Dr Ronald C. Po

Dr Ronald C. Po

Associate Professor

Department of International History

Room No
SAR.2.18
Languages
Cantonese, English, German, Japanese, Mandarin
Key Expertise
History of China, Maritime Studies, Global History

About me

While the main focus of my teaching and research has been the history of late imperial China, I am drawn to the realm of maritime and global studies. I agree with John F. Kennedy, “we are tied to the ocean; and when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.” I’ve always had a keen interest in a broad range of maritime topics, ranging from the history of coastal governance and the dynamics of port cities, to the cartographic history of sea charts and the cultural history of naval uniforms. I am also fascinated by the social history of commodities and trans-regional exchanges of ideas since the early modern period. In the medium term I am working on a monograph-length project tentatively entitled The North China Sea: A History.

I am the author of The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2018), The Placid Ocean: Qing China and the Asian Seas (China Times Publishing Co., 2021) and Turning the Tide: Historical Actors and Social Memory in Late Qing China (China Times Publishing Co., 2022). Additionally, I have published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Modern Asian Studies, The English Historical Review, Late Imperial China, Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyMing Qing Studies, and The American Journal of Chinese Studies.

Prior to my academic appointment at the LSE, I was Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University (2013-16) and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Chicago (2013). I was also previously an Erasmus Scholar at Cambridge (2011-12) and a Baden-Württemberg Fellow at Kyoto University (2012).

I was educated at Universität Heidelberg, receiving my D.Phil. in History, and at Hong Kong Baptist University, earning my M.Phil. and BA degrees. In 2019, I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. I was also appointed a Research Fellow by the International Institute for Asian Studies in the Netherlands in 2021, and then an APC-CCK Visiting Scholar by the Chinese University of Hong Kong the subsequent year. In the upcoming academic year 2023-24, I will be in residence at Leiden University in the capacity of a visiting professor. 

 

Expertise Details

History of China; Hong Kong and Taiwan Studies; Maritime History; Sino-British Relations; History of Cartography; Frontier Studies; Global History

Teaching & supervision

Dr Ronald C. Po usually teaches the following courses in the Department:

At undergraduate level:

HY118: Faith, Power and Revolution: Europe and the Wider World, c.1500-c.1800 (taught jointly with other members of staff)

HY330: From Tea to Opium: China and the Global Market in the Long Eighteenth Century

At Masters level:

HY489: China and the External World, 1644-1839

HY4A4: Dissertation with an Asian focus 

HY4B4: Maritime Asia in Transition, 1405-1839

In 2021 and 2023, Dr Po was nominated for the LSESU Teaching Awards. This competition is designed to allow students to recognise those members of staff who have made a difference to their time at LSE. The LSESU Teaching Awards are the only awards at the School that are student-led:

“Dr Po was always clear with how the course and classes would be structured in this unprecedented year. He used multi-media videos, images, diaries, financial account sources etc to ensure that even over zoom, we were always engaged and challenged and that content was always understood. He went above and beyond to advise students of different museums and galleries and sources of information they might access, depending on which bit of the world they were in over the pandemic which I feel enabled us all to engage with the course as much as possible. An especially interesting and exciting element for me was hearing about Dr Po's research which is closely linked to the course and provided a new and fascinating perspective. Students also had to complete presentations as part of a diverse range of assessment tasks. I believe this acted as a great opportunity for each of us to share our own perspectives, take responsibility for learning and learn from one another in a dynamic fashion.” 

Publications

Books

The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire (Cambridge University Press,  2018) - longlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the 2019 Humanities English Edition book prize and recipient of the International Convention of Asia Scholars 2019 Specialist Publication Accolade in the Humanities.

• The Placid Ocean: Qing China and the Asian Sea  海不揚波:清代中國與亞洲海洋 (Taipei: China Times Publishing Co. 時報出版; 2021)  - shortlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the ICAS Book Prize (Chinese Language Edition) 2023.

Turning the Tide: Historical Actors and Social Memory in Late Qing China 手挽銀河水:清季人物、歷史與記憶 (Taipei: China Times Publishing Co., 2022).

