Wayne Soon

In the Global Vanguard, with Professor James Lin Professor James Lin from the University of Washington shares the backstory to his latest book and demonstrates how Taiwan's early development missions impacted Taiwan's own population in ways ...

I spoke to Josh Edbrooke at National Taiwan Normal University's International Taiwan Studies Centre about my book, In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan. Many thanks to Josh for the thoughtful questions and discussion audioboom.com/posts/879447...

A podcast on my book Island Tinkerers is available today. Thanks to senior programs manager Adrienne Wu at Global Taiwan Institute for arranging the interview and publishing the podcast! 華府的智庫「全球台灣研究中心」幫我做了一個關於我的新書以及台灣科技產業的軟實力的訪談，是智庫的經理吳至芳主持的「台灣沙龍」這個節目的最新一集喔，歡迎大家線上收聽！謝謝至芳！
mailchi.mp/globaltaiwan...

Thank you!!

I think the rise of an anti covid vaccine movement in Japan and the rise of Sanseito requires an in depth studies. I’ll be interested to read scholarly studies on the history of contemporary vaccines in Japan, in relations to the rise of right wing populism. 1/

www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/artic...

Read Wayne Soon's review of Fighting for Health: Medicine in Cold War Southeast Asia Edited by C. Michele Thompson, Kathryn Sweet, and Michitake Aso

From the new issue of Technology & Culture, available at @projectmuse.bsky.social

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Woohoo, I have page proofs for my book!

Review in Technology and Culture of "Fighting for Health" by @waynesoon.bsky.social:

"In sum, this is an excellent volume that deserves to be widely read by scholars of the #ColdWar, military medicine, #healthcare, and (post)colonialism."

Read: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Pleased to share my review in T&C on the edited volume on Fighting for Health: Medicine in Cold War Southeast Asia. @nuspress.bsky.social

I enjoyed reading the essays in the volume, and learned a lot from them.

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The Politics of Common Reading Examines the transformation of vernacular knowledge during a pivotal period of modern Chinese history, 1894 to 1954.   In The Politics of Common Reading, Joan Judge examines an era of modern Chinese h...

Looking forward to Joan Judge’s forthcoming new book.

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Ebook version of my 2020 book, Global Medicine in China: A Diasporic History is on sale at $16 from @stanfordpress.bsky.social Consider buying a copy!

www.sup.org/books/asian-...

Episode 137 – Covid in Taiwan with Wayne Soon, Infectious Historians Marian Devotion and Plague in Late Medieval Italy with Bianca Lopez Episode 134 - March 7, 2025 Bianca Lopez (Southern Methodist University) joins the...

Pleased to share my interview with the excellent team at the Infectious Historians podcast.

I hope it will be useful for folks interested in incorporating the history of SARS and COVID in a non-western context in their classes!

infectioushistorians.com/2025/05/09/c...

Pleased to be sharing my review essay in HSNS on “New Directions in Global Health Histories of China and Taiwan”. I reviewed Mary Brazelton, Rachel Core, Fang Xiaoping and Yi-Tang Lin’s monographs & identified key themes in global health histories.

online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article...

Both books reveal how Sichuan and Manchuria were places of deep meanings for their residents: from mountains to gravesites; from rivers to houses. Without wonders (Daston and Park), there cannot be science and technology. Yet beyond wonders, there cannot be order without meanings. 3/

Key takeaways: history of science and technology in East Asia should consider the broader meanings of geomancy, place, and religious beliefs as actors on the ground ; fengshui brought the state and society closer together in organic ways, despite the calamities that surrounded the Late Qing. 2/

Enjoyed reading Tristan Brown‘s book. Pairs well with Rogaski’s new book on Knowing Manchuria, which I enjoyed reading too. 1/ @tristangbrown.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

@stanfordpress.bsky.social

Thank you Dr. Hsieh for a kind review of my book in Asian Medicine!

brill.com/view/journal...

The Once and Future China If you dropped in to China at any point in its modern history and tried to project 20 years into the future, you would almost certainly end up getting it wrong. In 1900, no one serving in the late Qin...

Read Rana Mitter’s piece in FP’s latest issue. I enjoyed it, but was also hoping that some of Sulmaan Wasif Khan’s insights in his recent book on US-China-Taiwan historical relations will make it more into the piece.

www.foreignaffairs.com/china/once-a...

Do folks know of any presses that are open to publishing shorter monographs, besides Columbia Shorts and Cambridge Elements? Thanks!

I had a lot of fun teaching the Geopolitics of Chips session in today's HUDT3001 class using Honghong Tinn's fantastic new book, Island Tinkerers.

I'm not sure whether my students understood the technical details I explained, but they recognize the centrality of high-end chips produced in Taiwan.

The Book Island Tinkerers. A book about technology in Taiwan.

An amazing book.

It's a great book!

AAHM Asia network breakfast meeting. Great to meet everyone! @aahmhistmed.bsky.social

Sickly, Idle and Risky Minorities: Race and Diabetes under Singapore’s Emergent “Insurantial Imaginary” This article highlights the role of the “insurantial imaginary”, defined as a social context in which profitable, useful and necessary uses can be found for insurance technology, as a condition tha...

Mohammad's article highlights the role of the “insurantial imaginary” as a condition that shaped the articulation of the sickly, idle and risky racial minorities within Singapore’s public health discourse on diabetes 6/

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Timothy Sim's article in the Bulletin of History of Medicine furthers this theme, but showing how coevolution of state and society further the party, but also public health's aim. Which circles back to Cherian's arguments. 5/

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Hygiene in a Landlord State: Health, Cleanliness and Chewing Gum in Late Twentieth Century Singapore - Gregory Clancey, 2018 This article provides historical context for Singapore’s fabled preoccupation with cleanliness. Beyond the legacy of British colonialism and post-colonial conce...

Greg Clancey's excellent article reveals that public housing was central to organizing Singapore's health and ethnic politics, even as it reveals sites of resistance. 4/

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The Business of Politics and Ethnicity This book describes the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce's changing relationship with the state and with businesses in the region. Some of the wealthiest and most influential businessmen i...

Sikko Visscher's book on how the party sought to tame the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce is one of the most understudied read, but it shows the promises and perils of collaboration. 3/

www.google.com/books/editio...

Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited by Cherian George, Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited is an anthology of essays on Singapore politics. It draws upon his influential collection Singapore: The Air-Conditioned Nation (2000), on the count...

Institutions and norms matter, and personality matters too. Dominance comes from sheer comfort and control for many, and not necessarily simply coercion and widespread ignorance. Cherian George's updated classic is a must-read. 2/

www.ethosbooks.com.sg/products/air...

Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control This volume examines Singapore’s culture of control, exploring the city-state’s colonial heritage as well as the forces that have helped to mould its current social landscape. Taking a comparative app...

With Singapore's election in two days time, a couple of academic readings to recommend on Sg.

Carl Trock's approach showed the impt of understanding the (post)colonial histories--control over raw materials & human resources were central themes of ruling authorities on the island 1/

Long COVID Showed Me the Bottom of American Health Care Access to clinics has only gotten patchier as attention to the disease has faded.

www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...