91社区

I am a historian of empire, state-making, and identity in Qing and early Republican China. My current book project looks at the role of translation and translators in Qing imperial administration. Translation was a key state function and work as a translator was frequently a route to high office. I aim to understand both how Qing empire was shaped by this emphasis on translation and how the state demand for translators shaped the lives of those who served in these roles or aspired to them. In addition, I am interested in how official bilingualism and multilingualism shaped the use of the Manchu language in broader Qing society.

My first book, Slaves of the Emperor: Service, Privilege and, Status in the Qing Eight Banners (Columbia, 2024), explores the history of one of the key institutions of the Manchu conquest of China 鈥� the Eight Banner System. In it, I argue that that the banners are better understood not as an ethnic institution dedicated to maintaining Manchu solidarity, but as a 鈥渟ervice elite鈥� 鈥� a multiethnic caste of imperial servitors whose hereditary political, legal, and economic privilege was tied to the military and administrative service they provided to the Qing court. As part of my exploration of the service elite concept, I show the parallels that link the Qing banners to the samurai of Edo Japan, the service nobility of imperial Russia, and the janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, as institutions that helped small polities based on personal ties between ruler and elites grow into complex bureaucratic states.

Going beyond these two major research projects, I take a great interest in the Manchu language and the texts written in it, from bureaucratic documents to popular fiction to private correspondence. I have taught Manchu, both as a graduate student at Harvard and online, worked to make the study of the language more accessible by sharing resources through the Manchu Studies Group, and translated Manchu sources for both academic uses and the interest of broader audiences.

You can learn more about my research and teaching at my .

听

Selected publications:听

Book

. Columbia University Press, 2024. Shortlisted for the 2024 Wallace K. Ferguson Prize of the Canadian Historical Association.
听

Journal Articles

听Late Imperial China听40.2 (December 2019), pp. 1-43.

听Modern China听44.1 (January 2018), pp. 3-34.

Writing for General Audiences

鈥溾��, Fairbank Center blog.

鈥溾��, Fairbank Center blog (October 31, 2016).

鈥溾��, Manchu Studies Group blog (September 17, 2014).