Rui Hua

Modern East Asian History

I am a historian of law and empire in modern East Asia. In addition to a deep fascination with the many transnational connections in this world region, I have a special obsession with a Northeast Asian borderland called Manchuria. My first book project, tentatively entitled “Peasants Versus Empires: Transnational Civil Justice and Legal ‘Decolonization’ in Manchuria, 1881-1957,” explores how the peasants, merchants and vagabonds of the borderland shaped the inter-imperial rivalry between China, Japan and Russia through law. Having performed detective work on hundreds of legal battles straddling many borders in as many languages, I tell an alternative story about the emergence of Northeast Asian legal modernity in a world of vernacular legal engagements. I am also working on a second book project, which examines how non-agrarian ecologies and their inhabitants – human or otherwise – participated in the making of the Northeast Asian legal order in the twentieth century.  

I teach modern Chinese and Japanese history, as well as the methodologies of historical research. Of the many things I enjoy in the history profession, working with amazing students is one of the most rewarding. I always welcome new conversations, so please feel free to be in touch!

Before joining BU, I completed a PhD in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Agrarian Studies at Yale. I also conducted postdoctoral research and taught at the University of British Columbia, my proud alma mater. My passion for historical research started when I was an undergraduate student at Peking University in China and Waseda University in Japan, where I also spent time as a doctoral researcher.