Office Hours:

glen.peterson@ubc.ca

I am a historian of modern China and of China’s participation in the modern world. I am especially interested in the history of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia and of China’s role in the global regimes established to address problems of human displacement and forced migration. My recent research has centred on the history of refugee movements into and out of China and the refugee experience of ethnic Chinese populations in Southeast Asia. I am currently engaged in a project that seeks to understand China’s role in international efforts to address the problem of forced migration from the establishment of the League of Nations and the International Labour Organization to the present.

Photos from the book launch of 中国人民共和国的归侨, the Chinese-language version of Overseas Chinese in the People’s Republic of China, City University of Hong Kong, April 2014

The author receiving a medal of recognition from the Indonesian Studies Society of Hong Kong

Members of the Indonesian Studies Society of Hong Kong, including Mr. Zhang Maorong (centre), translator of the original English-language version of the book, and Mr. Eddie Lembong (right), Chairman of the NABIL Foundation (Jakarta)

The author with Mr. Eddie Lembong, Chairman of the NABIL Foundation (Jakarta). The NABIL Foundation sponsored the publication of 中国人民共和国的归侨

Author signing book copies

Members of the Audience (below)

BOOKS

中华人民共和国的归侨. Jakarta: Yayasan NABIL Foundation and Hong Kong: Hong Kong Society for Indonesian Studies, 2014). 201 pp. (Chinese-language edition of Overseas Chinese in the People’s Republic of China). Second edition, 2016.

Overseas Chinese in the People’s Republic of China. New York and London: Routledge, 2012; paperback edition 2014. 229 pp. Chinese Worlds Series. Series editor: Gregor Benton.

Education, Culture and Identity in Twentieth Century China (with Ruth Hayhoe and Yongling Lu). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001

Historical Dictionary of Guangzhou (Canton) and Guangdong (with Graham E. Johnson). Series on Historical Dictionaries of Cities of the World, No. 6. Lanham, M.D. and London: Scarecrow (University Press of America), 1999. 277 pp.

The Power of Words:  Literacy and Revolution in South China. Vancouver, University of British Columbia Press, 1997. 250 pp. Contemporary China Series. Series editor: Diana Lary.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

“Forced Migration, Refugees and China’s Entry into the ‘Family of Nations’, 1861 – 1949” Journal of Refugee Studies vol. 31, Issue 3 (Sept. 2018): 274-291. Lead article in Special Issue on “Forced Migration in/of Asia: Interfaces and Multiplicities” ed. By Lynn-Ee Ho and Cabeiri Debergh Robinson.

“International Law and China’s Entry into the ‘Family of Nations’: The Question of Forced Migration and Refugees” in Clara Wing-Chung Ho, Ricardo K.S. Mak and Yue-him Tan, eds., Voyages, Migration and the Maritime Silk Road: On China’s Global Historical Role (Berlin: Degruyter, 2018), pp, 207-236.

“Colonialism, Sovereignty and the History of the International Refugee Regime” in Matthew Frank and Jessica Reinisch, eds., Refugees in Europe, 1919-1959: A Forty Years Crisis? (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), pp.213 – 228.

“Crisis and Opportunity: The Work of Aid Chinese Refugee Intellectuals Inc. (ARCI) in Hong Kong and Beyond” in John Carroll and Priscilla Roberts, eds., Hong Kong in the Global Age. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016, pp. 141-159.

“穿越加拿大的化工团运送行动” (The Transport of Chinese Labour Corps Workers through Canada) in 一战华工在法国 (Chinese workers in France During World War One) edited by 马骊 (Ma Li) (吉林：吉林出版集团, 2015), pp. 89-105 (in Chinese).

 “To Be or Not to Be a Refugee: The International Politics of the Hong Kong Refugee Crisis, 1949-55” in John M. Carroll and Chi-kwan Mark, eds., Critical Readings in the Modern History of Hong Kong, 4 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2015). Reprint of my 2008 article in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.

“Sovereignty, International Law and the Uneven Development of the International Refugee Regime” Lead article in Forum on Chinese Refugees, Modern Asian Studies vol. 49, Issue 2 (March 2015): 439-468.

“Questioning the Dynamics and Language of Forced Migration in Asia: The Experiences of Ethnic Chinese Refugees” (co-authored with Laura Madokoro and Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho) Forum on Chinese Refugees, Modern Asian Studies vol. 49, Issue 2 (March 2015): 430-438.

