East Asia: Politics, Economy, and Society

Curriculum Vitae
[March 2007]

R. Bin Wong
Department of History
7262 Bunche Hall
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Higher Education

B.A. in Economics with High Honors Distinction, University of Michigan, 1971, (thesis on the 18th c. French fiscal system).

M.A. in Regional Studies East Asia, Harvard University, 1973, (thesis on the rural economy of Hubei province in the 1930s).

Ph.D. in History, Harvard University, 1983, (dissertation on the political economy of food supplies in Qing China).


Academic Honors, Fellowships, and Grants

Phi Beta Kappa, University of Michigan, 1971.

National Defense Foreign Language Fellowships, summer 1972, academic years 1973 1974, 1974 1975, 1976 1977.

Fulbright Hays Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, September 1977 August 1978 (Japan and Taiwan).

Research Scholar Fellowship from the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, 1981.

Junior Fellow, University of Michigan Society of Fellows, 1982 1985.

Mellon Foundation Young China Scholar Fellowship, 1986.

Research Scholar Fellowship from the Committe on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, 1990.

Co-organizer, Conference grants from University of California Pacific Rim Research Program, 1991, 1992.

Co-organizer, Conference grant from University of California, Humanities Research Institute, 1992.

Co-organizer, Conference grants from University of California, Irvine, Vice Chancellor for Research, 1991, 1992.

Pacific Rim Exchange Grant, Education Abroad Program, University
of California, 1992.

Principal Investigator, Pacific Rim Research Grant, University of California Office of the President, 1994-1995 [for collaborative research].

Professional Appointments

Teaching

Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, 1973 1975.

Tutor, Harvard University, 1975 1976, 1978 1979.

Instructor, Wellesley College, 1979 1980.

Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, 1984 1985.

Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine, 1985 1987.

Directeur d'études associé, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), Spring 1986; Spring 1993, Spring 1998, Spring 2000, Spring 2003, Spring 2007.

Associate Professor of History, University of California, Irvine, 1987 1995.

Professor of History, University of California, Irvine, 1995 - present.

Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Literatures, UCI, 1996 - 1997.

Professor of History and the Social Sciences, UCI, 1997 –1999

Chancellor’s Professor of History and Professor of Economics, UCI, 2000- 2004

Professor of History and Director, Asia Institute, UCLA 2004 – present.

Visiting Professor, College de France, Paris, June 2005.

Administration

Bilingual Administrative Assistant to the Director, Chinese School, Middlebury College, summers 1974 1976.

Acting Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, School of Humanities, University of California, Irvine, fall 1988.

Director, Focused Research Program in East Asian Studies, UC Irvine 1990 - 1993.

Director, Asian American Studies Program, UC Irvine 1992 - 1996.

Director, Center for Asian Studies, UC Irvine 1999 –

Interim Chair, Department of Asian American Studies, Fall 2002.


Research

Research Associate, East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1975 1976.

Visiting Research Associate, Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 1977 1978.

Post doctoral Scholar, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1984 1985.

Visiting Research Associate, Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, Fall 1992.

Visiting Research Associate, Institute of Asian Cultural Studies, International Christian University (Tokyo), Fall 1992.

Visiting Fellow, Institute of Modern History and Institute of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, Summer 1995


Publications

Books

1. with Pierre-Etienne Will, Nourish the People: State Civilian Granaries in China, 1650 1850. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Publications in Chinese Studies, 1991).

2. with Mark Kishlansky, Patrick Geary and Patricia O'Brien, Societies and Cultures in World History. (Harper Collins, 1995)

3. edited with Theodore Huters and Pauline Yu, Culture and State in Chinese History: Conventions, Critiques and Accomodations. (Stanford University Press, 1997).


4. China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience (Cornell University Press, 1997)

5. Zhuanbian de Zhongguo—lishi bianqian yu Ouzhou jingyan de juxian (Jiangsui renmin chubanshe, 1998) [a Chinese version of #4]

6. translator, The Development of Qing dynasty Jiangnan Agriculture (by Li Bozhong) (MacMillan, 1998).

Articles

7. Translator, "Agricultural Modernization and Agricultural Production Efficiency", by Zheng Linzhuang, Social Sciences
in China 1981.3.

8. "Food Riots in the Qing Dynasty", Journal of Asian Studies, 41.4 (August 1982): 767 788.

