Achievements

1)   “Imperial Ideal Compromised: Northern and Southern Courts Across the New Frontier during the Yuan.” In James Anderson and John Whitmore, eds., Forging the Fiery Frontier: Two Millennia of China’s Encounters with the South and Southwest (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 193-231.

2)  “Saltpeter Trade and War-Making in Early Modern Asia.” In Fujita Kayoko, Momoki Shiro, and Reid Anthon, eds., Offshore Asia: Maritime Interactions in Eastern Asia before Steamships (Singapore: National University Press, 2013), 130-184.

3)  “Chinese-style Firearms in Southeast Asia: Focusing on Archaeological Evidence.” In Michael Arthur Aung-Thwin and Kenneth R. Hall, eds., New Perspectives on the History and Historiography of Southeast Asia: Continuing Explorations (London: Routledge, 2011), 75-111.

4)  “From Baoshi to Feicui: Qing-Burmese Gem Trade, c. 1644–1800." In Eric Tagliacazzo and Wen-Chin Chang, eds., Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011), 203-220.

5)  Geoff Wade and Sun Laichen, eds. Southeast Asia in the 15th Century: The China Factor. Singapore and Hong Kong: Singapore University Press and Hong Kong University Press, 2010.

6)  “Shan Gems, Chinese Silver, and the Rise of Shan Principalities in Northern Burma, c. 1450-1527.” In Wade & Sun, eds., Southeast Asia in the 15th Century, 169-196.

7)  "Burmese Bells and Chinese Eroticism: Southeast Asia's Cultural Influence on China." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 2007): 247-273.

8)  "Chinese Gunpowder Technology and Dai Viet: c. 1390-1497." In Nhung Tuyết Trần & Anthony Reid, ed., Viet Nam: Borderless Histories (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 72-120.

9)  "Chinese Military Technology Transfers and the Emergence of Northern Mainland Southeast Asia, c. 1390-1527." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 34, 3 (2003): 495-517.

The Art of Coping with the Giant: Historical Relations between Asian Neighbors and China (circa 1-1900 CE)

This research is on China’s historical relations with its small EastERN Asian (including East Asian and Southeast Asian) neighbors during 1-1900 CE. It challenges the age-old Sinocentric view by focusing on the various ways of the smaller Asian countries employed in their dealing with the Chinese giant. In view of the existing studies which always focus on country-to-country relations (such as Japan-China, Korea-China, Vietnam-China, China-Burma/Myanmar, etc.), this holistic study endeavors to combine the East and Southeast Asian regions by synthesizing the existing studies and examining new materials in multiple Asian and European languages, hoping to make fresh and significant contributions to Asian and global history, and better understand the current rise of China. This project argues that smaller countries were not always weak but always artful in coping with their giant neighbor.

 

Principal areas of interest

• Asian-Chinese historical relations
• Early modern Burmese (Myanmar) and Vietnamese history