Articles & chapters

Forthcoming

“China in the Age of Unequal Treaties,” in H.E. Chehabi and David Motadel (eds.), Unconquered States: Non-European Powers in the Imperial Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

2024

• “Qing China and Its Offshore Islands in the Long Eighteenth Century,” The Historical Journal (First View; published online, 2024), pp. 1-33.

2023

• “The Bohai Sea and Mount Penglai: In Search of a Maritime Religiosity in Imperial China,” Coastal Studies and Society, volume 2 issue 3, pp. 274-294.

• “Consuming China in Early Modern England and Beyond: A Critical Review and Re-examination,” Asian Review of World Histories, vol. 11 issue 2, pp. 180-209.

• “Defining Chinese Commodities in the Early Modern Era: A Historical and Conceptual Analysis,” in David Ludden (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, published online on May 24, 2023).

• “Crafting a Nation, Fishing for Power: The Universal Exposition of 1906 and Fisheries Governance in Late Qing China,” Modern Asian Studies (Firstview, 2023), pp. 1-27.

• “China and the Sea in Literature and (Mis)Perception, 1644-1839,” in Paul D'Arcy (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), vol. 1, pp. 549-573.

• “Fortifying the Maritime Frontier: Diagrams of Coastal Garrisons (Yingxun tu) in the Qing Empire,” Ming Qing Studies (December 2022), pp. 67-100. 

2020

•  “The Camphor War of 1868: Anglo-Chinese Relations and Imperial Realignments within East Asia,” The English Historical Review, vol. 135, issue 576 (December, 2020).

2019

• “Hero or Villain? The Evolving Legacy of Shi Lang in China and Taiwan,” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 53 issue 4 (September, 2019), pp. 1486-1515.

2018

• “The Pearl by the Bohai Sea: Qinhuangdao in the Early Modern Period,” in Clara Ho, Ricardo Mak, and Y.H. Tam (eds.), Voyages, Migration, and the Maritime World: On China’s Global Historical Role (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), pp. 143-164.

• "China and the Global South: A Geostrategic Perspective," Radical History Review, vol. 2018 issue 131 (May, 2018), pp. 135-138.

• “Tea, Silk, and Porcelain: Chinese Exports to the West in the Early Modern Period” in David Ludden (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

2017

• “A Port City in Northeast China: Dengzhou in the Long Eighteenth Century,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 28 issue 1 (January, 2018), pp. 161-187.

• “Camphor-harvesting and Warship Construction in Early Qing China (康雍年間的戰船修造與樟木採辦)" (in Chinese), in Ricardo Mak (ed.) History of Coastal Defense in Modern China: A Revisionist Approach (近代中國海防史新論) (Hong Kong, Joint Publishing Co. Ltd., 2017), pp. 252-277.

2016

• “Mapping Maritime Power and Control: A Study of the Late Eighteenth Century Qisheng yanhai tu (A Coastal Map of the Seven Provinces),” Late Imperial China, vol. 37 no. 2 (December 2016), pp. 93-136.

2015

• “Writing the Waves: Chinese Maritime Writers in the Long Eighteenth Century,” American Journal of Chinese Studies, vol. 22, no. 2 (October, 2015), pp. 343-362.

2014

• “Maritime Countries in the Far West: Western Europe in Xie Qinggao’s Records of the Sea,” European Review of History, vol. 21, no. 6 (December, 2014), pp. 857-871.

2013

• “Merchants, Artisans, Grangers and Intellectuals: Xue Fucheng’s Re-conceptualization of the Social Stratification in Late Imperial China,” Chinese Culture Quarterly, vol. 31 (April, 2013), pp. 81-101.

2012

• “(Re) Conceptualizing the World in Eighteenth Century China,” World History Connected, vol. 9, no. 1 (February 2012).

2011

• “Zuozhu weizhi: Ding Richang 1843 nian zhi 1864 nian de zaimu shengya 佐主為治: 丁日昌1843年至1864年的在幕生涯 (Assisting the Patron: Ding Richang as a muliao, 1843-1864),” in Modern History Research Center (ed.) Ding Richang yu jindai Zhongguo 丁日昌與近代中國 (Ding Richang and Modern China) (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 2011), pp. 17-36.