9. "Les emeutes de subsistances en Chine et en Europe occidentale", Annales: economies, societies, civilisations 38.2 (mars avril 1983): 234 258.

10. with Peter C. Perdue, "Famine's Foes in Ch'ing China", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 43.1 (June 1983): 291 332.]

11. "China and World History," Late Imperial China 6.2 (December 1985): 1 12.

12. "Jinian chuangkan wu zhounian bitan" (Thoughts to commemorate the 5th anniversary of publication) [one of 3 American based scholars to have remarks solicited and published by the journal to discuss the future of social and economic history in China], Zhongguo shehui jingji shi yanjiu, 1987.2: 4 5.

13. "Rural Industry and Demographic Change in China and Western Europe: A Preliminary Sketch", Chugoku kindaishi kenkyu (September 1988) 6: 1 32.

14. "Naguere et aujourd'hui: Refle 1988) 7.1: 7 28.

15. with Peter C. Perdue, "Shiba shiji Hunan de liangshi shichang yu liangshi gongji," (18th-century Hunan grain markets and food supplies), Qiusuo (1990)

16. with James Lee, "Population Movements in Qing China and Their Linguistic Legacy," in William Wang, ed., Language and Dialects of China (Berkeley: Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 1991).

17. "The Development of China's Peasant Economy: A New Formulation of an Old Problem," Peasant Studies 18.1 (Fall 1990)

18. "Lineages and Local Government in Late Imperial and Modern China," Jinshi jiazu yu zhengzhi biaojiao lishi lunwen ji (Conference volume on modern comparative history of family and politics), (Taibei: Modern History Institute, Academia Sinica, 1992) vol. 2: 779-806.

19. with Peter C. Perdue, "Grain Markets and Food Supplies in 18th-century Hunan," in Lillian Li and Thomas Rawski, eds., Chinese History in Economic Perspective, University of California Press: 1992.

20. with William Lavely, "Family Division and Mobility in North China", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1992.

21. "Chinese Economic History and Development: A Note on the Myers-Huang Exchange," Journal of Asian Studies 51.3 (August 1992): 600-612.

22. "Zhongguo yu Xi Ou nongcun gongye yu jingji fazhan de bijiao yanjiu" (Comparative research on rural industry and economic development in China and Western Europe). Zhongguo shehuijingjishi yanjiu (1992.4: 1-9).

23. "Studying Republican China's Economy: What's New and What's Needed," Republican Studies 18.1 (November 1992): 77-89.


24. "Dimensions of State Expansion and Contraction in Imperial China," Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient (1994) 37: 54-66.

25. "Great Expectations: The 'Public Sphere' and the Search for Modern Times in Chinese History," Chugokushi gakku (Studies in Chinese History) 3 (October 1993): 7-50.

26. "Social Order and State Activism in Sung China: Implications for Later Centuries," Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies 26 (1996): 229-50.

27. "Xifang xuejie dui jindai Zhongguo jingjishi de yanjiu qushi" (Research trends in Western studies of modern Chinese economic history), Guoshiguan guankan 20 (June 1996): 7-12.

28. with Theodore Huters and Pauline Yu, "Shifting Paradigms of Political and Social Order," in Huters, Wong and Yu, eds., Culture and State in Chinese History: Conventions, Accommodations and Critiques. Stanford University Press. 1997.

29. "Confucian Agendas for Material and Ideological Control in Modern China," in Huters, Wong and Yu, eds., Culture and State in Chinese History: Conventions, Accommodations and Critiques. Stanford University Press. 1997.

30. "Chinese Views of the Money Supply and Foreign Trade, 1400-1850" in Sally Miller and A. J. H. Latham, eds., Studies in the Economic History of the Pacific Rim. Routledge. 1997.

31. "Chinese Understandings of Economic Change: From Agrarian Empire to Industrial Society," in Timothy Brook and Hy V. Long, eds., Culture and Economy: The Shaping of Capitalism in Eastern Asia, University of Michigan Press, 1997.

32. “The Importance of Archives to the Study of Ch’ing China’s Political Economy,” in Symposium on Modern Chinese Historical Archives. Academia Historica. 1998.

