PhD  Princeton University (East Asian Studies)

MA  National University of Singapore (Chinese Studies)

BA  National University of Singapore (Chinese Studies)

Ying-kit Chan specializes in animal studies and the history of science in late Qing and early Republican China. He was formerly a research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University. He has also served as a visiting scholar and visiting assistant professor at Thammasat University, the Center for Chinese Studies, National Central Library (Taipei), and the University of Brunei Darussalam. He is now the deputy chief editor of the International Journal of China Studies and sits on the editorial boards of Ming Qing Studies, Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies, and Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal. While his research focuses on late imperial and modern Chinese histories, he is broadly interested in the Chinese overseas, Southeast Asian studies, and the idea of Chineseness.

Ying-kit Chan has been featured and interviewed in major news outlets such as Channel NewsAsia, Nikkei Asia, and South China Morning Post, and his op-eds have appeared in East Asia Forum, Fulcrum, and 360info.

CH2295 Commerce and Culture in China's Past (in English)

CH3294 Science and Medicine in China (in English)

CHC5348 Science in China

American Methodists in Republican China 中國民國時期的美國循道宗傳教士

History of science in late imperial China 近代中國科學史

Late Qing intellectual history 晚清思想史

Natural history of China 中國的博物學與自然歷史

Women in Qing China 中國清代婦女

BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS AUTHORED

• Southeast Asia in China: Historical Entanglements and Contemporary Engagements (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023) (with Chang-Yau Hoon).

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

• "Taiwan's Hardening Soft Power." In Karl Chee-Leong Lee and Ying-kit Chan, eds., Taiwan and Southeast Asia: Soft Power and Hard Truths Facing China's Ascendancy (London: Routledge, 2023), pp. 235-244.

   

  "The Chineseness of Chinatown in Singapore: Chinese New Year Celebrations in a Multiracial Heritage Site." In Edward Boyle and Steven Irvings, eds., Heritage, Contested Sites, and Borders of Memory in the Asia Pacific (Leiden: Brill, 2023), pp. 56-79.

  “Let Raffles Stand Where He Stands Today: A Symbol of the Colonial in Singapore During and After the Cold War.” In Tze-ki Hon, ed., Liminal Spaces in a Divided World: Cold War Cities in Europe and Asia in the 1950s (London: Routledge, 2021), pp. 148-170.

  “The Historicity of Nation and Contingency of Ethnicity.” In Chang-Yau Hoon and Ying-kit Chan, eds., Contesting Chineseness: Ethnicity, Identity, and Nation in China and Southeast Asia (Singapore: Springer, 2021), pp. 1-22.

  “Politicized Histories in Modern China.” In Ying-kit Chan and Fei Chen, eds., Alternative Representations of the Past: The Politics of History in Modern China (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020), pp. 1-22.

  “Paul Kennedy in China: Reading and Re-Reading The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.” In Alexander Alexiev and Pawel Zygadlo, eds., China and the World: Language, Culture, Politics (Sofia: Sofia University Press, 2020), pp. 144-153.

  “Singapore’s Newspaper Diplomacy: Lianhe zaobao in China.” In Southeast Asia: Beyond Borders and Boundaries, eds. Samuel C.Y. Ku and Herlin Chien (Kaohsiung: Wenzao University Press, 2018), pp. 115-127.

  “China, Imperial: 7. Ming Dynasty Period, 1368-1644).” In The Encyclopedia of Empire, ed. John MacKenzie (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2016) (with LEE Cheuk Yin), pp. 1-13.

  “From Superstition to Tradition: The Jade Emperor Belief and the Tampines United Palace” 從迷信到文化傳統：天公信仰與淡賓尼聯合宮. In Tampines United Palace Conference Proceedings 淡賓尼聯合宮崇祀諸神學術論文集, ed. Lin Weiyi 林緯毅 (Singapore: Tampines United Palace, 2014), pp. 9-15.

  “Chenghuang xinyang yu yimin shehui” 城隍信仰與移民社會 [The City God Cult and Migrant Society]. In Chenghuang xinyang 城隍信仰 [The City God Cult], ed. Lin Weiyi 林緯毅 (Singapore: Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple Association, 2008), pp. 129-136 (with Lee Cheuk Yin).

