Tsz Ho Wong

Thesis title: Japan’s Total Empire of Private Capital: The Economic and Financial Mobilisation of the Wartime Japanese Empire

Background

Tsz Ho Wong is a Ph.D. candidate in East Asian Studies and a CDCS Training Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He is particularly interested in the history of modern East Asia, with a focus on economic, financial, and business history. He is passionate about using digital tools (Gephi, QGIS, and Google Earth) in his research. He has organised a postgraduate conference at LSE in June 2022 and has presented his research in the UK, continental Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States over the past four years. His current research explores the networks of capital and power elites in the wartime Japanese Empire, and the use of private capital to fuel imperial ambitions.

Qualifications

M.Sc. (International and Asian History), London School of Economics and Political Science (2022)

B.A. (First Class Honours), University of Hong Kong (2021)

Responsibilities & affiliations

Fellow, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Member, CARE International Project, CWAR Institute, Wilson Centre

Member, The Business History Conference

Undergraduate teaching

At School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures:

Tutor in Modern East Asian History A

Postgraduate teaching

At Centre for Data, Culture & Society:

Digital Method of the Month: Network Analysis

Introduction to Network Analysis with Gephi

Beyond Social Networks: Advanced Uses of Gephi in Humanities Research

 

Current research interests

History of Modern East Asia (particularly Japan and China, c. 1840-1970), Economic, Financial, and Business History, Digital Humanities, Zaibatsu, Aristocracy

Past research interests

Classical Scholarship, as well as Astronomical and Astrological Manuscripts in Medieval China (c. 800-1300 CE).

Current project grants

Henry Kaufman Financial History Research Fellowship, The Business History Conference (2024)

Invited speaker

“Compressed Time and Space: Globalisation and Historical Studies,” Hongkong Young Historian Institute (12/4/2023) (in Chinese)

Organiser

Diaspora Confluence in Maritime Asia: Intercultural Dialogue and Convergence - International Symposium for Young Scholars in Asia Seas (25-26/8/2023) (supported by the University of Edinburgh, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HKYHI, NCKU, and Main-Scholars)

Reimagining Progression and Retrogression in History: 1st LSE Department of International History Student Conference (17-18/6/2022) (co-organised with Alston Li, Lukas Baake, Elena Dahlem, Rongsheng Liu and Manpreet Sandhu)

Papers delivered

Robbing Civilians to Pay the Military: War Financing and Civilian Wealth Mobilisation in the Japanese Empire, Japanese Military Violence During the Asia-Pacific War, Institute of Japanese Studies,  Freie Universität Berlin (Forthcoming 5-7/9/2024)

“The Imperial Entrepot: Hong Kong in the 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere',” HKHC &  HKIHSS Conference 2024: Journeys, HKHC (Bristol) and HKIHSS (HKU) (Forthcoming 20-21/6/2024)

The Internal Financing Mechanism and (Hyper-)inflation in the Wartime Japanese Empire,” Hyperinflation: Financial History Conference, The European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH) and the Central Bank of Hungary  (Forthcoming 14/6/2024)

The Mobilisation of Civilian Capital in the Wartime Japanese Empire,” 2024 BHC Meeting, The Business History Conference (15/3/2024)

“Japan’s Pre-war Research on Chemical Warfare and Wartime Production of Related Weapons and Equipment,” Ecologies of Health and Diseases in Eurasia: New Perspectives in the Medical-Environmental Humanities and History, University of Oslo (2/6/2023)

“Visualising the Wartime Japanese Empire’s Capital and Power Elites Networks of the Non-Ferrous Metals Industry,” GloCoBank Early-Career Researcher Workshop: New Frontiers for Data Analytics in Economic and Business History Research, “Global Correspondent Banking 1870-2000” (GloCoBank) Project at the University of Oxford (26/5/2023)

“The Wartime Japanese Empire’s Capital and Power Elites Networks of the Non-Ferrous Metals Industry,” 12th Spring History Symposium, University of Hong Kong (5/5/2023)

“The Capital Networks of the Wartime Japanese Empire’s Non-Ferrous Metals Industry,” 2023 BHC Meeting, The Business History Conference (18/3/2023)

“The Capital Networks of the Wartime Japanese Empire’s Non-Ferrous Metals Industry,” NTU History Postgraduate Workshop, Nanyang Technological University (28/2/2023)

“Japan Wartime Expeditions on Rare-Earth and Chemical Elements and the Manufacturing of War-Related Technologies,” 49th Symposium of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) 2022, University of Ostrava (24/9/2022)

“Lingnan Gentry Xenophobia and Protestant Medical Missionaries from the Perspective of a Late Qing Chinese Christian Doctor: A Study of A Western Doctor’s Expedition into Canton (1886-1908),” Conflict and Peace in Asia: Impact of Nationalism on Globalisation - International Symposium for Young Scholars in Asia Seas, Young Historian Initiative and Department of History, National Cheng Kung University (26-28/8/2022) (in Chinese)

