Huanjun Zhou

Huanjun Zhou 周焕竣 started his research journey into statecraft after a sudden discovery of British Foreign Office files on Nationalist China (1927-1949) in 2022. Born and raised in Nanjing, the old capital of the Nationalist Republic, he has since used the advantage to visit archives, especially the Second Historical Archives of China, and transcribe documents from the gigantic iceberg of primary sources. Archival research experiences, as well as the undergraduate research into Sino-British extraterritoriality negotiations, have nurtured his interest in revisiting modern Chinese statecraft along the grain of official communications.
Huanjun's PhD research will examine the attitudes of the Nationalist Party's mass-training bureaucracies 国民党民众训练机构 towards anti-Japanese activities in the Nanjing decade (1927-1937). He intends to make the research an archive-grounded historical ethnography of these bureaucracies, in order to probe Nationalist statecraft from the perspective of middle-levelled bureaucracies that were above the general population yet below top statesmen and institutions.
In his free time, Huanjun enjoys exploring good food options, travelling, and visiting historical ruins 访古, buildings, and museums. He welcomes email or in-person chats concerning archives, his research, and things to do in China and in Toronto.