2010

• “‘Zeng Zuo Li’ yi jiancheng de youlai yu neirong hanyi zhi yanbian 曾左李一簡稱的由來與內容涵義之演變 (The Triumvirate in Late Imperial China: A Discussion on the Abbreviation Zeng-Zuo-Li),” Si yu yan 思與言 (Thought and Words: Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences Quarterly), vol. 48 no. 3 (September, 2010), pp. 1-36.

• “When the Sea Dragon Roars: Hydrological Disasters and the High Qing Emperors,” The School of Historical Studies, Newcastle University: Postgraduate Forum E-Journal, edition seven (2010), pp. 1-9.

2009

• “Qingji HuaYang muliao de hezuo yu hudong: Yi Mashi(H.B. Morse), Ma Xiangbo yu Ma Jianzhong zai Li Hongzhang mufu de guanxi weili 清季華洋幕僚的合作與互動: 以馬士 (H.B. Morse), 馬相伯與馬建忠在李鴻章幕府的關係為例 (Cooperation between Chinese and Foreign Muliao in Li Hongzhang’s Think Tank: With References to Ma Xiangbo, Ma Jianjong and H.B. Morse).” Chungguksa Yongu 中國史研究 (The Journal of Chinese Historical Researches), no. 63 (December 2009), pp. 121-135.

• “Qingji yangyuan zai Tai zhi renzhi: Yi Ma Shi (H.B. Morse) zai Danshuiguan de jiaose yu yingxiang weili 清季洋員在臺之任職: 以馬士 (H.B. Morse) 在淡水關的角色與影響為例 (Western Advisers in Late Qing: H.B. Morse in Taiwan, 1892-1895),” Xinbeida shixue 新北大史學, vol. 7 (October, 2009), pp. 59-82.

• “Xianggang chuban Zhongguo jindaishi yanjiu zhushu: Zhongwen shumu xinian (1930-2009) 香港出版中國近代史研究著述: 中文書目繫年(1930-2009) A Selected Bibliography on Modern Chinese History Published in Hong Kong,” Contemporary Historical Review, vol. 10, no.2 (June, 2009), pp. 60-72.

2008

• “Qingji xifang guwen zai Hua de siying: Yi Mashi zhi zaimu shengya zuoli 清季西方顧問在華的肆應: 以馬士之在幕生涯作例 (Western muliao in Late Qing: Hosea Ballou Morse Encountered with Li Hongzhang's mufu),” Zhongzheng lishi xuekan 中正歷史學刊, vol. 11 (December, 2008), pp. 23-48.

Book reviews & review articles

2022

• “Book Review on Distant Shores: Colonial Encounters on China’s Maritime Frontier by Melissa Macauley,” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 81 no. 1 (February, 2022), pp. 173-174.

2019

• "Book Review on Boundaries and Beyond: China’s Maritime Southeast in Late Imperial Times by Ng Chin-keong", Journal of World History, vol. 30 no. 3 (September, 2019), pp. 464-467.

• "Book Review on Silk, Slaves and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield", The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 78 no. 1 (March, 2019), pp. 184-186.

2018

Book Review on Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550–1700 ed. by Tonio Andrade and Xing Hang,” Journal of World History, vol. 29 no. 1 (March, 2018), pp. 118-120.

2017

• “Book Review on Gang Zhao’s The Qing Opening to the Ocean,” Business History, vol. 59, no. 2 (2017), pp. 312-313.

2012

• “Haiyangshi shijiao xia de Zhongwai guanxishi 海洋史視角下的中外關係史 (The history of Sino-foreign relations from a maritime historical perspective),” Hanxue yanjiu 漢學研究 (Chinese Studies), vol. 30 no. 1 (March, 2012), pp. 351-357.

• “Book Review: Old Worlds, New Worlds: European Cultural Encounters, c. 1000-1750edited by Lisa Bailey, Lindsay Diggelmann, and Kim M. Phillips,” Journal of the Oxford University History Society, Issue 8 (Hilary, 2012).