33. with William Lavely, "Revising the Malthusian Narrative: The Comparative Study of Population Dynamics in Late Imperial China," Journal of Asian Studies (August 1998)

34. "The Changing Horizons of Chinese Tax Resistance," in Michael P. Hanagan, Leslie Page Moch and Wayne te Brake, eds., Challenging Authority: The Historical Study of Contentious Politics. University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

35. "Citizenship in Chinese History," in Michael P. Hanagan and Charles Tilly, eds., Recasting Citizenship. Rowan and Littlefield, 1999.

36. "The Political Economy of Agrarian China and its Modern Legacy" in Timothy Brook and Gregory Blue, eds, China and Capitalism: Geneologies of Sinological Knowledge. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

37. "Two Kinds of Nation, What Kind of State" in Timothy Brook and Andre Schmid, eds., Nation Work. University of Michigan Press, 2000.

38. "Opium and Chinese State Making" in Timothy Brook and Bob Wakabayashi, eds., Opium and Asian History. University of California Press, 2000.

39. “Zhongguo de zhengzhi jingji qu” (China’s political economic regions), in Zhang Guogang, chief editor, Zhongguo shehui lishi pinglun vol. 2. Tianjin guji chubanshe, 2000.

40. “Lishi bianqian yu zhengzhi de kenengxing—Zhong Xi shehui lilun de bijiao” (Historical change and political possibilities—a comparison of Chinese and Western social theory), Zhongguo xueshu 4 (2000): 138-59.

41. "Entre monde et nation :Les regions Braudelienne en Asie” in Annales HSS, 56.1 (jan-fev 2001): 5-42.

42. “Benevolent and Charitable Activities in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: perspectives on state and society in late imperial and modern times,” Review of Bibliography in Sinology new series 17 (2000): 249-58.

43. “Tax resistance, economy and state transformation in China and Europe,” Economics of Governance Volume 2.1 (2001): 69-83.

44. "The Social and Political Construction of Identities in the Qing Empire", Leonard Blussé and Felipe Fernándes-Armesto, eds., Shifting Communities and Identity Formation in Early Modern Asia, CNWS, Leiden , The Netherlands 2003, pp. 61-72

45. “The Search for European Differences and Domination in the Early Modern World:
A View from Asia,” American Historical Review, 107.2 (April 2002): 447-69.
46. “Formal and Informal Mechanisms of Rule and Economic Development:
The Qing Empire in Comparative Perspective,” Journal of Early Modern History, 5.4 (2001): 387-408.

47. “Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Dynamics of Political and Economic Change,” in Miura Toru, ed., Ownership, Contracts and Markets in China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East: the potentials of Comparative Study. University of Tokyo Islamic Area Studies Project. 2001.

48. “Xu,” Baiyin ziben, 12-17 Zhongyang bianze chubanshe 2000 ( preface to the Chinese edition of Andre Gunder Frank, Reorient)

49. “Minzhong shidai” yu Xifang dui Zhongguo jindaishi de yanjiu” (The age of the masses and Western research on modern Chinese history),” Zhongguoshi yanjiu dongdai 1995.4: 19-22 (a Chinese edited version of #25).

50. “Kokka to sekai no aida—Ajia ni okeru Buroderu no (chiiki)—“Between state and world—Braudel (regions) in Asia) Shiso 937 (2002.5): 5-30 [a revised version of #41].

51. “The Political Economy of Chinese Rural Industry And Commerce in Historical
Perspective,” Etudes Rurales (Le retour du marchand dans la Chine rurale) 161-162, (janvier-juin 2002): 153-64

52. “Relationships between the Political Economies of Maritime and Agrarian China, 1750-1850,” in Wang Gungwu and Ng Chin-Keong eds., Maritime China and the Overseas Chinese Communities, Wiesbaden (Germany): Harrassowitz Verlag 2004

53. “Between Nation and World: Braudelian Regions in Asia,” Review XXVI.1 2003: 1-45. (a revised English version of #41).

54. “Asian Values: In Search of Possibilities,” Korea Journal, 42.2 (Summer 2002.): 181-93.

55. “Beyond Sinocentrism and Eurocentrism,” Science and Society, 67.2 (Summer 2003): 173-83.

56. “Tax resistance, economy and state transformation in China and Europe,” in Amihai Glazer and Kai Konrad, eds., Social Conflict, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, forthcoming (reprint of #43).

57. “The Political Ambiguity of Voluntary Associations in Late Imperial and Modern China:Chinese Forms of Cultural Hegemony, Coercion and Social Control in Comparative Perspective,” Global Economic Review, 31.1 (2002): 27-46.

