Ling-Wei Kung

Ling-Wei Kung is an Assistant Research Fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of History and Philology and a PhD candidate in History and East Asian Studies at Columbia University. His research examines early modern China-Inner Asia relations through multilingual archives, with focus on intelligence networks, trans-regional trade, and religious exchanges.

Education includes:

• B.A. in History, National Taiwan University (2012)
• M.A. (2015) and M.Phil (2018) from Columbia University
• Research stays at Tibet, Kyoto, Kyushu, Peking, and Renmin Universities

Research interests span:

• Early Modern China-Inner Asia relations
• Tibetan/Mongolian/Manchu philology
• History of intelligence and trade networks
• Comparative imperialism (Qing, Mughal, Tsarist Russia)
• Buddhist material culture

Publications demonstrate consistent focus on Qing Dynasty's Eurasian connections through multilingual sources. Recent works analyze Tibetan Buddhism's political role, intelligence networks across Himalayan borderlands, and methodological innovations in Inner Asian historiography.

Awards and recognition:

• Yu Ying-Shih Prize for Humanities Research (2019)
• China Times Foundation First Prize for Chinese Studies (2020)
• Fieldwork funding from ACLS, SSRC, Japan Foundation

Current research continues to explore information networks between China and Inner Asia using Manchu, Tibetan, and Mongolian archival materials, with no active lab or student supervision reported.