Difference and equality: China and global organisations, 1920-1948

• Department of History

In this session of the Interwar Histories Working Group, Lucas Tse (University of Oxford) presents his research on Chinese institutions, Central European public health practitioners, and the League of Nations.

How did Chinese trajectories in the interwar period differ or relate to counterparts in other parts of the world? In what ways did international organisations, which convene the haves as well as the have-nots, address inequality on the global scale?

In this presentation of the Interwar Histories Working Group, Lucas Tse will present his doctoral research, which travels from the aftermath of the Paris Peace Conference to the Chinese civil war in the mid-1940s. He will go into some of the key institutions, personalities and themes, as well as some of the methods and narratives used to write this history. The particular focus of this presentation is on Central European public health practitioners who journey and work in China as League of Nations experts. The presentation is meant to serve as a launchpad to enter into a discussion about research strategies on interwar history and its global institutions.

Lucas Tse is a doctoral candidate in Economic and Social History and an Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. His research interests include the international and economic history of modern China, comparative nationalisms and colonialisms, and Asian participation in global governance. He also coordinates the ‘Europe in a Changing World’ project of the Dahrendorf Programme for the European Studies Centre at Oxford University.