58. “Integrating China into World Economic History,” an electronic publication of the Association for Asian Studies at http://www.aasianst.org/catalog/wong.pdf [Spring 2003] [this piece is part of the discussion begun by Philip Huang’s critique of Kenneth Pomeranz’s The Great Divergence which the Journal of Asian Studies accepted for publication at the AAS website because of space constraints in the journal]

59. “Early Modern Economic History in the Long Run,” Science and Society, summer 2004.

60. “Chiiki sekai no keiken o manabe” (East Asia as a World Region in the 21st Century”. Nihon Keizai Shimbun 13 August 2004.

61. “China’s Agrarian Empire: a different kind of empire, a different kind of lesson.” In Craig Calhoun, Frederick Cooper and Kevin W. Moore, eds., Lessons of Empire. New Press, 2005.

62. “China,” “Comparative History,” and “The State” 3 essays in the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History, Berkshire Publishing Group, 2005.

63. “Asia in the Future of Economic History” Economic and Political Weekly 25 December 2004: 5669-5672.

64. ““The Political Ambiguity of Voluntary Associations in Late Imperial and Modern China:Chinese Forms of Civic Possibility, Past and Present,” in Hahm Chaihark and Daniel A. Bell, eds., The Politics of Affective Relations. Lexington Books, 2004. (a revised version of #57)

65. “Il n’y aura pas de revolution industrielle!” L’Histoire (June-August 2005) No. 300: .pp 64-71.

66. “Taxing Transformations: Some Fiscal Features of Chinese States Past and Present” Etudes Chinoises. 24 (2005): 113-35.

67. “Nongye diguo de zhengzhi jingji tizhi ji qi dangdai de yiyi” in Zhongguo yu lishi zibenzhuyi Taipei: Chu Liu, 2004 and Beijing: Xinxing chubanshe, 2005. (a Chinese translation, in regular and simplified characters of #36)

68. “Detecting the Significance of Place,” in Robert E. Goodin and Charles Tilly, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis, Oxford University Press, 2006, 534-546.

69. 18世纪以来中国财政变迁及相关问题 (Chinese fiscal changes since the eighteenth century and related problems) 史林 2006年第2期







Other Papers and Reports

"Social Responsibility Accounting: The Measurement and Reporting of Corporate Social Responsibility in the U.S." (a 125 page study submitted to the Japan Trade Center (proprietary research) 1979.

Translator, "A Report on the Reasons for Expensive Grain" by Yang Xifu" (a memorial of 1748, translation used in Chinese history courses at Harvard University), 1980.

with William Lavely, "Family Division, Reproductivity and Landholding in North China", Population Studies Center Research Report (University of Michigan) 84 65, October 1984.

with James Lee, "New Research Sources for the Study of Late Imperial China", China Exchange News, December 1987.


Current Research (book projects only)


book-length manuscript on Chinese political economy, 1650-2000

East Asian history textbook (contract with W. W. Norton).

Chinese history textbook (contract with W. W. Norton).

with Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, a book-length project on Chinese and European economic history

with Karen Barkey and Eiko Ikegami, a comparion of Chinese, Japanese and Ottoman state making experiences


Conferences, Conventions and Invited Talks Since 2000


“The Chinese State and Useful Knowledge: Criteria, Intentions and Consequences,” Conference in Global History on Regimes for the Generation of Useful and Reliable Knowledge in Europe and Asia, 1365-1815. Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park. 14-16 April 2000.

“The Chinese State: Persistent or Peculiar?” Institute de l’Asie Orientale, Lyon, 2 May 2000.

“Between Nation and World: Braudelian Regions in Asia,” Conference entitled “Penser le Monde,”
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 10 May 2000.

“Historical Perspectives on Chinese Democratic Possibilities,” Centre Chine, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 16 May 2000

“The Social and Political Construction of Identities in the Qing Empire,” Itinerario-Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies Conference “Shifting Communities and Identity Formation in Early Modern Asia,” Wassenar, Netherlands, 22-23 May 2000.

“Formal and Informal Mechanisms of Rule and Economic Development: The Qing Empire in Comparative Perspective,” Conference on “Shared Histories of Modernity: Law, State and Administration in China and the Ottoman Empire,” Sabanci University, Istanbul, 2-3 June 2000.

“Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Dynamics of Political and Economic Change” Conference on Property and Markets in China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, sponsored by the Islamic Area Studies Program, Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 24 September 2000

“Asian Maritime Trade in Global Perspective,” Presidential Panel, Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Indiana University, 5 October 2000.

“Taxation and Good Governance in China, 1700-1950,” Working Group on Efficient Government, UCLA Center for Global and Comparative Research, 3 February 2001.

“State Transformations in Regional Contexts: Xinjiang and the Ryukyus,” Interactions: Regional Studies, Global Processes and Historical Analysis (sponsored by the American Historical Association, the Library of Congress, African Studies Association, the Association of Asian Studies, the Community College Humanities Association, the Conference on Latin American History, the Latin Amercian Studies Association, the Middle Eastern Studies Association and the World History Association), Library of Congress, 28 February – 3 March 2001.

“Taxation and Good Governance in Modern Chinese History,” Department of History, Stanford University, 15 March 2001.

“Torture and Transformations of the Chinese State,” The Ethics and Aesthetics of Torture: Contextualizing China,” Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, University of Toronto, 19-20 March 2001

“From Agrarian Empire to National State: 20th-century Chinese State and Nation in Late Imperial Perspective,” Association of Asian Studies Annual Convention, Chicago, 22-25 March 2001.

“Xifang shehuikexue lilun yu Zhongguo lishi xianshi” (Western social theory and Chinese historical realities,” Tsinghua University Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6 April 2001.

“Beyond Grand Social Theory: Comparative History and its Relevance to Literary Studies” International Conference on Esthetique du Divers, Institute of Comparative Literature and Culture, Peking University, 7-10 April 2001.

“East Asia as a Confucian World,” New Directions in East and Southeast Asian Cultural History, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University,13-14 April 2001

“China: Smithian Growth and the Political Economy of Agrarian Empire” States, Smithian Growth and the Formation of Markets in Europe and Asia, 1368-1815, University of London Institute of Historical Research Programme in Global History, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, 27-29 April 2001

“China: Sprouts of Capitalism, Sprouts of Democracy and the Dangers of Weeding the Garden,” East Asian Institute, Columbia University. 10 October 2001.

“Expressing Political Interests and Beliefs in Late Imperial China,” The Center for Historical Social Science, Columbia University. 11 October 2001.

“The Political Economy of East Asia in 1800, 1900, and 2000,” Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, 15 November 2001.

“Recent Trends in Chinese Economic History,” (in Chinese), Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 14 December 2001.

“From Agrarian Empire to National State: 20th-century China in Late Imperial Perspective,”
Conference on “Translating the Nation in East Asia,” UCLA Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies, 8-9 March 2002.

“Comparative, Regional and Cultural Perspectives on Chinese Economic History,” Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of History 28 March 2002.

“The Political Ambiguity of Voluntary Associations in Late Imperial and Modern China:
Chinese Forms of Cultural Hegemony, Coercion and Social Control in Comparative Perspective,” Conference on "Affective Networks and Civil Society: A Comparative Approach"
City University of Hong Kong, 1-4 April 2002.

“Late Imperial Perspectives on Citizenship and Nation in Modern Chinese History,” Conference on “East Asian State Making Revisited,” Leiden University, 28-30 June 2002.

“Late Imperial State-Society Relations: A Chinese Continuum and its Transformation,” University of Tokyo, Institute of Oriental Culture Conference on “Early Modern East Asian States,” 3-4 July 2002.

“Dynamics of State Transformations in Southeast and Northeast Asia,” Kyoto University, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 8 July 2002.

“East Asian Political Economy in Global Contexts, 1800, 1900, and 2000,” Osaka University Department of Economics, 9 July 2002.

“The Political Economy of East Asia in Global Contexts, 1800, 1900, and 2000,” keynote address to the World History Association Annual Conference, Seoul National University, 15-18 August 2002.

“Chinese Perspectives on World History, ”“Asia in the Curriculum” plenary address, Columbia University, 19-20 September 2002.

“從 財 政 角 度 談 二 十 世 紀 中 國 的 國 家 形 成” , (20th-century Chinese State Building from the Perspective of Fiscal Administration), Chinese Modern History Association Annual Meeting on Twentieth-century Chinese State Building, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 13-14 December 2002.

