Asia Economic History Seminar 2024-25

Seminar organisers: Zoey Shen, Tom Learmouth, Bumjin Park

Venue

Autumn Term: CKK.2.18 (Cheng Kin Ku Building) unless otherwise stated 

Winter Term: CKK 1.17, unless otherwise stated

Time: 12-1pm, unless otherwise stated

Winter Term 2024 - 2025

28 January

• Ying Dai (Cambridge)
• Working Patterns in the twentieth century Yangtze Valley: Evidence from Lineage Genealogies
  
  Abstract: The history of labour is essential for understanding China’s transformation from an agricultural economy to the workshop of the world during the twentieth century. However, reliable occupational data from censuses are only available from 1982 onwards. My research identifies lineage genealogies (jiapu), compiled after the Reform and Opening-up period, as a new, reliable, and representative source for studying the working patterns of twentieth-century China from various perspectives. The Yangtze Jiapu Dataset (YJD), comprising 210,383 occupational observations from 211 jiapu, suggests a delayed structural change and significant regional differences across the Lower Yangtze, Middle Yangtze, and Upper Yangtze regions. A subset of the YJD, consisting of 92 jiapu that comprehensively record by-employment, suggests a double-peak pattern of by-employment in the Yangtze Valley over the long twentieth century. This reflects China’s unique historical trajectory and highlights specialization, structural change, and land systems as key shaping factors. I will also present preliminary data on lifetime occupational changes, intergenerational occupational mobilty, and the occupations of husbands and wives, for which I look forward to receiving further feedback.

11 February

• Anne Booth (SOAS)
• The Causes and Consequences of Globalisation in Southeast Asia from the 16th century to the Present
  
  Abstract: 

  This seminar will examine the impact of globalization in the countries of Southeast Asia, (Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Brunei) which form a very mixed group in terms of population size, per capita GDP, and levels of human development. These differences are partly the result of colonial legacies, and partly the result of political and economic policies pursued since 1960. Building on Reid’s study of the “Age of Commerce”, he pointed out that in 1600, Southeast Asia looked similar to Europe in terms of urbanization, and living standards. In recent decades, a considerable literature has emerged which tries to explain the reasons for the economic and political diversity which is obvious today. Some economists have explained the difference in terms of economic policies including trade and investment policies; the argument is that the more open economies have done much better than those which have adopted protectionist policies and discouraged foreign investment. The talk will try to tease out the implications of the different economic policies for economic growth across the region, both in the colonial era and more recently. By 2020, only two countries, Singapore and Brunei had reached high income status; in spite of sustained economic growth the others are still at best in the upper middle-income category as defined by the World Bank. Can they sustain growth to the point where they will become rich and stable economies by 2050? 

11 March

• Jan Lucassen (International Institute of Social History)
• Earning an Income in India, 1500-1900