Huanjun Zhou

MA Program (He/Him)
huanjun.zhou@mail.utoronto.ca

Campus

  • Downtown Toronto (St. George)

Fields of Study

  • East Asia
  • Empires, Colonialisms and Indigeneity
  • International Relations
  • State, Politics, and Law

Areas of Interest

My research documents the (un)successful blueprints for China's transformation into a modernised state, with a special attention on the divergent interpretations of the 'Chinese revolution'. First, I survey the discourses, especially the 'unequal treaties' and 'national humiliation', that constructed modern China’s victimhood and legitimised the claims for a revolution. Second, I explore the contest between the divergent state-building initiatives that searched for the best cure for a victimised China. Third, I put the ‘domestic’ and the ‘international’ into the same picture, hence investigating how the ‘Chinese initiative’ in foreign policy was shaped by and shaped the state's domestic governance.

Working Dissertation

Supervisors

Li Chen

Biography

Born and raised in Nanjing, the old capital of the Nationalist Chinese Republic (1927-1949), I enjoy visiting historical sites and old buildings that were built by, witness, and survive from the progress of history. Using British Foreign Office volumes and documents from various Chinese archives, my B.A. thesis interrogated the Chinese Nationalist Party-state's proclaimed 'revolutionary' discourse of 'anti-imperialism'. My current projects examine anti-Japanese activities in China, using the Nationalist Party bureaucrats' communications that I have transcribed from the Second Historical Archives of China.

I welcome conversations/coffee chats on history, archives, and beyond. Please do not hesitate to contact me in Chinese.

Education

B.A. (Hon.): History and International Relations, The University of British Columbia

Cohort

  • 2024-2025