Qingrou Zhao

Thesis title: Counting in, counting out: a history of census-making in Shanghai, 1840s-1949

Background

BA Finance, Peking University (2016 - 2020)

BA International Politics (Dual Degree), Peking University (2017 - 2020)

MPhil Economic and Social History (Distinction), University of Oxford (2020 - 2022)

PhD Economic and Social History, University of Edinburgh (2022 - expected 2026)

PhD project funded by Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS) ESRC DTP PhD Studentship (2022 - 2026)

Undergraduate teaching

I tutor the following courses in history:

  • Historian's Toolkit (sem 1, 2024-25, 2023-2024)
  • The Global Economy since 1750 (sem 2, 2023-24, 2022-23)

I also tutor the following courses in social and political science:

  • Introduction to Political Data Analysis (sem 2, 2024-25, 2023-24, 2022-23)

Research summary

"Counting in, counting out: a history of census-making in Shanghai, 1840s-1949"

My PhD research concerns the International Settlement and the French Concession in Shanghai from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Specifically, I look at census-making processes by the French, British-American, Chinese, and Japanese authorities from the 1860s to 1949. I study why and how censuses were conducted in different jurisdictions of Shanghai, how "modern" census-making found its way into China in this process, as well as the cooperation, emulation, and friction across different empires in a trans-imperial laboratory.

Current research interests

History of Sino-British and Sino-French Relations, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Chinese History, Global and Imperial History, Economic and Social History, History of Migration, Children's History

Past research interests

History of Financial Crisis, Chinese Financial History

Organiser

Co-Convenor:

  • Edinburgh Centre for Global History Graduate Workshops (University of Edinburgh, July 2023 - May 2024)
  • First Annual Graduate Student Conference on Economic and Social History (University of Edinburgh, 7 July 2023)
  • Oxford Economic and Social History Graduate Seminar (University of Oxford, October 2021 - June 2022)
  • Oxford Annual Economic and Social History Workshop (University of Oxford, 26-27 April 2021)

Papers delivered

Enculturating Britishness in Shanghai: Children’s Columns in The North China Herald, 1891-1894 (Jointly with Miss Shuya Su)

Children’s History Society Conference 2024 | Presentation | Newcastle, 4 – 6 July 2024

Greener on the other side? The motivations of Chinese migration into the Shanghai International Settlement, 1885-1935

Joint East Asian Studies Conference 2024 | Presentation | Preston, 26 – 28 June 2024

RHI IHR New Perspectives in Global Economic History | Special issue workshop | London, 5 June 2024

Economic History Society Annual Conference | Poster | Newcastle, 5 – 7 April 2024

Economic History Society Residential Training Course | Presentation and workshop | Coventry, 29.11 – 2.12 2023

Cambridge Chinese Migration Studies Group Seminars | Presentation | Online, 3 November 2023

Counting in, Counting out: Practical and Ideological Considerations Behind Nineteenth-Century Shanghai Settlement Census-Making

Oxford International History of East Asia Seminars | Presentation | Oxford, 23 October 2023

Edinburgh Centre for Global History Graduate Workshops | Paper workshop | Edinburgh, 18 October 2023

The 1882-1883 Shanghai Financial Crisis Revisited: An Analysis From the Perspective of Self-Strengthening Enterprises

CEPR The Chinese Economic History in the Long Run Conference | Poster | Manchester, 21 October 2022

Oxford Economic and Social History Graduate Seminar | Presentation | Oxford, 23 February 2022

Eighth International Society for Quantitative History Summer School | Presentation | Online, 12 July 2021