2011

• “Shijie shi shiye xia de Zhongguo tiyushi - Xu Guoqi de Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008 世界史視野下的中國體育史 - 徐國琦的 Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008 (Global History and the History of Sport: Review on Xu's Olympic),” Hanxue yanjiu tongxun 漢學研究通訊 (Newsletter for Research in Chinese Studies), vol. 30, no. 2 (May, 2011), pp. 59-60.

2010

• “Keji, yiliao de renwen guanhuai: Keji, yiliao yu shehui xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 科技, 醫療的人文關懷: 科技, 醫療與社會學術研討會論文集(Book Review: Keji, yiliao yu shehui xueshu yantaohui lunwenji),” Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences, no. 38 (Spring/Summer, 2010), pp. 147-152.

• “Book Review: Leprosy in China: A History,” Twenty-First Century, vol. 119 (June, 2010), pp. 152-155.

2009

• Co-author with Hoi-ling LUI, “Book reviews of Zhonghua wenhua de chuancheng yu chuangxin: Jinian Mou Fuli jiaoshou lunwenji (中華文化的傳承與創新: 紀念牟復禮教授論文集) and The Scholars Mind: Essays in Honor of Frederick W. Mote,” History Education Forum, vol. 5 (May, 2009), pp. 126-131.

Conference reports

2011

• “Report on International Symposium: Globalization, Identity, and Regional Integration in East Asia, 1861-2011,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 56 no. 2 (May, 2011), p. 24.

2010

• “Report on Annual Conference of the Cluster of Excellence: Asia and Europe in a Global Context, Heidelberg University,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 55 no. 4 (December, 2010), pp. 12-14.

Other contributions

2012

• “The Great Qing and the Third Frontier in the Eighteenth Century,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 56, no. 3 (October, 2011), p. 22.

2011

• “The East Asian Mediterranean?: The ‘Braudelian Framework’ and Maritime History in East Asia,” Asian Studies Newsletter (The Association for Asian Studies), vol. 56, no. 2 (May, 2011), p. 20.

Books

Po-Turning the Tide Historical Actors and Social Memory in Late Qing China

Turning the Tide: Historical Actors and Social Memory in Late Qing China 手挽銀河水:清季人物、歷史與記憶 (Taipei: China Times Publishing Co., 2022).

Po-PlacidOcean 

The Placid Ocean: Qing China and the Asian Seas 海不揚波:清代中國與亞洲海洋 (2021) - shortlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the ICAS Book Prize (Chinese Language Edition) 2023.

 PoBlueFrontierA

The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire (2018) - longlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the 2019 Humanities English Edition book prize and recipient of the Interntional Convention of Asia Scholars 2019 Specialist Publication Accolade in the Humanities.

News & media

2023


In discussion on the role of coastal islands in late imperial China.

Dr. Po was in conversation with historian Prof. Joanna Waley-Cohen, Provost for New York University Shanghai on 4 December 2023, to discuss the role of coastal islands in late imperial China. 
The event was hosted by the Center for Global Asia at NYU Shanghai. Meanwhile, supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Dr. Po is currently visiting the University of Tokyo as a research fellow.

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Dr Po's book shortlisted for ICAS Book Prize

Dr. Ron Po's latest book, The Placid Ocean: Qing China and the Asian Sea, was shortlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the ICAS Book Prize. Under the Chinese Language Edition category for 2023.

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Visiting Professorship offered by Leiden University

Dr. Po has been granted a Visiting Professorial Fellowship from Leiden University.
Commencing this September, he will work in the Netherlands in partnership with scholars at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) and the Leiden Institute for Area Studies to deepen our understanding of the maritime history of late imperial China.

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LSESU Teaching Award nominees for Outstanding Teaching

Dr. Po was nominated by our students for their Outstanding Teaching in 2023.

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Socioeconomic Diplomacy and the Qing Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century

Dr Po was invited by the Institute for History of Leiden University to deliver a keynote lecture as part of their Summer School from 26-28 June 2023.

In attendance were master students, PhD candidates, and early career scholars who are keen to explore the concept of socioeconomic diplomacy in the context of global empire building.