“The Life and Thoughts of Zhou Shuxue,” Undergraduate Conference on Historiography, Young Historian Initiative (21/8/2022) (in Chinese)

“Lost in Translation: Transmitting Knowledge of renzao rou in Republican China (1928-1949),” Oxford TGHS Postgraduate Conference, Oxford Centre for Global History (25/6/2022)

“Liang Yen’s Writings on China and the American Global Propaganda Campaigns in the Early Cold War,” BPCS Annual Conference 2022, British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies (24/6/2022)

“A Maiden With Thousand Faces: The Meaning of ‘Xiang Fei’ Revisited,” 2022 KFLC: The Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Conference, University of Kentucky (21/4/2022)

“The Great Pretender: Japanese Contention for Confucianism and Reordering East Asia,” New Frontiers 2022: York University History Department’s Annual Conference, York University (Canada) (25/3/2022)

“The Competition of Sino-Japanese Historians’ Vision in Cultural Enterprise: A Case Study of Hong Ye and Shiratori Kurakichi,” The 25th Annual Brian Bertoti Innovative Perspectives in History Graduate Conference, Virginia Tech (19/3/2022)

“‘Xiantiandao zong hui’ and the Japanese Wartime Governance in Northern China,” The 27th Annual James A. Barnes Graduate Student History Conference, The James A. Barnes Club, Temple University (19/3/2022)

“Reconsidering the Roles of Animals in South Asia Jungle Warfare: A Case Study of British and Japanese Military Preparations for the Battle of Imphal,” Animals and South Asian History International Symposium, History Department, Ashoka University (18/12/2021)

“Electrified Monetary Empire: Global Cable Telegraph Networks and the Formation of German Transnational Banking Networks (1873-1914),” Globalisation and Deglobalisation in Asia Seas: International Symposium for Young Scholars, Young Historian Initiative, New Era University College and Department of History, National Cheng Kung University (25/7/2021) (in Chinese)

“After the Downfall: The Inheritance of Wartime Japanese Empire’s Political and Business Networks in Postwar Japan,” The 5th Undergraduate Academic Conference on Humanities, The Education University of Hong Kong (18/6/2021) (in Chinese)

“Humble and Diligent: The Origins and the Welfare Services of the Wartime Chinese Charitable Organisations in Singapore,” The Fifth Biennial International Conference on Malaysian Chinese Studies: Malaysia in Transformation and the Southeast Asia Chinese Community, National Taiwan Normal University and the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies (29/5/2021)

“Eurasian or Chinese Mermaids? The Story of Wong’s Sisters and their Family of Searching Identity for the Eurasian Elites in Hong Kong,” Oxford Hong Kong Forum, Oxford University Hong Kong Scholars Association (OxHKScholars) (10-11/4/2021)

“‘Artificial Meat’ in China: The Knowledge of Food Yeast, Concentrated Cod Liver Oil and Dietary Supplements Imported to China in the Republican Era,” Undergraduate and Master Conference on Historiography, Young Historian Initiative (29/8/2020) (in Chinese)

“The Relations Between Japanese Civil Aviation Industry, ‘the Empire’s Aviation Sphere’, and the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (1928-1945),” The 4th Undergraduate Academic Conference on Humanities, The Education University of Hong Kong (12/6/2020) (in Chinese)

“On the Zhengguan li: A Case Study on the Hybrid Origins of the Calendar and the Sinicization of the Late Northern Wei Dynasty,” 2019 Early Medieval China Conference, Early Medieval China Group (19/3/2020, cancelled due to the Covid)

“The Development of the Dunhuang Annotated Calendars in the Guiyi Army Period: A Case Study on the Tongguang li Composed in 926 A.D.,” Undergraduate Conference on Historiography, Young Historian Initiative (31/8/2019) (in Chinese)

 

 

“A CARE Package for Hirohito,” Sources and Methods (blog), 1 February, 2024. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/care-package-hirohito.

“Humble and Diligent: The Origins and the Welfare Services of the Wartime Chinese Charitable Organisations in Singapore.” Malaysia in Transformation and the Southeast Asian Chinese Community: Selected Papers on The Fifth Biennial International Conference on Malaysian Chinese Studies, 2021 (Kuala Lumpur: Center for Malaysian Chinese Studies, 2022), 127-158.

“Unintended Consequences: The Effects of the Boxer Uprising on Global Bond Prices in the London Stock Exchange.” The Webster Review of International History 2. No. 1 (April 2022): 42-61.

“Dating Pottery from its Decoration,” Armenia (blog), 6 September, 2020. http://openarchaeology.org/armenia/2020-blog02.