About the Talk:
Professor Billy So will share his insights into the meaning of wealth, a question that he has pursued in his scholarship for many years. It is also the linking thread that he explores in three books (two published, and one forthcoming) on historical Chinese market economics. Among the questions he will address are, why study this, and write about it? What insights has he drawn from examining Chinese economic history from the Song to the Yuan (10th - 14th centuries CE) and the Treaty Ports of Qing and Republican China?About the Speaker Since 2011, Billy So has been a Chair Professor and the Head of the Division of the Humanities here at HKUST.  He received his BA and MPhil from CUHK, and his PhD at Australian National University.  His research interests  are diverse (including  Chinese legal history, Chinese business history, institutional economic history of late imperial and Republican China, and more) yet all relate to his fundamental academic concerns: prosperity, justice, space, and identity.