James Bonk

Professor Bonk’s research focuses on the social and cultural history of war in eighteenth and nineteenth century China. He has published and presented on topics including war commemoration, economies of affect in times of war, the collection of war memorabilia, the gendered experience of war, and literary representations of war. He is also interested in exploring the experiences and cultural worlds of the subalterns of the Qing empire – Han Chinese military men and their families – within a regional and global history of imperialism.

• Introduction to East Asia
• War and Culture in China
• Chinese Philosophy
• Literary Chinese
• Women and Literature in China
• Death and the State
• Making of the Contemporary World
• FYS (Copying and Creativity, Is Revenge Ever Right)

• “Rewriting the Ningshan Mutiny: Changing Conceptions of Military Authority in the Early Nineteenth Century Qing Empire,” Journal of Chinese Military History2 (2018).
• “Loyal Souls Come Home: Manifest Loyalty Shrines and the Decentering of War Commemoration in the Qing Empire (1724-1803),” Late Imperial China2 (2017).
• “Patronage and Personal Bonds in the Early Nineteenth Century Green Standards: Yang Yuchun and His Protégés (1795-1840),” Journal of Chinese Military History2 (2015).
• Trans, Kuang Xinnian, “Pre-emptive War and a World out of Control,” Positions 13.1 (2005).
• Book reviews with The Journal of Chinese Military History, Journal of Religion and Violence, and Chinese Historical Review.

• Association for Asian Studies
• Chinese Military History Society
• Society of Military History
• American Historical Association