CV

This CV was last updated on 23 February 2024.

CURRENT EMPLOYMENT

Associate Professor of East Asian History, University of Leeds

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands, co-edited with Christopher Green and Steven Denney (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, January 2021).

Change and Continuity in North Korean Politics, co-edited with Christopher Green and Robert Winstanley-Chesters (Routledge, November 2016).

Published Journal Articles and Book Chapters

(2024). “Fragmented Geographies: Tada Fumio and Japanese Imperialism in Manchuria, Mengjiang, and Korea,” with Robert Winstanley-Chesters, Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 83 (Spring 2024), 23-35.

(2023). “Flawed Reflections: Robert Loh, Mao Zedong and the Socialist Transformation Campaign in Shanghai, 1955-1956,” The PRC History Review Vol. 8, No. 3 (December 2023): 1-11.

(2023) “’Ignorantly Arrogant Souls’: Looking Back at U.S. and UN Control of North Korea in Autumn 1950,” North Korean Review, Vol. 19, No. 1, 5-21.

(2023). “From Liberation to the Great Leap Forward: Ethnic Koreans and Assimilation in Northeast China, 1945-1962,” in Kevin Cawley and Julia Schneider, eds., Transnational East Asian Studies (Liverpool University Press, 2023), 255-269. [link]

(2022). “Encountering the Silk Road in Mengjiang with Tada Fumio: Korean/Japanese Colonial Fieldwork, Research, Connections and Collaborations,” co-authored with Robert Winstanley-Chesters, Acta Via Serica, Vol. 7, No. 1 (June 2022): 131–148. [link]

(2021). “Shoulder Poles and Bombs: Grain Market Controls in Greater Chongqing (1949-1953),” co-authored with Wankun Li, Chinese Historical Review, Vol. 28, No. 1 (May), 1-26.

(2021). “Ink and Ashes: Documenting North Korea’s Mythic Origins in the Border Region, 1931-1945,” in Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands, Adam Cathcart, Christopher Green, and Steven Denney, eds., (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press), 131-163.

(2021). “Purges and Peripheries: Jang Song-taek, Pyongyang’s SEZ Strategy, and Relations with China,” with Christopher Green, in Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands, Adam Cathcart, Christopher Green, and Steven Denney, eds., (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press), 289-311.

(2021). “Regions within the Yalu-Tumen Border Space: From Dandong to the Tumen and Beyond,” with Christopher Green and Steven Denney, in Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands, Adam Cathcart, Christopher Green, and Steven Denney, eds., (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press), 59-78.

(2020). “’The Enemies Made This Possible’: Sino-North Korean relations since 1948” with Yujin Lim, in Adrian Buzo, ed., Routledge Handbook of Contemporary North Korea (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 131-140.

(2020). “Bullets of a Defeated Nation: The 1946 Shibuya Incident,” in In Empire’s Wake: The Violent Legacies of Japan’s Imperial Expansion and the Reconstruction of Postwar East Asia, Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis, eds. (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press), 98-120. 

(2018). “German Studies of Koreans in Manchuria: Gustav Fochler-Hauke and the Influence of Karl Haushofer’s National Socialist Geopolitics,” with Robert Winstanley-Chesters, European Journal of Korean Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn), 131-141. 

(2018). “Evaded States: Security and Control in the Sino-Korean Border Region,” in Routledge Handbook of Asian Borderlands, Alexander Horstmann, Martin Saxer, Alessandro Rippa, eds., (Routledge: March), 422-433.

(2017). “Tradition and Legitimation in North Korea: The Role of the Moranbong Band,” Review of Korean Studies, co-authored with Pekka Korhonen, Vol. 20, No. 2 (December), 7-32.

(2017). “Owen Lattimore and Research on the Sino Korean Borderlands, 1931-1945,” European Journal of Korean Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Summer), 59-74.

(2017). “Tethering Tibet: Recent Chinese Historiography and Liu Shengqi in Lhasa, 1945-1949,” Asian Affairs, Vol. 48, no. 1 (March), 74-87.

(2017). “Xi’s Belt: Chinese-North Korean Relations,” with Christopher Green, in Chinese Foreign Policy under Xi, Hoo Tiang Boon, ed. (Routledge; February), pp. 130-143.

(2017). “Death and Transfiguration: The Late Kim Jong-Il Aesthetic in North Korean Cultural Production,” Popular Music and Society, co-authored with Pekka Kohornen, Vol. October 2017, pages 390-405.  *Winner of the R. Serge Denisoff Award (2017). 

(2016). “Resurrecting Defeat: International Propaganda and the Shenyang Trials of 1956,” in War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1945-1956: Justice in Time of Turmoil, Kerstin von Lingen, ed. (Palgrave), pp. 261-278. 