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2022


Awarded Global Research Fund

Dr. Po has been awarded the Global Research Fund. This funding is a new LSE pilot scheme supporting collaborative endeavours between LSE faculty and their nominated international research partners.

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Talk at the University of Oxford China Centre

Dr. Po will gave a talk entitled "The Qing Empire and Its Offshore Island During the Long Eighteenth Century" that examined island management in early modern China at the University of Oxford China Centre on February 16. 

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Visiting Fellow at Tohoku University and Hokkaido University in December

Dr. Po has been invited by Tohoku University and Hokkaido University to be a Visiting Fellow this December. He will be giving talks during his stay in Japan. One of them is scheduled for 15 December entitled “Fishing, Power, and the World’s Fair: China and the 1906 Milan Fisheries Exposition in the Age of Global Rivalry.”
His trip is generously sponsored by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation together with the aforementioned universities. 

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Present a paper at a conference by La Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris

Dr. Ron Po was invited to present a paper entitled "Securing the Maritime Frontier: Lan Dingyuan and the Social Obligations of the Wealthy" at the international conference Comparative Economic History Europe and Asia, 16th-20th Centuries: Issues and Perspectives. The event was organised by La Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris held on 14-15 November 2022.

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Talked at  SOAS History Research Seminar

Dr. Po gave a talk entitled "Charting Coastal Islands in the Great Qing" covering China’s engagement with the maritime world" at the SOAS History Research Seminar on 26 October 2022. 

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Research grant awarded

Dr. Po has been awarded a research grant offered by the Sino-British Fellowship Trust. The fellowship will sponsor his travel and accommodation costs for his one-month visit at the University of Hong Kong. 

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Talk at KU Leuven

At a workshop entitled "Mapping Practices and Transpacific Transfers of Geographic Knowledge, Sixteenth to Early Nineteenth Centuries", Dr Po presented a paper and served as a discussant on one of the panels. The workshop was organised by Elke Papelitzky and Wim De Winter at KU Leuven.

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Linnaeus University Annual Lecture

Dr Po recently gave an annual lecture organised by the Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at Linnaeus University. His lecture is entitled "The Blue Dragon: In Search of a New Qing Maritime History". This presentation proposed a paradigm to study the Qing Empire during the early modern era from a refreshed maritime angle, in an approach he calls the 'new Qing maritime history (haishang xin Qingshi)'.

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Interview with National Geographic Podcast Overheard

Dr Po was interviewed by Amy Briggs on the National Geographic podcast Overheard. In the show they discussed Zheng Yi Sao, who tormented the South China Sea with her fleet of 70,000 raiders in the early nineteenth century. He was joined by Professor Dian Murray (University of Notre Dame) and Ms Leigh Lewis.

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Presentation at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference

Dr Po joined Dr Xiaofei Gao and Dr Young Rae Choi in a panel at the AAS Annual Conference on March 26. His paper was entitled "The Shaping of Maritime Religiosity: The Bohai Sea and Mount Penglai in Late Imperial China" and the panel was chaired by Professors Prasenjit Duara and Ian Miller.

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Online Event hosted by the Royal Museums Greenwich

Dr Po was joined Emeritus Professor Dian Murray (University of Notre Dame) and Helaine Becker, bestselling author of more than 90 books, to explore the fascinating life of Zheng Yi Sao, the most successful pirate of all time for an online event hosted by the Royal Museums Greenwich. More information. Watch the event here.

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Event at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr Po spoke at an event at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences on 24 February. Moving beyond the familiar histories of Canton and Macao, and complicating the history of coastal surveying and earlier studies of these representative cities in maritime Asia, he discussed a map of the waterways which connect these two trading hubs.

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Workshop at Yale University

Dr Po was invited to attend a workshop entitled "The Early Modern in China and Europe" at Yale University organised by Valerie Hansen and Francesca Trivellato. The goal of this event is to bring together a group of scholars working on both Europe and China to consider the changing conception of "early modern" as well as what the arrival of European vessels in Chinese water after 1500 reveals. The meeting was held Friday, Feb 18-19.


