Emily N. K. Tsui

Emily N. K. Tsui is a predoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, affiliated with Department III: Artifacts, Action, Knowledge. She is part of the “Common Knowledge and Its Sources in the Sinosphere, 14th–20th Centuries” Working Group, focusing on late-Imperial Chinese vernacular encyclopedias.

• Education: Studied Philosophy at University College London and Intellectual History/Transcultural Studies at the University of Heidelberg.

Her doctoral project (2022–2027) investigates how the “strange” constituted knowledge in late-Imperial Chinese encyclopedic traditions, contributing to broader understanding of historical epistemologies and collective knowledge systems. She actively participates in primary source reading groups for the “Household Encyclopedia” (2023), engaging with textual cultures and practical knowledge frameworks.