As China seeks to position itself as a reasonable power on the world stage, it must recognize the needs and aspirations of the multitude of “minority nationalities” within its territories. In this talk, Dr. Leo Shin will examine some of the “minority problems” China is encountering and situate them within a broader historical context. As a cultural historian of later imperial China, Professor Shin offers courses on Chinese and world history. Visitors are encouraged to learn more about his research and teaching as well as to explore the wider world of history and China resources.
Speaker Bio
Leo K. Shin is a cultural historian specializing in later imperial China. His research interest lies in the relationship between culture, identity, and historical memory. In his reading and writing, he seeks to understand in particular how the sociology of culture—the production, transmission, and consumption of beliefs and practices—has shaped not only how the boundaries of China have been drawn but also how China itself has been historicized. His current book project, The Uses of a Chinese Martyr, is a study of the memories of Yue Fei (1103–1142), the famous Song-dynasty general who was ordered to death by the emperor but who has since been transformed into the premier symbol of loyalism and patriotism in Chinese societies. The study examines the history of this transformation and explores what it may reveal about the relationship between culture, identity, and memory in later imperial China.
UBC Library Resources
Shin, Leo K. The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). [Available at Walter C. Koerner Library]
Shin, Leo K. “Thinking about ‘Non-Chinese’ in Ming China.” Forthcoming in Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China, 1500-1800, ed. Peter Miller and François Louis. [Link]
Shin, Leo K. “The Nation and Its Logic in Early Twentieth-Century China.”Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 18.2 (2007): 104-122. [Link]
Shin, Leo K. “Ming China and Its Border with Annam.” In Chinese State at the Borders, ed. Diana Lary, 91-104. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2007. [Link]
Shin, Leo K. “The last campaigns of Wang Yangming.” T ‘oung Pao (2006): 92-1. [Link]