2021


"You're Dead to Me"

Dr Po was interviewed about the history of pirates in late imperial China for the BBC Radio 4's show. He was joined by the public historian Greg Jenner and comedian Ria Lina to talk about Zheng Yi Sao, the most successful pirate queen of all time! Listen to the podcast

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Research grant

Dr Po awarded a grant from The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation for his project entitled "The Shaping of Maritime Religiosity: The Cultural History of Mount Penglai/ Hōrai in China and Japan". Read more

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Online talks

He gave a talk on 24 September at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan on “Eradicating the Bandits, Pacifying the Sea: A Memorial Submitted to the Daoguang Emperor in the Nineteenth Century (除莠安良,肅謐洋面: 道光朝的《閩浙總督奏辦洋匪盜稿文)”. On 22 October, he gave another online talk entitled "In Search of a ‘New Qing Maritime History’: A Critical Review of Recent Historiography" at Hong Kong Baptist University (see the poster), followed by a third talk on 25 October at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He explored the potential of examining maritime China from an artistic perspective. On 3 November he was invited to speak on "The Fusheng Quantu: An Exceptional Maritime Painting in Nineteenth Century China" at Leiden University.

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New book in Chinese

Published with China Times Publishing Co. in Taiwan, The Placid Ocean: Qing China and the Asian Seas connects various topics through an intellection of what Dr Po calls “new Qing maritime history.” The book will take the reader on a journey revealing how the maritime world has mattered to China, as well as how China the maritime world. Find out more (in Chinese).

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Maritime Asia Conference

On 11 August, Dr Po presented a paper at the “Maritime Asia: Securitisation of the China Seas Conference” jointly organised by the University of Cambridge and UC Berkeley. His paper entitled “The Universal Exposition of 1906 and Fisheries Governance in Late Qing China” was part of a panel on international law and grand strategy.

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Second visiting fellowship in 2021/22

Offered by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in the Netherlands, Dr Po was selected out of a large pool of applicants to join them from October 2021 to January 2022, a renowned global research institute in Asian Studies. Find out more about the fellowship.

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LSESU Teaching Award nomination

In May, Dr Po was nominated for an LSESU Teaching Award  This competition is designed to allow students to recognise those members of staff who have made a difference to their time at LSE. The LSESU Teaching Awards are the only awards at the School that are student-led.

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Guest commentator in Professor Wang Gungwu's event

On 16 April, Dr Po was the commentator for the event “A Conversation with Wang Gungwu”, organised by the LSE China Forum and the Washington University in St. Louis China Forum. One of the most eminent historians in the field of Chinese Studies, Professor Wang Gungwu was awarded the Tang Prize in Sinology in 2020.

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Young Scholar Visiting Fellowship

The Fellowship is awarded jointly by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Chaing Ching-Kuo Foundation in Taiwan. The fellowship will support Dr Po's residence at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Chinese Studies and the Institute of Chinese Studies at CUHK as a Visiting Scholar during the 2021/22 academic year.


2020


New Books Network

Dr Po gave an interview to the New Books Network on 24 December, where he discussed his book The Blue Frontier (Cambridge, 2018). Listen to the episode.

Camphor War of 1868

Dr Po's latest article, “The Camphor War of 1868: Anglo-Chinese Relations and Imperial Realignments within East Asia”, was released in English Historical Review in December. Dr Po argues that the long-forgotten Camphor War was more than a minor military skirmish but an encounter that indicated the eagerness of the Qing empire to reposition itself in the global arena, both politically and economically, in the nineteenth century. By tracing the social and material history of camphor, Dr Ron also examines how demand for this global commodity set the gears of the Qing, the British, and the American empires into motion in the post-Opium age. Read the article

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STICERD research grant

Dr Po has been awarded a STICERD grant for his book project entitled “The North China Sea: A History”. The project will be the first comprehensive study to weave together the long-forgotten North China Sea into a more productive and enduring dialogue with Chinese, Asian, and global history. Dr Po aims to reconnect this sea space to the broader historical spectrum, and to bring it out of almost a century of solitude.
Read more about STICERD Research grants for LSE Staff.