EDITORIAL WORK ON BOOKS

• Taiwan and Southeast Asia: Soft Power and Hard Truths Facing China’s Ascendancy (London: Routledge, 2023) (coedited with Karl Chee-Leong Lee).

   

  Contesting Chineseness: Ethnicity, Identity, and Nation in China and Southeast Asia (Singapore: Springer, 2021) (coedited with Chang-Yau Hoon).

  Alternative Representations of the Past: The Politics of History in Modern China (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020) (coedited with Fei Chen).

EDITORIAL WORK ON JOURNALS

• "Thai Boys Love (BL)/Y(aoi) in Literary and Media Industries: Political and Transnational Practices," Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific 49 (June 2023) (with Natthanai Prasannam).

   

  "Rethinking Chinese Entrepreneurship and Business in Southeast Asia," Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 12, no. 1 (2023) (with Chang-Yau Hoon).

ARTICLES IN JOURNAL

• "Biographies and Revisionist Histories in Modern China" (forthcoming in Bandung: Journal of the Global South).

   

  "Skateboarding in Singapore: Youth, Masculinity, and Urban Sports Culture." The International Journal of the History of Sport (First View).

  "Thai Boys Love (BL)/Y(aoi) in Literary and Media Industries: Political and Transnational Practices." Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific 49 (June 2023) (with Natthanai Prasannam).

  "Doing Business as a Christian in Singapore: The Case of C. K. Tang and the Tangs Department Store." Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 12:1 (2023): 5-22.

  "Rethinking Chinese Entrepreneurship and Business in Southeast Asia." Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 12:1 (2023): 1-4 (with Chang-Yau Hoon).

  “Who, or What, is Lost: Singapore’s Impressions of Christmas Island, c. 1960-1990.” Manusya: Journal of Humanities 25 (2022): 465-480.

  “Toxic Masculinity in Singapore: National Service, Sexual Harassment, and the #MeToo Movement.” East Asia: An International Quarterly 39:3 (2022): 225-238.

  “Hougang: The Origins of a ‘Safe’ Alternative Constituency in Singapore.” Asia-Pacific Research Forum 69 (2021): 97-123.

  “The Legend of Luo Fangbo and the Hakka Ethnic Movement in Taiwan,” Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 10:1 (2021): 1-14.

  “A Heteropatriarchy in Moderation: Reading Family in a Thai Boys Love Lakhon,” East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 7:1 (2021): 81-94.

  “Creating Modern Women: The Kitchen in Postcolonial Singapore, 1960-90,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 51:3 (2020): 414-434.

  “Don’t Belittle Our Southern Neighbor: Chen Xujing’s View of Thailand,” Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 50:3 (2020): 511-550.

  “Traversing the Migrant Corridor: Singapore’s First Ambassadors to Thailand, 1965-1990,” Asian Perspective 44:3 (2020): 487-511.

  “Golden Mile Complex: The Idea of Little Thailand in Singapore,” Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies 13:1 (2020): 103-121.

  “Heeding the Warnings: Deng Huaxi and Zheng Guanying’s Shengshi weiyan,” Journal of Modern Chinese History 20:1 (2020): 66-85.

  “Zheng He Remains in Africa: China’s Belt and Road Initiative as an Anti-Imperialist Discourse.” The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 37:1 (2019): 57-73.

  “Ethnicity and Frontier Studies in Southwest China: Pan-Thai Nationalism and the Wartime Debate on National Identity, 1932-1945.” Twentieth-Century China 44:3 (2019): 324-344.

  “Manly Civilization in China: Harry R. Caldwell, the ‘Blue Tiger’, and the American Museum of Natural History.” Modern Asian Studies 53:5 (2019): 1381-1414.

  “A Private Secretary from Golden Gate: Lin Shumei in Jinmen (Quemoy), Taiwan, and Xiamen.” Ming Qing Yanjiu 23:1 (2019): 93-107.