(2016). “’Kim Jong-un Syndrome’: North Korean Commemorative Culture and the Succession Process,” Change and Continuity in North Korean Politics, co-edited with Robert Winstanley-Chesters and Christopher Green (Routledge), pp. 6-22.

(2016). “Kim Jong-un and the Practice of Songun Ideology,” with Steven Denney and Christopher Green, Change and Continuity in North Korean Politics, Adam Cathcart, Robert Winstanley-Chesters and Christopher Green, eds. (Routledge), pp. 53-64.

(2015). “North Korean Regime Stability: The Sino-North Korean Border Region as Test Case,” with Christopher Green, in East Asian Intelligence and Organised Crime, Stephan Blancke, ed. (Berlin: Köster Verlag), pp. 291-302.

(2015). “In the Shadow of Jang Song-taek- Pyongyang_s Evolving Strategy with the Hwanggumpyeong and Wihua Islands,” On Korea, Vol. 8 (January), 126-137. Previously published (2014) in Korea Economic Institute of America Academic Paper Series, Vol. 8 (June), 8 pp.

(2014). “Nation, Ethnicity, and the Post-Manchukuo Order in the Sino-Korean Border Region,” with Charles Kraus, in Key Papers on Korea: Papers Celebrating 25 Years of the Centre of Korean Studies, SOAS, University of London, Andrew D. Jackson, ed. (Brill) 79-99.

(2014). “How Authoritarian Regimes Maintain Domain Consensus: North Korean Information Strategies in the Kim Jong-un Era,” Review of Korean Studies, co-authored with Christopher Green and Steven Denney, Vol. 17, No. 2 (December) 145–178.

(2013).“North Korea’s Cultural Diplomacy in the Early Kim Jong-un Era,” with Steven Denney, North Korean Review, Vol, 9, No. 2 (Autumn) 29-42.

(2012). “Musical Diplomacy in the Nixon-Kissinger China Visits, 1971–1973,” Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring/Summer) 31–38.

(2011). “The Bonds of Brotherhood: New Evidence of Sino-North Korean Exchanges, 1950-1954,” with Charles Kraus, Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3, 27-51.

(2011). “War Criminals and the Road to Sino-Japanese Normalization: Zhou Enlai and the Shenyang Trials, 1954–1956,” in Caroline Rose, ed., Sino-Japanese Relations : History, Politics, Economy, Security : Volume II: History Revisited, Critical Concepts in Asian Studies (London: Routledge, June) 49–70.  (Reprint of 2009 article.)

(2010). “Nationalism and Ethnic Identity in the Sino-Korean Border Region of Yanbian, 1945-1950,” Korean Studies, Vol. 34 (December) 25-53.

(2010). “Japanese Devils and American Wolves: Chinese Communist Songs from the War of Liberation and the Korean War,” Popular Music and Society, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May): 203-218.

(2010). “Walls as Multivalent Icons in Early People’s Republican Cartoons, 1946-1951,” in Chinese Walls in Time and Space: History, Medicine, Media, Law, Art, and Literature, Haun Saussy and Roge DesForges, eds. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press) 175–210.

(2009).  “North Korean Hip Hop? Reflections on Musical Diplomacy and the DPRK,” Acta Koreana, Vol. 12, No. 2 (December): 1-19.

(2009). “’’To Serve Revenge for the Dead’: Chinese Communist Reflections of the War of Resistance in the PRC Foreign Ministry Archive, 1949-1956,” with Patricia Nash, China Quarterly No. 200 (December): 1053-1070. *Winner of the Gordon White Prize for the best article published in in 2009.

(2009). “War Criminals and the Road to Sino-Japanese Normalization: Zhou Enlai and the Shenyang Trials, 1954-1956,” with Patricia Nash, Twentieth-Century China 34:2 (April): 89-111.

(2009). “’Against Invisible Enemies’ : Japanese Bacteriological Weapons in China’s Cold War, 1949 1952,” Chinese Historical Review Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring): 101-129.

(2009). “Transnational Voyages: Reflections on Teaching Exodus to North Korea,” ASIANetwork Exchange Vol. 17, No. 1 (Fall).

(2008).  “Peripheral Influence: The Sinuiju Student Incident and the Soviet Occupation of North Korea, 1945-1947,” with Charles Kraus, Journal of Korean Studies Vol. 13, No. 1 (Fall), 1-28.

(2008). “Internationalist Culture in North Korea, 1945-1950,” with Charles Kraus, Review of Korean Studies Vol. 11, No. 3 (September), 123-148.

