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Professor Hong Liu

Chair of Chinese Studies and Professor of East Asian Studies
Director of Centre for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute
University of Manchester
Room W312, Samuel Alexander Building
University of Manchester
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Email:  Hong.Liu@Manchester.ac.uk
Phone: +44-(0)161-2757052
Fax: + 44-(0)161-2758668

Research Specialisation

Chinese International Migration; Social and Business Networks; Chinese Nationalism, Transnationalism, and Globalization; China in East Asia and Beyond; Cultural Identities and Social Changes; Representations of China by the Outside World.

Externally-funded Research Projects (2004-2009)

•  “The Nation-states and Migrant communities: A Comparative Study of China and the UK” (2008-2009), PI, funded by the British Academy
• “China in Local and Transnational Perspectives” (2008), PI, funded by Research Councils UK-China
• “China in Post-colonial Asia” (2007), PI, funded by the Universities’ China Committee in London
• “Modern Asian Knowledge Network: Changing Configurations of Languages, Identities, and Environments” (2006-2008), Co-PI; funded by the Toyota Foundation.
• “Transnational Chinese: Global Mobility, Multiple Identities, Embedded Networks” (2005-2006), PI; funded by the National University of Singapore Academic Research Fund.
• “Knowledge Network for Local Leadership Building in Modern Asia” (2003-2005), Co-PI; funded by the Toyota Foundation.
• “Development, Pluralism, State and Security: Understanding Non-traditional Security in a Changing East Asia” (2003-2006), named project participant; funded by the Ford Foundation, USA.
• “A Comparative Studies of Chinese Commercial Organizations in Japan and Southeast Asia” (2004-2005), PI; funded by the Sumitomo Foundation, Japan.

Research Students

I am currently the main supervisor of the following Ph.D. students: Miss Yao Liyun, funded by the China Scholarship Council and the University of Manchester, whose Ph.D. dissertation centers on Chinese new migrants in the UK and China's globalization; Miss Shih-Chen Chao (partially funded by Manchester University), whose doctoral research is concerned with internet novels in the Chinese-speaking world; Mr. Chris Courtney, funded by the British Inter-University China Centre, whose dissertation examines the Twentieth Century as a Historical Memory in Chinese Education; Mr. Alan Davis, a Ph.D. candidate funded by ESRC through BICC, who works on labor migration between China and the UK, Miss Yaoyao Zhu (partially funded by the Centre for Chinese Studies) who researches on cultural and literary changes in the 1980s China; and Mr Jiaqi Hou, who examines the intersections between nationalism and transnationalism in the Chinese context.

Selected Publications since 2000

Books Authored

• Images, Metaphors and Postcolonial Transformation: A Study of Sino-Indonesian Interactions, 1949-1965. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, forthcoming.
• Pramoedya and China (first author, with Gunawan Mohamad and Sumit Mandal). Jakarta: Komunitas Bambu, 2008. (In Indonesian)
• Singapore Chinese Society in Transition: Business, Politics and Socio-economic Change, 1945-1965 (first author, co-author with S. K. Wong). New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc, 2004.
• The Transformation of Chinese Society in Post-war Singapore: Localizing Process, Regional Networking, and Global Perspective. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 2003. (In Chinese).
• Sino-Southeast Asian Studies: Theoretical Frameworks, Interaction Patterns, Case Analyses. Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 2000. (In Chinese)

Books Edited

• The Cold War in Asia: After Geopolitics and Diplomacy (co-edit with Yangwen Zheng and Michael Szonyi). Boston: Brill USA, forthcoming.
• Shuttling between Market, Society and the State: Chinese Merchants in Port Cities and the Making of Trading Networks in East Asia (in Chinese). Co-edited with Liao Chiyang. Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, 2008.
• Maritime Asia and the Chinese Overseas, 1405-2005 (in Chinese). Singapore: Chinese Heritage Centre, 2007.
• The Chinese Overseas (editor and contributor), 4 volumes. London and New York: Routledge, 2006.
• Diasporic Chinese Ventures (co-editor with Gregor Benton and contributor). London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
• China and Southeast Asia: Changing Social and Cultural Linkages (co-editor with Melissa Curley and contributor). Hong Kong: Center of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University, 2002.