  “Proto-Nationalism and Remembering Taiwan: Qiu Fengjia (1864-1912) and Modern Education in Late Qing Guangdong.” Archiv Orientalni 87:1 (2019): 175-206.

  “Diplomacy and the Appointment of Officials in Late Qing China: He Ruzhang and Japan’s Annexation of Ryukyu.” The Chinese Historical Review 26:1 (2019): 20-36.

  “The Root of All Things: Liang Jushi and Practical Enterprise in Late Qing China.” Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 19:1 (2019): 37-58.

  “Divide to Unite: Ou Jujia, New Guangdong, and Provincial Consciousness in 1900s China.” Journal of World History 29:4 (2018): 481-506.

  “The Odyssey of a Guangdong Official: Deng Chengxiu and Late Qing Political Culture.” Journal of Asian History 52:2 (2018): 259-286.

  “The State in Sexual Life: Public Perceptions of Condom Use in Singapore, 1970-1990.” South East Asia Research 26:3 (2018): 256-267.

  “Rohingya Goes Global: Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO) and the Making of Refugees.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 95 (2018): 139-150.

  “Cultural Heritage on China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road: The Case of Guangdong Province.” China Report 54:2 (2018): 159-174.

  “Corpse Admonition: Wu Kedu and Bureaucratic Protest in Late Qing China.” Journal of Chinese History 2:1 (2018): 109-143.

  “Making Strangers and Neighbors in Singapore.” Asian Profile 45:5 (2017): 451-462.

  “A Wartime Stampede: Renewing a Social Contract after the Chongqing Great Tunnel Disaster.” International Journal of Asian Studies 14:1 (2017): 47-75.

  “The Prince Who Loved England: Chula Chakrabongse in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain.” Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia 48:2 (2016): 47-73.

  “Conditioned and Disciplined by the State: The Nanyang Confucian Association of Singapore.” Asian Review 29:2 (2016): 3-23.

  “From Loyalist to Traitor: Shang Kexi in the Ming-Manchu Wars.” Studia Orientalia Slovaca 15:2 (2016): 117-131.

  “Mourning during the Tongzhi Regency: The Case of Li Hongzao (1820-1897).” Monumenta Serica 64:2 (2016): 389-410.

  “No Room to Swing a Cat? Animal Treatment and Urban Space in Singapore.” Southeast Asian Studies 5:2 (2016): 305-329.

  “The Greater Game: Qing China in Central Eurasia.” History Compass 14:6 (2016): 264-274.

  “The Founding of Singapore and the Chinese Kongsis of West Borneo, c. 1819-1840.” Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia 7 (2016): 99-121.

  “‘Sports is Politics’: Swimming (and) Pools in Postcolonial Singapore.” Asian Studies Review 40:1 (2016): 17-35.

  “Precious Mirror for Governing the Peace: A Primer for Empress Dowager Cixi.” NAN NÜ: Men, Women, and Gender in China 17:2 (2015): 214-244.

  “The Great Dog Massacre in Late Qing China: Debates, Perceptions, and Phobia in the Shanghai International Settlement.” Frontiers of History in China 10:4 (2015): 645-667.

  “A Transformation of Religious Space: The ‘Taoist’ Making of Singapore’s Tampines United Palace” 宗教空間的改造: 新加坡淡賓尼聯合宮的道教化. The Journal of History, National Chengchi University 國立政治大學歷史學報43:1 (2015): 219-256.

  “Disciplining Preferences: The ‘Cantonese Question’ in Singapore’s Mass Media.” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 16:1 (2014): 109-125.

  “Allegories of Venice: Singapore’s Vague Concept of a Global City.” East Asia: An International Quarterly 30:4 (2013): 307-325.

  “Kopitiams in Singapore: Consuming Politics.” Asian Survey 53:5 (2013): 979-1004.

  “Historicizing Ming-Ryukyu Relations: The Politics of Scholarship.” Ming Qing Studies (2011): 81-109.

BOOK REVIEWS

• Sylvia Ang, Contesting Chineseness: Nationality, Class, Gender, and New Chinese Migrants. Journal of Chinese Overseas 19:2 (2023): 351-354.