(2008).  “Song of Youth North Korean Music from Liberation to War,” North Korean Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Fall), 93-104.

(2008). “Atrocities, Insults, and ‘Jeep Girls’: Depictions of the U.S. Military in China, 1945–1949,” International Journal of Comic Art Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring), 140–154.

(2006). “Urban Chinese Perspectives on the U.S. Occupation of Japan, 1945–1947,” Studies on Asia Series II, Vol. 3, No. 2, 21–48.

(2006) “Music and Politics in Hitler’s Germany,” Madison Historical Review, Vol III, No. 1 (September), 1–17.

(2004). “Cruel Resurrection, Chinese Comics and the Korean War,” International Journal of Comic Art Vol. VI, No. 1 (Winter), 37–55.

Policy Papers

(2020). “North Korea’s Northern Tier: Economic Potential and Blockages,” in Reconstructing North Korea: Challenges and Opportunities (London, December), 3-7.

(2020). “Chinese Strategy in South Korea,” in An Emerging China-Centric Order: China’s Vision for a New World Order in Practice, Nadège Rolland, ed., National Bureau of Asian Research, NBR Special Report no. 87 (25 August 2020), pp. 19-32.

(2017).  “Tigers in the Haze: Chinese Troops on the Border with North Korea in the ‘April Crisis’” China Brief, The Jamestown Foundation, Vol. 17, No. 13 (20 October), 11-17.

(2016). “China-North Korea Relations: Past, Present, and Future,” China-North Korean Relations and the Future of the Korean Peninsula, Korean National Diplomatic Academy, Center for China Studies/ROK Foreign Ministry (Seoul: 29 September), 17-25.

(2016). “Keep Calm and Carry On: Beijing’s DPRK Policy in 2016,” RUSI Newsbrief, Royal United Services Institute, London Vol. 36, No. 5 (September), 16-18.

(2016). “Understanding China’s Response to North Korean Missile, Nuclear Tests,” China Brief, The Jamestown Foundation, Vol. XVI, No. 5 (March 10), 11-14.

(2014). “In the Shadow of Jang Song-taek: Pyongyang’s Evolving SEZ Strategy with the Hwanggumpyeong and Wihwa Islands,” Korea Economic Institute of America Academic Paper Series, Vol. 8 (June), 8 pp.

(2013). “The Discursive Battleground for North Korean Refugees: ‘Double Defector’ Propaganda and Emerging Sino-North Korean Frictions,” with Brian Gleason, Peaceful Unification of the Korean Peninsula and Human Rights in North Korea, ed. Korea-UK Forum on the Peaceful Unification of Korea (London: ROK Ministry of Unification), 109–137.

(2012). “Seven Fingers: China’s New Leadership and North Korea Policy,” Pacific Forum (No. #87), with Roger Cavazos and Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga. Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hawaii, December 26.

Source Commentaries

(2024). “South Korean Diplomacy and Security Politics in the Early 1990s: Perspectives from UK National Archives,” with Luke Thrumble, Sources and Methods, blog of the History & Public Policy Program, and Cold War International History Project, Wilson Center, Washington D.C., 20 February.

(2023). “Liang Sicheng as CIA Defection Target in Mexico City: New Evidence from the JFK Files,” Sources and Methods, blog of the History & Public Policy Program, and Cold War International History Project, Wilson Center, Washington D.C., 28 June.

Review Essays (selected)

(2024). Review of The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier, by Benno Weiner, for Chinese Historical Review, Vol. 31, No. 1 (May, forthcoming).

(2023). Review of Sound of the Border: Music and Identity of the Korean Minority in China, by Sunhee Koo, for Asian Studies Review, Vol. 47, No. 3.

(2022). Review of Mirrorlands: Russia, China, and Journeys In Between, by Ed Pulford, for Chinese Historical Review, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Autumn 2022), 140-142.

(2022). Review of Rethinking Authority in China’s Border Regime: Regulating the Irregular, by Franziska Plümmer, for China Quarterly Vol. 251 (Autumn 2022), 947-948.

(2021). Review of Tibet in Agony: Lhasa 1959, by Li Jianglin, Chinese Historical Review, Vol. 28, No. 2 (November), 204-206.

(2021). Review of Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations, by Odd Arne Westad, China Quarterly, Issue 247 (September), 898-900.

(2021). Review of Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea, Ankit Panda, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 94, No. 4 (December). [pdf]

(2021). Review of Karl Haushofer und die OAG: Deutsch-japanische Netzwerke in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, by Christian W. Spang, Contemporary Japan, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Autumn), 248-250. [pdf]

(2019). Review of Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: A Hidden History by Monica Kim, European Journal of Korean Studies (October), 297-300.

