Title: Huizhou Merchants and the Early Globalization of East Asia
Lecturer: XIONG Yuanbao (Professor of History at Waseda University)
Chairperson:MOU Fasong (Professor of History, East China Normal University)
Date: 3 pm, June 20th, 2019 (Thursday)
Venue: Room 1306, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
The Great Geographical Discovery and the opening of new sea routs heralded a long-term transformation of approaching worldwide production specialization, thus affecting the East Asian areas. This talk concerns a series of great events in 16th century-East Asia: “the northern barbarians and southern pirates”; the arrival of the Westerners; Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s invasion to Korea. Through a statistics of the Japanese pirates’ complicated activism and the Huizhou merchants’ role within it, this talk explores the inner dynamics of East Asia and the significance of the Japanese elements, and the relationship between China’s socioeconomic changes and those of East Asia and Southeast Asia, especially Japan, so as to revisit all the interactions between these events and the socioeconomic elements behind.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
Mr. Yuanbao Xiong obtained his BA at Wuhan University, his MA at Central China Normal University, and his PHD at the University of Tokyo (Japan). Now he is professor of history at Waseda University. He specializes in the socioeconomic history of China, Chinese urban history (especially Beijing), and the history of the international relationship of East Asia.