“Some Chinese Perspectives on World History: Comparisons and Connections from the Other Side of the World” for a conference “Globalizing History at the University of Florida”
4-5 April 2003.

“’Citizenship’ in Twentieth Century China”, UCLA Department of Sociology, 28 April 2003.

“The Role of the Chinese State in Long-distance Commerce” for “The State and the Formation of Markets”,a meeting of the Global Economic History Network sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, London 18-20 September 2003

China’s Agrarian Empire: A different kind of empire, a different kind of lesson for “Lessons of Empire”, A Conference Sponsored by SSRC at New York University, 26-27 September 2003

“China in Global, Regional, and Local Perspectives,” University of the Pacific, 16 October 2003.


“Historical Perspectives on Negotiating with Terror” for “Did the World Turn Upside Down? 9/11 in Historical Context” at University Toronto, 3 November 2003.

“An 18th-century Fiscal Perspective on 19th & 20th Century Chinese State Making” Fairbank Center, Harvard University, 11 March 2004

“New Views of China in Asian and World History,” Hitotsubashi University, 22 April 2004

“Empires in World History and Social Theory” for a symposium on Teikoku no kenkyū
Kyoto University 24 April 2004.

“Comparing Chinese and European History: Old Perspectives and New Strategies,” Shanghai World Forum on Chinese Studies, 20-22 August 2004.

“Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Economic and Political Changes since 1500,” Second International Chinese History Conference held at Qinghua University Beijing, 22-24 August 2004.

“The Rise of Contemporary China in Late Imperial Perspective,” Conference on the Rise of China to inaugurate the Institute for Historical Research at Seoul National University, 4-5 November 2004.

“Late Imperial Perspectives on Government and the Activities of Voluntary Associations in Modern China” International Conference of Asian Studies, Taipei Taiwan, 7-10 December 2004

“Fiscal Activities of the Qing Imperial Household and the Transformation of the Chinese State in Comparative Perspective” International Symposium on Financial Change and Entrepreneurial Culture in Modern China, Modern History Institute, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 15-17 December 2004..

“The Changing Fiscal Regime of Qing Dynasty China,” conference entitled “Toward the Twentieth Century in Asia: Comparative Perspectives on Politics, Economy and Society in China and India,” May 19-22, 2005, Franklin Center, Duke University.

“The Chinese State, Social Order and Economic Change,” for a conference ““Weber’s Economic Ethics of the World Religions: New Perspectives,”Deutsches Haus, New York University, 8-9 April 2005.
“Late Imperial Perspectives on Changing Patterns of Political Engagement in Twentieth-Century China ,” Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 29 April 2005.

“Can We Assume that States Seek to Maximize Revenues? Late Imperial China as Another Kind of Rational State”, seminar to the Economic History Department, University Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. 6 June 2005.

“Political Economy in Modern Chinese History: Another Way to Provincialize Europe,” for conference entitled “Provincializing Europe? Potential and Pitfalls of (Non-) Western Approaches to History”, University of Erfurt, 10-11 June 2005.

“Agrarian Empire in East Asia,” at a European Science Foundation funded conference entitled “Historical Sociology and Universal Empire,” University of Copenhagen, Denmark. 18-19 June 2005.

“Explaining Economic Growth in Late Imperial and Modern China,” College de France, 2 June 2005

“Empire in Chinese History,” College de France, 9 June 2005.

“Taxing Transformations: Fiscal Features of Chinese States,” College de France, 16 June 2005

“Interesting Associations: Chinese States in Theory and Practice,” College de France 23 June 2005.

财政与历史变化 (Fiscal Administration and Historical Change), Institute of History, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 25 August 2005.

“Another look at credit markets and investment in China and Europe before the Industrial Revolution,” Economic History Workshop, Yale University. 21 September 2005.

“Taxation and Good Governance in China, 1500-1914,” Economic History Workshop, Harvard University, 23 September 2005.

“Revisiting China Transformed”, University of British Columbia, 6 October 2005.

“China, Japan and the Ottoman Empire: Paths into the Contemporary World” (with Eiko Ikegami) Amherst College, 17 October 2005.

“Chinese Economic and Political Change in Historical Perspective,” Peking University, 15 November 2005.

“An Economic History Perspective on Chinese Modernity,” Beijing Forum, 16-18 November 2005.

“Social Stratification in Contemporary China: Legacies of the Late Imperial Past,” Yale University January 2006.

