Weipin Tsai

Dr Weipin Tsai is a Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and Director of Research at the Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London. His research focuses on modern Chinese history from the late Qing to the Republican period, particularly Chinese modernization and global engagement through institutions like the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and the Postal Service. Key interests include communication networks, print culture, and treaty port dynamics.

His current Leverhulme Trust-funded project explores the history of Chinese private letter hongs (minxinju), examining local-driven modernization through pre-20th century courier systems. Notable works include The Making of China’s Post Office (Harvard UP, 2024) and studies on postal maps and commodity networks.

Recent research highlights include analyses of the 1873 Vienna Exhibition port catalogues and the role of postal infrastructure in shaping national identity. Tsai collaborates internationally on projects such as Jiao merchants’ commodity networks and Taiwanese colonial dynamics.

He supervises PhD students on modern Chinese history topics and has held roles including editor of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. His work bridges local and global perspectives to understand historical agency in China’s engagement with modernity.