighteenth-Century China,” Eighteenth Century Seminar, University of Cambridge.
Jan 30, 2025: “From Sea to Splendor: Shark Fin and the Rise of Marine Luxuries in Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century China,” China Research Seminar, University of Cambridge.
Sept 9, 2024: “The Cartographers and Their Sea Charts in Late Imperial China,” CCK-APC Lecture Series, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
June 12, 2024: “Salvaging Lives: Principles and Practices of Maritime Rescue in Early Modern China,” The Rescuing Sovereign at Sea: Historical Perspectives on Maritime Law, Morals, and Politics,” organized by the Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin.
May 2, 2024: Roundtable discussion with Leonard Blussé in a workshop titled “Taiwan Studies in Transition: Sources, Theories, and Approaches” (Leiden University).
Dec 4, 2023: “Offshore Governance: The Qing Empire and Its Coastal Islands in the Long Eighteenth Century” (Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai).
Dec 3, 2023: “The Sea Charts Preserved at the British Library” (National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University).
Nov 27, 2023: “The Qing Empire and Its Offshore Islands in the Long Eighteenth Century” 2023 International Symposium on Maritime History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
April 19, 2023: “At the Edge of the Maritime Frontier: The Qing Empire and its Coastal Islands Prior to the First Opium War” (Department of History, and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong).
April 17, 2023: “In Pursuit of Coastal Stability: The Cartographers and their Sea Charts in the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1839” (School of International Studies, Peking University).
April 14, 2023: “Visualising the Invisible: The Maps and Charts that Shaped the Seascape of China in the Long Eighteenth Century” (Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Feb 16, 2023: “The Qing Empire and Its Offshore Islands During the Long Eighteenth Century,” in “China Studies Seminar Series” (University of Oxford China Centre, United Kingdom)
Oct 26, 2022: “Charting Coastal Islands in the Great Qing,” in “History Department Research Seminar” (SOAS, London, United Kingdom)
Feb 24, 2022: “Sailing from Canton to Macao: A Map of the Waterways between the Two Cities,” in “Delta on the Move Lecture Series” (Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong)
Nov 3, 2021: “The Fusheng Quantu: An Exceptional Marine Painting in Nineteenth Century China,” in “China Seminar” (Leiden University, the Netherlands).
Oct 25, 2021: “A Forgotten Painting in Nineteenth Century Fuzhou,” in “Inventing Imperial History from Land and Sea” (Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
Oct 22, 2021: “In Search of a New Qing Maritime History: A Critical Review of Recent Historiography,” in “A History Department Public Lecture” (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Nov 15, 2022: “Securing the Maritime Frontier: Lan Dingyuan and the Social Obligation of the Wealthy” (The Fondation Maison des sciences, Paris, France)
Sept 16, 2019: “Clothes Make the Modern Sailor: Naval Uniforms and Westernisation in Nineteenth Century China,” in “The Warwick & Oxford Conference on China and Global History” (Warwick University & University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
March 21, 2019: Panel Organizer, “The New Qing History: A Maritime Approach,” in “Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference 2019” (Denver, U.S.) Panel members include both senior and junior scholars from Stanford University, Brandies University, Northwestern University, the University of Akron, and the University of Birmingham.
May 15, 2018: “Fortifying Frontier and Defining Sovereignty: Diagram of Coastal Defense (yingxun tu) in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century China,” in “Maritime Asia: Securitization of the China Seas” (University of California Berkeley, U.S.)
Dec 19, 2017: “An Elongated Maritime Frontier: The Qing Empire and its Inner and Outer Seas,” in “An International Conference of Ming Qing Studies” (Academia Sinica, Taipei)
Sept 14, 2017: “What is Maritime History? Some Observations and Reflections,” in “The Department of History Lecture” (Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong)
April 26, 2017: “From the Yellow Sea to the Bohai Bay: A Coastal Map in Early Qing China,” in “Comparative Histories of Asia Seminar Series” (Institute of Historical Research, London)
Nov 30, 2016: “The Great Qing and the Maritime Northeast: A Study on the Shandong, Zhili, Shengjing haijiangtu” in “China Research Seminar Series” (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Oct. 27, 2016: “The Evolving Legacy of Shi Lang in China and Taiwan: From the Late Seventeenth to Early Twenty-First Century,” in “SOAS Chinese History Seminar” (SOAS, London, United Kingdom)
Sept 12, 2016: “The Shifting Maritime Frontier: Interspacing the Inner Sea in Late Imperial China,” in “An International Conference on Customs, Trade, Communication, Frontier, and the Conception of Distance in Nineteenth Century China” (International Centre for Studies of Chinese Civilization, Fudan University, Shanghai, China)
June 23, 2015: “Mapping the Maritime Frontier: A Study on the Eighteenth Century
Qisheng yanhaitu” in “AAS-Asia Annual Conference” (Taipei, Taiwan)
May 14, 2015: “Between Sleep and Awake: A History of Insomnia in Late Imperial and Republican Shanghai,” in “McGill East Asian History Workshop” (McGill University, Montreal, Canada)
Nov 27, 2013: “Writing the Waves: Chinese Maritime Writings in the Long Eighteenth Century,” in “Indian Ocean World Center Speaker Series” (IOWC, McGill University, Montreal, Canada)
Oct. 9, 2012: “The Manchu Navy: Maritime Militarization across the Four Sea Zones in Eighteenth-Century China,” in “South East/ East Asia History Seminar [convened by Dr Andrea Janku]” (SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom)
Jul 6-8, 2012: “The Architecture of Modelling the Sea Space: The Maritime World in the High Qing and Beyond,” in “The Asia-Pacific Maritime World: Connected Histories in the Age of Empire” (Cluster of Excellence, University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Mar 13, 2012: “Inner-Outer: Sovereignty, Sea Spaces and the Great Qing,” in “Graduate Research Seminar” (Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol, United Kingdom)
Dec 1, 2011: “Ruling the Waves: High Qing Monarchs and the Four Sea Zones,” in “Cambridge Graduate Student Research Seminar” (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Sept 8-9, 2011: “Conceptualizing the Blue Frontier: The Great Qing and the Maritime World, 1680s-1840s,” in “British Association of China Studies Annual Conference 2011” (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
Jul 11, 2011: “Hai and Yang: The Domestic and Foreign Sea Spaces in Late Imperial China,” in “PhD Colloquium: Transcultural Flows: Case Studies on Modernization Processes” (Heidelberg University, Germany; July 11, 2011).
Apr 18, 2011: “The Eight Navies: Maritime Militarization in Eighteenth Century China,” in “Academic Retreat of Research Area C: Health and Environment” (Cluster of Excellence, Bad Herrenalb, Germany)
Mar 25-26, 2011: “Beyond the Four Seas: Narrating the Occident in Early Modern China,” in “Orient meets Occident” (School of History, University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom)
Jan 27-28. 2011: “Sea Kingdoms in the Far West: Contextualising the Giant European Naval Powers from the Chinese Perspective in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” in “Imagining Europe: Perspectives, Perceptions and Representations from Antiquity to the Present” (Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, the Netherlands)