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Associate Professor

Following the most recent round of the School's review and promotion process, Dr Po passed major review and was promoted to Associate Professor. His position will become effective on 1 August.


 2019


Dr Ronald C. Po at Warwick & Oxford Conference on China and Global History

On 16 September, he presented a paper entitled “Clothes Make the Modern Sailor: Naval Uniforms and Westernisation in Nineteenth Century China”. Dr Po argued that not only does the evolution of these naval dresses provide insight into what the Qing state valued as it modernized and grew stronger, but the way fashion, as represented by these naval uniforms, shaped modernity within the confines of regulated clothing was also important. Dr Po spoke on the first day of the 2-day conference at Warwick in a panel titled “The Chinese Empire in Global Context”.

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The Blue Frontier longlisted for book prize and recipient of Accolade

The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire, was longlisted by the International Convention of Asia Scholars for the 2019 Humanities English Edition book prize. The prize aims to create an international focus for academic publications on Asia, thus increasing their worldwide visibility. Subsequently, the book was awarded the 2019 Specialist Publication Accolade in Humanities also by the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS).

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Article on Shi Lang

Dr Po released a new article in Modern Asian Studies (53:4) in May 2019. “Hero or Villain? The Evolving Legacy of Shi Lang in China and Taiwan”discusses Shi Lang, the commander-in-chief who led the Qing navy to annex Taiwan in 1683, and how he is essential to our understanding of the cross-strait tension and the murky outlook for its future. By analysing most of the previous appraisals and examinations of Shi Lang, Dr Po reveals the historical narratives of this admiral as being continually under construction in a shifting and mutually reinforcing process from the Qing dynasty to the present day.

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Keynote lecture at Oxford

Dr Ronald C. Po gave his first keynote lecture entitled “China and the Sea: Three Fallacies” on 23 April at the Third Annual China Humanities Graduate Conference, Resistance and Acceptance: Getting China Moving (University of Oxford). His talk offered three specific avenues of exploration to reinforce the proposition that the Qing was integrated into the sea through its naval development and customs institutionalisation throughout the long eighteenth century. He also argued that it is time to move beyond our understanding of maritime China from a “Southeast China centrism”.

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Book review

A review has been written in the journal China Quarterly (vol. 237, March 2019) about Dr Ron C Po’s recently released book The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2018). Richard Horowitz commented: “Po makes a convincing case that Qing government maritime policy deserves greater attention and respect” and that his “introduction skillfully connects his work on China to scholarship on maritime history in other parts of the world.”

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International Conference on Ocean and China Studies

On 31 March, Dr Po gave a talk entitled “Charting the Coast of the Qing Empire before the First Opium War” at an international conference on Chinese Maritime Studies jointly organised by Xiamen University and Sun Yat-sen University in China. Read more (in Chinese).

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Dr Ronald C. Po at AAS Conference

Dr Po organised a panel at this year’s Association of Asian Studies (AAS) conference in Denver, Colorado from 21-24 March. The panel, entitled “The New Qing History: A Maritime Approach”, proposed to study the Qing dynasty in the long eighteenth century from a maritime angle in an approach framed as the new Qing maritime history (haishang xin Qingshi). Together with five senior and junior scholars from Stanford University, Northwestern University, Brandeis University, University of Akron and the University of Birmingham, Dr Po contended that the Qing administration was attentive and deliberate in developing maritime policy. 

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LSESU HKPASS Forum

Dr Po served as the Academic Chair for the 2019 LSE Forum organised by the Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society on 17 February. The LSE Forum is an annual debate competition hosted by the LSESU HKPASS, where students from universities across the UK gather to discuss and debate on some of the most contentious challenges faced by Hong Kong.