(2019). Review of A Misunderstood Friendship: Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, and Sino–North Korean Relations, 1949–1976, by Zhihua Shen and Yafeng Xia, China Review International Vol. 24, No. 2 (May), 140-144.

(2019). Review of Panagiotis Dimitrakis, The Secret War for China: Espionage, Revolution and the Rise of Mao, by Panagiotis Dimitrakis, War in History, Vol. 26, No. 2 (April), 300-302. [pdf]

(2018). Review of A Korean Conflict: The Tensions between Britain and America, by Ian McClaine, War in History Vol. 25, No. 1 (January), 143-144. [pdf]

(2016). Review of Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World, by Hajimu Masuda, H-Diplo Roundtable Review Volume XVIII, No. 12 (19 December), 8-10. 

(2016). Review of The Capitalist Unconscious: From Korean Unification to Transnational Korea, by Hyun Ok Park, Sino-NK (March).

(2015). Review of The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia, by Andrei Lankov, Papers of the British Association of Korean Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1. 

(2013). “In Need of an Icon,” Interview with Blaine Harden re: “Escape from Camp 14,” Yonsei Journal of International Studies Vol. 13, No. 1 (Spring), 137-151.

(2013). “Cleft Identity: Jewish Musicians in Berlin,” Review of A Jewish Orchestra in Nazi Germany: Musical Politics and the Berlin Jewish Culture League, by Lily E. Hirsch, H-German, H-Net Reviews. March.

(2010). Review of Jae Ho Chang, Between Ally and Partner: China-South Korea Relations, in Korean Studies Vol. 34 (December), 151-154.

(2009). Review of Jeffrey A. Engel, ed., The China Diary of George H.W. Bush: The Making of a Global President, for H-Diplo Reviews Roundtable, Vol. X, No. 18 (June) [online].

(2009). Review of Hyun Ok Park, Two Dreams in One Bed: Empire, Social Life, and the Origins of the North Korean Revolution in Manchuria in Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 55, No. 1 (February): 313-314.

(2008). Review of Adrian Buzo, The Making of Modern Korea in Acta Koreana Vol. 11, No. 3 (December): 265-269.

(2008). Review of David I. Steinberg, ed., Korean Attitudes toward the United States: Changing Dynamics, in Acta Koreana Vol. 11, No. 1 (January): 150-154.

(2007). Review of Allan R. Millett, The War for Korea, 1945-1950, in Korean Studies Vol. 31 (December): 91-95.

(2007). “Chinese Experience of the Korean War,” Review of Ha Jin, War Trash, in International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter No. 42 (Spring): 43.

(2007). Review of Phillip F. Williams and Yenna Wu, “The Great Wall of Confinement: The Chinese Prison Camp through Contemporary Fiction and Reportage,” in China Information (Vol. 21): 173-175.

(2007). Review of Hong Zhang, “America Perceived: The Making of Chinese Images of the United States, 1945-1953,” in Chinese Historical Review Vol. 13, No.1 (Spring): 155-158.  

(2006). Review of Ian Johnson, “Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China,” in China Information (Vol. 20): 118-119.

(2005). Review essay of Timothy Cheek, Mao Zedong: A History with Documents, in Education About Asia, Volume X, No. 2 (Fall): 67.  

***

Journalistic Publications (Selected)  

(2020). ‘With COVID-19 still raging in China and Russia, North Korea can’t relax just yet,‘ NK News, 4 June.

(2020). ‘How the coronavirus is being dealt with on the other side of the Tumen river,‘ NK News, 18 February.

(2019). ‘Pivot to Beijing? Kim Jong Un’s play for economic stability after Hanoi,’ NK News, 3 March.

(2019). ‘Music, Diplomacy, and Dictatorship: North Korean Concerts in Beijing,’ NK News, 1 February.

(2019). ‘Was Kim Jong-un’s China visit an economic lifeline for Dandong? Not quite,’ South China Morning Post, 17 January.

(2019). ‘Déjà vu all over again: Kim Jong Un returns to Beijing,’ NK News, 9 January.

(2018). ‘North Korea and the U.S. should try a little cultural diplomacy,’ NK News, 16 October.

(2018). ‘Xi Jinping and China-North Korea Relations,’ The Diplomat, 8 September.

(2018). ‘Occupational Hazards: What Xi Jinping sees when he looks at Kim Jong-un,’ NK News, 22 August.

(2018). ‘Chinese security guarantees and the future of North Korean economic reforms,’ NK News, 15 July.

(2018). ‘Keep your friends close: Kim Jong Un returns to China,’ NK News, 21 June.

