Kaijun Chen

Kaijun Chen is an Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at Brown University. He specializes in the Chinese literature and material culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912), with a focus on the history of technology. His research explores how the Qing state managed technical expertise in the porcelain industry and its impact on cultural production, including literary works. He joined Brown in 2016 after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

Education: PhD Columbia University (2014), MA Sorbonne I (2007), BA Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2005).

Research interests include the intersection of technology, literature, and material culture, particularly in the context of transnational networks and imperial governance. His monograph Porcelain for the Emperor (2023) examines techno-political control in Qing porcelain production. He has curated exhibitions and organized scholarly events on ceramic archaeology and artisanal histories.

Publications span books, articles, and reviews, addressing topics like Qing porcelain, artisanal rhetoric, and transcultural object histories. His work bridges literary analysis with material culture studies, offering insights into how technical knowledge shaped cultural narratives in early modern China.