   

  Andres Rodriguez, Frontier Fieldwork: Building a Nation in China's Borderlands, 1919-45. Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 12:1 (2023): 117-120.

  Meimei Xu, Cinema in China Prior to WWI: A Case Study of West-Eastern Culture Transfer. Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 11:2 (2022): 93-96.

  Gina Anne Tam, Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860-1960. The China Review 21:3 (2021): 359-362.

  Kay Anderson, Ien Ang, Andrea Del Bono, Donald McNeill, and Alexandra Wong, Chinatown Unbound: Trans-Asian Urbanism in the Age of China. Journal of Chinese Overseas 17:1 (2021): 215-217.

  Iwo Amelung, ed., Discourses of Weakness in Modern China: Historical Diagnoses of the “Sick Man of East Asia.” China Review International 26:1 (2021): 53-55.

  Victor Cuirong Xiong and Kenneth J. Hammond, eds., Routledge Handbook of Imperial Chinese History. newbooks.asia, International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University.

  Joshua A. Fogel, Maiden Voyage: The Senzaimaru and the Creation of Modern Sino-Japanese Relations. The Middle Ground Journal 19 (2019-2020).

  Clara Wing-chung Ho, Ricardo King-sang Mak, and Yue-him Tam, Voyages, Migration, and the Maritime World: On China’s Historical Role. International Journal of Maritime History 31:2 (2019): 434-437.

  Michel Hockx, Joan Judge, and Barbara Mittler, eds., Women and the Periodical Press in China’s Long Twentieth Century: A Space of Their Own? NAN NÜ: Men, Women, and Gender in China 21:1 (2019): 158-161.

  Michelle T. King, Between Birth and Death: Female Infanticide in Nineteenth-Century China. Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies 8:2 (2018): 147-150.

  Louise Edwards, Women Warriors and Wartime Spies of China. NAN NÜ: Men, Women, and Gender in China 19:2 (2017): 398-401.

  Huaiyin Li, Reinventing Modern China:  Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing. The Chinese Historical Review 21:1 (2014): 86-89.

  Henrietta Harrison, The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village. American Journal of Chinese Studies 21:1 (2014): 72-74.

  Gang Zhao, The Qing Opening to the Ocean: Chinese Maritime Policies, 1684-1757. Monumenta Serica 61 (2013): 355-357.

  Lu Shunchang 呂順長, Qingmo Zhongri jiaoyu wenhua jiaoliu zhi yanjiu 清末中日教育文化交流之研究 [A Research on Education and Cultural Interactions between China and Japan during the Late Qing Era]. Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia 4 (2013): 91-95.

  Matthew W. Mosca, From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Transformation of Geopolitics in Qing China. China Review International 19:4 (2012): 651-654.

  Joachim Gentz, Understanding Chinese Religions. China Review International 19:4 (2012): 596-599.

OTHERS

• "Reflections on China's Latest Global Civilization Agenda." Fulcrum (September 4, 2023) (with Chang-Yau Hoon).

   

  "Contested Chineseness: TikTok, Singapore, and the U.S.-China Competition." Fulcrum (June 5, 2023) (with Chang-Yau Hoon).

  "Singapore Catches the #MeToo Train." 360info (November 25, 2022).

  “A New Beginning in Singapore?” East Asia Forum (July 30, 2020).

  “Eugenics in Postcolonial Singapore.” BLYKNT 1, 1 (Fall 2016): 38-44.

  “North Korea in 2013: Crisis or Opportunity?” 2013年的朝鮮: 危機還是契機? Lianhe Zaobao 聯合早報, January 18, 2013.

Coeditor, Transnational Southeast Asia: Identities, Cultures, and Challenges (with Hannah M. Y. Ho; under contract with Springer).

Coeditor, The Cityscapes of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei During the Cold War (with Tze-ki Hon; under contract with Amsterdam University Press).

Coeditor, New Directions in Thai Studies (with Preedee Hongsaton; under contract with Palgrave Macmillan).

"Documenting the Chinese Community in Kuala Lumpur: Histories, Identities, and Memories," special issue for Asian Ethnicity.