Guest Editor (with Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho and Laura Madokoro) Forum on Chinese Refugees, Modern Asian Studies vol. 49, Issue 2 (March 2015): 430-571.

“Philanthropie transnationale et Chinois expatries, 1870-1945.” Invited article for Special Issue on Transnational Philanthropy edited by Thomas David in Monde(s): Histoire, Espaces, Relations (Universite Paris – Sorbonne) vol. 2 no. 6 (November 2014): 65-88.

“Introduction” (with Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho and Laura Madokoro), Special Issue on Global Displacements and Emplacement: The Forced Exile and Resettlement Experiences of Ethnic Chinese Refugees, Journal of Chinese Overseas  (Singapore), vol. 10 issue 2 (2014): 131-136.

Guest Editor (with Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho and Laura Madokoro), Special Issue on Global Displacements and Emplacement: The Forced Exile and Resettlement Experiences of Ethnic Chinese Refugees, Journal of Chinese Overseas (Singapore) vol. 10 issue 2 (2014): 131-262.

“The Uneven Development of the Postwar Refugee Regime in East Asia” Journal of Refugee Studies (Centre for Refugee Studies, Oxford University) (U.K.) vol. 25 no. 3 (September 2012): 326-343. Lead article in Special Issue on “The Refugee in the Postwar World” edited by Anna Holian and Daniel Cohen.

“Sans noms et sans visages: le transport ultra-secret du Corps de travailleurs chinois à travers le Canada” in Li Ma, ed., Les Travailleurs Chinois dans la Premiere Guerre Mondiale. Paris: Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique, 2012, pp.111-130.

“Migration and China’s Urban Reading Public: Shifting Representations of “Overseas Chinese” in Shanghai’s Dongfang Zazhi (Eastern Miscellany), 1904-49” in Leo Suryadinata, ed.             Migration, Indigenization and Interaction: Chinese Overseas and Globalization. Singapore: World Scientific for the Chinese Heritage Center, 2011, pp.277-296.

“ ‘Education Changes the World’: The World University Service of Canada’s Student Refugee Program” Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees (Refugee Studies Centre, York University) (Canada) Vol. 27 No. 2 (Fall 2010): 111-121. Special Issue on Higher Education for Refugees.

“To be or Not to Be a Refugee: The International Politics of the Hong Kong Refugee Crisis, 1949-55” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (U.K.) vol.xxxvi, No.2 (June 2008): 171-195.

“House Divided: Transnational Families in the Early Years of the People’s Republic of China” Asian Studies Review (Australia) 31 (March 2007): 25-40.

“Overseas Chinese and Merchant Philanthropy in China: From Culturalism to Nationalism” Journal of Chinese Overseas (Singapore) vol. 1 no. 1 (May 2005): 87-107.

“Overseas Chinese Studies in the People’s Republic of China,” Provincial China (Australia) vol. 7 no. 1 (April 2002): 103-21.

Glen Peterson and Ruth Hayhoe, “Introduction” in Glen Peterson, Ruth Hayhoe and Yongling Lu, eds., Education, Culture and Identity in Twentieth Century China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001, pp. 1-21.

Glen Peterson, “Peasant Education and the Reconstruction of Village Society” in Glen Peterson, Ruth Hayhoe and Yongling Lu, eds., Education, Culture and Identity in Twentieth Century China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001, pp. 217-237.

“The Social Construction of Literacy in Postrevolutionary China,” Published Conference Proceedings of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, 1996, 1-32.

“State and Society in Postrevolutionary China: The Struggle for Literacy in Rural Guangdong,” The China Quarterly 140 (December 1994): 926–943.

“Recent Trends in Literacy Studies and their Application to China,” Journal of Educational Thought vol. 28 no. 2 (August 1994): 138–152.

“State Literacy Ideologies and the Transformation of Rural China, 1949–60,” The Australian Journal for Chinese Affairs (The China Journal), Issue 32 (July 1994): 95–120.

“Socialist China and the Huaqiao: The Transition to Socialism in the Overseas Chinese Areas of Rural Guangdong,” Modern China vol. 14 no. 3: (1988) 309–335.

“Collectivization in the Overseas Chinese Areas of Guangdong, 1953–56,” in Larry N. Shyu et al, eds., East Asia Insight: Selected Papers from the CASA Annual Conferences 1985–87. Montreal: CASA, 1989, pp. 21–40.