(2018). ‘Thunderclouds over the honeymoon: Kim, Xi, and the looming Trump summit,’ NK News, 17 May.

(2018). ‘Upstaging Armageddon: Kim Jong-un and the Inter-Korean Summit,’ RUSI Commentary, Royal United Services Institute, London, 27 April.

(2018). ‘Data overload: North Korea sanctions enforcement in China,’ NK News, 1 February.

(2017). ‘Beyond the Bridges of Dandong: Politics, Corruption, and Sanctions Enforcement,’ NK News, 8 December.

(2017). ‘Beijing-Pyongyang: The State of the Alliance in 2017,’ interview with Seungmock Oh, NK News, 6 December.

(2017). ‘Tigers in the Haze: Chinese Troops on the North Korean Border during the April “Crisis”,’ Modern Tokyo Times, 7 November.

(2017). ‘With sister’s elevation, Kim Jong-un consolidates family’s control over North Korea,’ South China Morning Post, 22 October.

(2017). ‘Corrupt Colleagues and Family Ties: Xi’s Lesson from the Gao Gang Affair,’ China Policy Institute Analysis, with Wankun Li, University of Nottingham, 16 October.

(2017). ‘Reading Trump Tweets in Pyongyang,’ Foreign Policy, 6 September. [Reprinted in the Chicago Tribune; also available in French translation.]

(2017). ‘No space for democracy? Political dissidence in colonial vs. contemporary Hong Kong,’ with Alexander Shaw, Hong Kong Free Press, 23 July.

(2017). ‘Poking the Wasp Nest: Shen Zhihua’s Controversial Speech on North Korea,’ NK News, 12 July.

(2017). ‘China won’t bail out Trump on North Korea,’ CNN, 5 July.

(2017). ‘Lectures and Threats: How to read rumors of a North Korea-China breakup,’ NK News, 12 June.

(2017). ‘Hunchun: North Korean workers and trade in China’s borderlands,’ NK News, 17 May.

(2017). ‘China’s position on North Korea appears to shift ,’ South China Morning Post, 23 April.

(2017). ‘Reading North Korea news in China,’ NK News, 30 March.

(2017). “North Korea Doesn’t Trust China an Inch,” Foreign Policy, 8 March. 

(2017). ‘China, North Korea going through rough patch but break-up not on the horizon‘ (published in print edition as ‘Seeing past N Korea doomsday talk’), South China Morning Post, 5 March.

(2017). ‘Understanding China’s suspension of North Korean coal imports,’ The Interpreter, Lowy Institute, Sydney, 3 March.

(2017). ‘How different would North Korea have been under Kim Jong Nam?’ The Guardian, 23 February.

(2017). ‘Targeting Northeastern Tigers: The Anti-Corruption Campaign in Liaoning,’ China Policy Institute Analysis, 23 February.

(2016). “How Sanctions on a Chinese Firm Hurt North Korea and Help the U.S.,” NK News, 3 October.

(2016). “Unraveling China-North Korea Relations,” The Diplomat, 26 September 2016.

(2015). “Explainer: what is Mao’s Little Red Book and why is everyone talking about it?” The Conversation, 26 November.

(2015). ‘Assessing North Korea’s “Ground Game” with China,’ The Diplomat, 27 August.

(2015). ‘North Korean rhetoric is full of sound and fury – but doesn’t quite signify war,’ The Guardian, 21 August.

(2015). “From Cairo to Chongqing: Global vs. Local Histories of the Second World War,” with Wankun Li, China Policy Institute Analysis (University of Nottingham), 21 August. 

(2015). ‘The bombs kept falling in the wake of Hiroshima,’ Yorkshire Post (UK), 8 August.

(2015.) “Unrest in the Southwest: The fight to join the high-speed rail network,” with Wankun Li, China Policy Institute Analysis (University of Nottingham), 21 May. 

(2015.) ‘Kim Jong-un’s vulnerability on display as North Korean rumours abound,’ The Guardian, 15 May.

(2014). ‘《刺杀金正恩》为何激怒朝鲜?’ FT 中文网评论, 22 December.

(2014). ‘For North Korea there is nothing comic about killing off Kim,’ Financial Times, 19 December.

Conference papers and presentations [link]

Past positions

Editor-in-chief, European Journal of Korean Studies (2015-2020)

Lecturer in Chinese history, Leeds University (2013-2021)

Lecturer in East Asian history, Queen’s University Belfast (2012-13)

Assistant professor of Chinese history, Pacific Lutheran University (2007-2012; tenured in 2010)

Assistant professor of East Asian history, Hiram College (2004-2007)