Articles in Refereed Academic Journals (in English and Japanese)

• “The Transnational Construction of ‘National Allegory’: China and the Cultural Politics of Postcolonial Indonesia,” Critical Asian Studies (London), vol. 38, no. 3 (Sept., 2006), pp. 179-210.
• “Network, Identity, and Chinese Studies: Revisiting Regional Order in 20th Century East Asia,” Southeast Asian Studies (Kyoto University), vol. 43, no. 4 (2006), pp. 346-373.
• “Explaining the Dynamics and Patterns of Chinese Migration since 1980: An Historical and Demographical Perspective,” Journal of Oriental Studies (Hong Kong University and Stanford University), vol. 39, no. 1 (June 2005), pp. 92-110.
• “New Migrants and the Revival of Overseas Chinese Nationalism,” Journal of Contemporary China (London), vol. 14, no. 43 (2005), pp. 291-316. [Reprinted in in Hong Liu, ed., The Chinese Overseas (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), vol. 4, pp. 379-410].
• “Beyond Orientalism and the East-West Divide: China and Southeast Asia in the Double Mirror,” Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies (Stockholm University), vol. 13 (2003), pp. 45-65.
• “Social Capital and Business Networking: A Case Study of Modern Chinese Transnationalism,” Southeast Asian Studies (Kyoto University), vol. 39, no. 3 (2001), pp. 357-381. [Reprinted in Documents on China Relations (Tokyo), no. 44, 2002, print and CD-ROM versions].
• “Sino-Southeast Asian Studies: Towards an Alternative Paradigm,” Asian Studies Review (Oxford), vol. 25, no. 3 (2001), pp. 259-283.
• “Intellectual Representations and Socio-Political Implications: Comparative China-Imagining in Postcolonial Indonesia and Contemporary America,” Asian Thought and Society (New York), vol. 26, no. 76 (2001), pp. 29-50.
•  “Organized Chinese Transnationalism and the Institutionalization of Business Networks: Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a Case Analysis,” Southeast Asian Studies (Kyoto), vol. 37, no. 3 (1999), pp. 391-416. [Reprinted in Documents on China Relations (Tokyo), no. 42, 2000, print and CD-ROM versions].
• “Old Linkages, New Networks: The Globalization of Overseas Chinese Voluntary Associations and its Implications,” The China Quarterly (Cambridge), no. 155 (1998), pp. 582-609. [Reprinted in in Hong Liu, ed., The Chinese Overseas (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), vol. 2, pp. 152-181].
• “Constructing a China Metaphor: Sukarno’s Perception of the PRC and Indonesian Political Transformation,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Cambridge), vol. 28, no. 1 (1997), pp. 27-46. [Reprinted in in Geoff Wade, ed., China and Southeast Asia, vol. 6, The People’s Republic of China and Southeast Asia (London: Routledge, forthcoming)].

Chapters in Refereed Books (in English)

• “Immigrant Transnational Entrepreneurship and Linkages with the State/Network: Sino-Singaporean Experience in a Comparative Perspective,” in Raymond Wong, ed., A New Breed of Chinese Entrepreneurship? Culture, Organizational Imperatives, and Globalization (London: Routledge, 2008), pp. 117-148.
• “Boundary-Crossing through the Cyberspace: Chinese Women and Transnational Marriages since 1994” (with Liu Lihui), in Khun Eng Kuan-Pearce, ed., Chinese Women and Cyberspace (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008), pp. 249-270.
• “Constructing a Transnational Social Sphere: Institutional Linkages and the Making of the Homeland in Singapore, 1945-2005,” in Noboru Ishikawa, ed., Flows and Movements of Modern Southeast Asia (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, forthcoming).
•  “Understanding the Chinese Overseas: Changing Themes and Evolving Approaches,” in Saw Swee-Hock and John Wong, eds., Southeast Asian Studies in China (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, 2007), pp. 134-171.
• “Introduction: Toward a Multi-dimensional Exploration of the Chinese Overseas,” in Hong Liu, ed., The Chinese Overseas (Routledge Library of Modern China), London and New York: Routledge, 2006, vol. 1, pp. 1-30.
• “Network Building between the State and Society in the Asian Context, in Zhang Yuling, ed., State and Civil Society in the Context of Transition: Understanding Non-Traditional Security in East Asia (Beijing: World Affairs Press, 2005), pp. 8-35.
• “Introduction,” (with Gregor Benton), in Benton and Liu, eds., Diasporic Chinese Ventures (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), pp. 1-9.
• “Interactions between Huiguan and Education in Postwar Singapore: A Socio-economic Perspective,” in M. Charney, B. Yeoh and C. K. Tong, eds., Asian Migrants and Education: The Tensions of Education in Immigrant Societies and among Migrant Groups (Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), pp. 53-64.
• “Introduction: The Historicity and Multi-dimensionality of Sino-Southeast Asian Socio-Cultural Interactions,” (with Melissa Curley), in Curley and Liu, eds., China and Southeast Asia: Changing Social and Cultural Linkages (Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University, 2002), pp. 1-10.
• “The Contact Zones and Socio-Cultural Interactions between China and Southeast Asia during the 20th Century,” in Melissa Curley and Hong Liu, eds., China and Southeast Asia: Changing Socio-cultural Interactions (Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University, 2002), pp. 39-56.
•  “Chinese Commercial Organizations in Singapore and Transnational Connections with Malaysia,” in Warwick Armstrong, Joyce Armstrong and Kent Mulliner, eds., Chinese Populations in Southeast Asian Societies: Identities, Interdependence and International Influence (Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001), pp. 74-96.
• “Globalization, Institutionalization and the Social Foundation of Chinese Business Networks,” in Henry Wai-chung Yeung and Kris Olds, eds., Globalization of Chinese Business Firms (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), pp.105-125.
• “Bridges Across the Sea: Chinese Social Organizations in Southeast Asia and the Links with Qiaoxiang, 1900-1949,” in Leo Douw, Cen Huang, and Michael Godley, eds., Qiaoxiang Ties: Interdisciplinary Approaches to "Cultural Capitalism" in South China (London & New York: Kegan Paul International for International Institute of Asian Studies, 1999), pp. 87-112. [Reprinted in in Geoff Wade, ed., China and Southeast Asia, vol. 5, The Republican Period and Southeast Asia (1912-1949) (London: Routledge, forthcoming).