“Chinese History and Western Social Theories: Problems and Possibilities” Academia Sinica, Taipei March 2006

“Late 19th-Century Chinese Fiscal Practices in Historical and Comparative Perspective” UCLA-Duke-UCI meeting on modern Chinese and Indian history, May 2006.

“Multiple growth paths: Lessons from Chinese Economic History” Hong Kong June 2006

“Locating Area Studies Between the Humanities and Sciences: Intellectual and Institutional Possibilities” at the Asian New Humanities Net Third Annual Meeting, “The Fine Line In-Between: the Humanities and the Sciences in the 21st Century.” National Central University, Taiwan 13-15 June 2006.

“Chinese Fiscal Reforms in Historical and Comparative Perspectives,” Shanghai World Forum, 21-22 September 2006

“区域性世界与世界性区域” (Regional Worlds and World Regions) 上海社会科学院历史研究所演讲 (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences) 18 September 2006


“Fiscal and Administrative Frontiers in Chinese State Making,” Duke September 2006

“Parallels and Divergences in Early Modern and Modern World History: Thoughts for Framing Maritime Asia as a Region,” Workshop on Dynamic Rimlands and Open Heartlands: Maritime Asia as a Site of Interactions, 27-28 October 2006, Nagasaki, Japan.







Professional Activities

Member, American Historical Association,

Member, Association for Asian Studies.

Member, World History Association.

Member, Program Committee for 1993 Annual Convention, Association for Asian Studies.

Panelist, National Endowment of Humanities Asian Translations and Series, 1992, 1994.

Panelist, National Endowment of Humanities Documentary Collections, 1996.

Member, Fairbank Book Prize Committee, American Historical Association, 1999 - 2001

Member, Program Committee for the 1992 Annual Convention, American Historical Association

Member, Committee on Minority Historians, American Historical Association, 1991-1992.

Member, Editorial Board, Modern China, 1986 1992.

Member, Steering Committee, Southern California Regional China Seminar, 1985 1991.

Member, North American Consultative Committee, European American Exchange in East Asian Studies, 1988 1989.


Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 1996 - 1998.

Member, Board of Editors, American Historical Review, 2003 – 2006.

Member, Editorial Advisory Board, International Journal of Asian Studies (Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo), 2003 –

Member, Executive Committee, World History Association, 2004-

Member, Board of Trustees of the National Council for History Education, 2005-

Member, China and Inner Asian Council, Association for Asian Studies, 2006-

Member, Faculty Advisory Committee, Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) Program, Social Sciences Research Council, 2006-

Contributor, Revue Bibliographique de Sinologie (an annual review of important scholarship on China published in European and Asian languages), 1985 2003.

Referee, research proposals for Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, 1982, 1984.

Referee, grant proposals on China to programs sponsored by the ACLS and SSRC, 1987, 1988, 2003, 2004.

Referee, major video project on China for the Annenberg Foundation, 1988.

Referee, manuscripts for Cambridge University, Garland, Harvard University Houghton Mifflin, Norton, SUNY, University of California presses.

Reviewer, assessment of funding priorities for Chinese area studies in the 1990s for the ACLS and SSRC, Fall 1989.

Book reviews, article summaries and article referee for journals including Agricultural History, American Historical Review, American Sociological Review, China Quarterly, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Economic History, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Late Imperial China, and the Political Science Quarterly.

Reviews for tenure, full professor promotion, and chair professors at universities including Stanford University, UCLA, UCSB, University of Toronto, University of Tulsa, Georgetown University, University of Washington, New York University, University of British Columbia. 1989 – present.

Visiting Committees, Hunter College Department of History, May 1995; University of Toronto, Department of History, Spring 2003; National University of Singapore Department of History, February 2006; Brown University Department of History, March 2007.

University and Community Service

All-UC Economic History Group Steering Committee, 1988-2004.

Campus level committees on cultural diversity, writing excellence, and education abroad programs.

Member, Executive Committee, Chinese American Council of the Historical and Cultural Foundation of Orange County, 1986 1989; (Chairman, 1987 1988).

Campus Liason, Chinese American Faculty Association, 1987 1990; keynote speaker at the 1990 Annual meeting.

University Speakers' Bureau, 1987 1990 (talks to local high schools, at Leisure World, International Baccalaureate Convention).