Dr. Weipin Tsai, historian of modern China, focusing on the late Qing to the Republican period, an era of dramatic change in China as it was reluctantly forced to open up to foreign trade, ideas and technology. Principal interests are in Chinese modernisation and its engagement in globalisation from the 19th century onwards, in particular the role of the foreign-run Chinese Maritime Customs Service, trade networks, the creation of the Chinese Postal Service, and Chinese print culture in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. Dr Tsai’s new monograph,  The Making of China’s Post Office: Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation, is due out in February 2024.