2018


New chapter in edited volume on China's global historical role

Dr Ronald C. Po released a chapter in an edited volume entitled Voyages, Migration, and the Maritime World: On China’s Global Historical Role (De Gruyter, 2018) edited by Clara Ho, Ricardo Mak, and YH Tam. In his chapter, “The Pearl by the Bohai Sea: Qinhuangdao in the Early Modern Period”, Dr Po argues that it is a necessary and salutary corrective to existing literature that the northeastern coastline could hardly be discounted when comprehending the oceanic history of late imperial China. In explicating the connection between China and the sea throughout the long eighteenth century, maritime historians have long focused on port cities along the coastal reach south of Shanghi. However, focusing on the history and function of a port city called Qinhuangdao, Dr Po seeks to answer the following questions: Did the northeastern coast of China lay motionless during the expanding, extensive trans-regional sea trade of the early modern period? Had the northeast never participated in the process of proto-globalisation in Asia? Despite disparity between sea trade in the southeast and northeast, would it be feasibly possible to obtain a variegated picture of maritime China while disregarding the latter?

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New book by Dr Ronald C. Po

Dr Po’s new book with Cambridge University Press was released in August 2018. The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire provides a revisionist history of the eighteenth-century Qing Empire from a maritime perspective. It explores how the Qing Empire deliberately engaged with the ocean politically, militarily and even conceptually in the long eighteenth century. Contrary to orthodox perception, Dr Po offers a much broader picture of the Qing as an Asian giant responding flexibly to challenges and extensive interaction on all frontiers, both land and sea.

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New article on China and the Global South

Dr Po published a new article, “China and the Global South: A Geostrategic Perspective” in the latest issue of Radical History Review (issue 131). Reluctant to side with those analysts who regard the China Dream as being equivalent to its aspiration of rising as a Pacific power, Dr Po argues that in facilitating the China Dream, over the next few decades, the Chinese government is and will be more interested in engaging with the Global South than with any other regions of the world, particularly in its military engagement in Africa and the Indian Ocean. Even though the Pacific Ocean is no less geopolitically salient, he suggests that the Pacific has not been prioritized as the foremost strategic theatre by the Chinese Communist Party since last century.

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University of California Berkeley event

Dr Ronald C. Po was at Berkeley on 15 May, presenting a paper entitled “Fortifying Frontier and Defining Sovereignty: Diagram of Coastal Defense (yingxuntu) in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century China”. The paper was part of a panel discussion on “Maritime Asia: Securitization of the China Seas”, organised by the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Cambridge.


2017


Guest Panelist on Nationalism Symposium at LSE

Dr Po will was a guest panelist in a symposium organised by the LSE Student Union Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society. The symposium, entitled Nationalism: On Catalonia, HK and USA, was held on 22 November. Other panelists included Dr Jonathan Hopkin (LSE Government), Dr Toni Rodon (LSE European Institute) and Dr John Hutchinson (LSE Government).

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New article on 18th C. Northeast Chinese port city Dengzhou

Dr Po’s newest article, entitled “A Port City in Northeast China: Dengzhou in the Long Eighteenth Century”, was released online in September 2017 by the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. In his article, Dr Po investigates the importance of Northeast China's port cities by focusing particular attention on the less familiar coastal seaport of Dengzhou. By detailing and examining the political and economic importance of this port city in the early modern period, Dr Po shows that Qing China's northeastern coast was no less important than the southeast. Even if China's northern port cities might not have been as economically vibrant as those in the south (e.g. Shanghai, Canton, Xiamen, and Macau), one should not overlook their functions and histories. Indeed, they also attained unique patterns of political and economic development throughout the long eighteenth century. LSE users, can access the article freely in the publisher's website.

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Dr Ronald C. Po in Hong Kong for public lecture

Dr Po was in Hong Kong on 14 September to give a public lecture at the Hong Kong Baptist University. His lecture was on “What is Maritime History? Some Observations and Reflections”.


2016


LSE Santander Travel Research Fund

Dr Ronald C. Po was awarded a LSE Santander Travel Research Fund in December 2016 to visit universities in Hong Kong and South Korea, from late June to July 2017, where he will give talks and seminars. He will also conduct archival research to develop his new project, entitled “A Global History of Camphor: From an Oleoresin to a Commodity", and attend two international conferences, namely the AAS-in-Asia Conference (in Seoul) and the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) in Chingmai. Both highly regarded in the field of Asian studies.


2013


Heidelberg University interview

Read an interview conducted by the Heidelberg University in 2013.

https://bit.ly/3LZIRmq