Other publications (in Chinese and Japanese)

Hong Liu Chinese Profile and Publication List

Invited Lectures and  Presentations (2006-)

2009

• International Workshop Bridging China Studies and Theories of International Relations:In Honour of Wang Gungwu’s Scholarship, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, June 24-27, 2009.
• International Symposium Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Flows in East Asia, University of Manchester, May 22-23, 2009 (Co-convenor)
• National Forum on the Overseas Chinese Policies, Beijing, May 12-13, 2009.
• Plenary speaker, International Conference on the Chinese Overseas Studies, Jinan University, China, May 8-11, 2009.
• Invited Lecture, Institute of Politics, East China University of Politics and Law, Shanghai, China, April 7, 2009.
• Invited Lecture, Advanced Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, April 7, 2009.
• Asia in Global and Comparative Perspectives: Commercial, Cultural and Institutional Connectivity, University of Manchester, March 6, 2009. (Convenor).
• International WorkshopToward New Models of East Asian Development, Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, Feb., 24-25, 2009.

2008

• International Workshop China’s Path of Development: 30 Years of Reform, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China, Sept 7-9, 2008.
• International Workshop 'China in the Developing World: Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America,' Institute of Oriental Studies, Technical University of Lisbon, June 17-19, 2008.
• International Symposium “Interactions between China and Southeast Asia at the turn of the 21st Century,” Xiamen University, China, May 25-27, 2008 (Co-convenor, jointly with Hong Kong University and University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill).
• Invited Lecture at the Centre for Democracy Studies, Westminster University, London, April 29, 2008.
• Invited Lecture at the Copenhagen Business School, Demark, Mar. 3, 2008.

2007

• International Workshop on Knowledge Network in Modern Asia (co-convenor and presenter), funded by the Toyota Foundation, Guangzhou, PRC, Dec. 28-29, 2007.
• International Workshop on The Cold War in Asia: Beyond Geopolitics and Diplomacy, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China (Co-convenor, jointly organized with Harvard University and Sun Yat-sen University), Nov. 1-2, 2007.
• International Conference on Chinese Migration in Comparative Perspectives: Adaptation and Development, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Oct. 26-27, 2007.
• Invited Lecture at the Executive MBA Center, School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China, August 16, 2007.
• Invited Lecture at the Advanced Summer School for History and Anthropology, Sun Yat-sen University & Hong Kong University, China, August 4, 2007.
• UNESCO Workshop on From Bangalore to Shanghai: New Business Models in Asia, Paris, June 8-9, 2007.
• International Conference on Chinese Society and China Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, May 28-29, 2007.
• International and Theoretical Perspectives on Social Policies: A week of Dialogue, Hong Kong University, March 19-25, 2007.
• Invited Lecture at Graduate School of Economics (Japanese Society for  Promotion of Science, “Globalization in Asia: Analyses on Markets, Institutions, and Actors in long-term perspectives”), Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan, Jan. 15, 2007.

