Biography

Yang Huei joined SUTD in 2012. His monograph, Strait Rituals: China, Taiwan, and the United States in the Taiwan Strait Crises, 1954–1958 is published by Hong Kong University Press (2019). He argues that the Taiwan Straits Crises could be understood as an evolution towards tacit accommodation via symbiotic ritualization. Simply put, it was a strenuous process, which a series of “lessons” was learnt over time. Ultimately, the ROC, PRC and US had learnt to uneasily accommodate each other. These exacting understandings laid the groundwork for a substantive change in the nature of Sino-American relations – from one of hostile nuclear confrontation in 1954 to one of tacit accommodation in 1958. His next project is a biographical treatment of one former PhD student of Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Qian Sanqiang, who is widely acknowledged by experts as the father of China’s nuclear development. In another undertaking, he is examining the cultural interstices apropos of technological transfers from the United States and China to Vietnam (RVN & DRV) during the 1970s. Presently, he has contributed to academic  journals, inter alia, Modern Asian Studies, Asian Affairs, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, and Small Wars & Insurgencies; he has also reviewed a dozen of monographs and edited volumes. Besides the Cold War, he is caught up by themes revolving around transnational businesses, and alienation in the diaspora community in the late 19^th century. Therewithal, he has come across a certain Hainanese sojourner, Chow Kwai For (d. 1907), in the Transvaal Colony. In addition, Jardine Matheson Company’s indispensable compradore par excellence – Tong King-sing (1832-1892) caught his imagination. His PhD is from the National University of Singapore, and his M.A. and B.A. Dip Ed. (Hons) are from the National Institute of Education, NTU. He was a former editor at the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College. Before his stint as a graduate student, he taught at various local schools.