2006

• "The Cold War in Asia, 1948-1980," Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, November 6-7.
• First International Conference on Hakka Studies, Taipei, October 29-30.
• Second World Forum on Chinese Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China, September 22-23.
• XIV International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, Finland, August 20-25.
• Invited Speaker on Hakka Studies in the Global Context, College of Hakka Studies, National Central University, Taiwan, June 5-12.
• International Conference on East Asia in 21st Century: Cultural Construction and Exchanges, Institute of Asian-Pacific Studies, Peking University, April 18-19.
• International Workshop on "Beyond Market and Hierarchies: Networking Asian Merchants and Merchant Houses since the 19th Century," University of Tokyo, Japan, Mar. 25-26.
• Third International Conference on Chinese Entrepreneurship and Asian Business Networks: Value Creation through Knowledge Governance, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Mar. 20-21.
• International Workshop on "Network Theory in Asian Studies: Its Performance and Challenges to Next Steps," Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, Mar. 6.
• International Workshop on "Southeast Asian Studies in China: Challenges and Prospects," East Asian Institute and Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, Jan. 12-14.

Professional Biography

Education

• B.A. (History), Xiamen University, Xiamen, PRC, 1982
• M.A. (History & Asian Studies), Fudan University, PRC, 1985
• Ph.D. (History), Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA, 1995

Career History & Visiting Appointments

• Assistant Lecturer (1985-86), Lecturer (1987), History Department, Xiamen University, PRC
• Visiting Fellow (1987-89), Center for Asian Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• Assistant Professor/Associate Professor (Nov. 1995-June 2006), National University of Singapore (awarded tenure in Aug. 2000)
• Assistant Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) [2002-2005], Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences & Convenor, China Studies Minor Programme, National University of Singapore
• Visiting Scholar (May 1998), Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University, Japan
• Visiting Professor (June-July 1998), History Department, Peking University, PRC
• Visiting Research Fellow (Jan-July 2002; Dec. 2003; Sept-Oct., 2005), Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan
• Visiting Scholar (Dec. 2002), Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden
• Visiting Scholar (June-August 2005), Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies, Harvard University, USA
• Visiting Professor (Nov.-Dec., 2005), College of International Relations, Ritsmeikan University, Kyoto, Japan
• Distinguished International Visiting Professor (June 2006), National Central University, Taiwan

Professional Activities

• Expert Committee Member, Universities’ China Committee London (2006-), Vice Chairman of UCCL and Convenor, Experts Committee (2008-09)
• Expert Committee Member, Shanghai Commission on Overseas Chinese Policy (2007-)
• Member, Scientific Committee, UNESCO-project, “From Shanghai to Bangalore: Reappraising Business Models” (2006-2007)
• Adjunct Research Professor (2008-), Research School of Politics, East China University of Politics and Law, Shanghai, China
• Invited Senior Research Fellow (2008-), Centre for Chinese Culture and Language, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Ministry of Education Changjiang Scholar (2008-), School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
• Adjunct Research Professor (2000-), Research School of Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University
• Member of Editorial Board: The Chinese Worlds, Routledge; Studies in Social and Economic History, Zhejiang University Press; Research Series on Southeast Asia and the Chinese Overseas, Xiamen University Press; Journal of the Chinese Overseas (published by Brill USA on behalf of the International Society for the Studies of Chinese Overseas); China Studies (Nanjing University); Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly (Hong Kong); International Journal of the Diasporic Chinese Studies (Co-editor)
• Academic Referee: British Academy; Leverhulme Trust, ESRC, Routledge, Southeast Asian Studies Program Publications, Cornell University; Hong Kong University Press; University Grants Committee, Hong Kong; Asian Perspective (Seoul & Portland); Asian Review (Hong Kong); The China Quarterly (Cambridge); Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly (Hong Kong); Overseas Chinese History Studies (Beijing); Southeast Asian Studies (Kyoto); International Journal of Asian Studies (Cambridge); Sojourn (Singapore); Geoforum (Oxford); Political Studies (Oxford); Modern Chinese Literature and Culture (Columbus, Ohio, USA); Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies (Demark); Social Transformations in Chinese Societies (Hong Kong); Population, Space and Place (UK); China Review International (Hong Kong).

Teaching Areas

• Selected Topics in Chinese History
• Transnational China
• Research Methods and Materials in Chinese Studies
• Chinese Entrepreneurship (for MBA program at NUS Business School and EMBA at Manchester Business School)

Administrative Activities

• Director, Centre for Chinese Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Manchester
• Director, Confucius Institute, University of Manchester