College: Newnham
Supervisor: Dániel Margócsy
Advisor: Mary Augusta Brazelton
Thesis topic: The World of The Sangleys: Chinese Migration and Cross-Cultural Knowledge in Early Modern Southeast Asia
Research interests: History of science and medicine in the early modern period; Print, visual, and material culture; Cross-cultural exchange between China, Southeast Asia, and Europe
Email address: zc305@cam.ac.uk
Research summary
Between 1500 and 1800, tens of thousands of people left southeastern China for Southeast Asia, engaging in a wide range of trade and crafts. Yet their histories remain fragmented, reduced to economic or political narratives, and often lost between Chinese and European imperial archives. My PhD project seeks to reconstruct the intellectual history of these emigrants, exploring their roles as knowledge producers and cultural intermediaries. My first case study centres on the Boxer Codex, a richly illustrated Spanish-language manuscript produced in Manila by Chinese artists around 1590. One of the few surviving works directly attributable to this community, the Codex invites a rethinking of collaboration, vision, and agency in colonial settings. It challenges the naturalist–informant dichotomy and reveals the co-construction of imperial knowledge in contexts of partial control. My second case study examines the sugar boom in Batavia (1650–1750), where Chinese mill owners dominated production under Dutch oversight. Drawing on popular print and visual culture from the late Ming – especially from emigrants’ regions of origin – I argue that their predominance reflected not only technological transfer but also a shifting, extractive epistemology of land and labour. Together, these case studies illustrate how emigrants engaged with, resisted, and shaped imperial structures while carrying with them forms of practical and philosophical knowledge. In the second half of my PhD, I look forward to working on the Selden Map as a source for exploring religious beliefs as channels of knowledge and spatial imagination, as well as colonial medicine and the circulation of medical knowledge and materia medica, across maritime Asia.
Education
2023: MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, University of Cambridge
2022: MA in Natural Sciences (History and Philosophy of Science), University of Cambridge
Roles and affiliations
Current
Co-Convener: East Asian History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine reading group
Volunteer: Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Co-Convener: History of Science and Medicine in Southeast Asia reading group
PhD Researcher: Needham Research Institute
Postgraduate Representative: Museum Committee, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
Past
Translation Editor: Queen Mary University of London (2023)
Part II Student Representative: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge (2021–2022)
Archives Volunteer: Needham Research Institute (2021)
Research & Public Engagement Volunteer: Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret (2021)
Talks and presentations
2025
- Integrating The Image: Visual Culture, Material Culture, and Early Modern British History (Newcastle University)
- New Directions in the History of East Asian Science (Needham Research Institute)
2024
- Newnham History Forum
- Scientific Instrument Commission Online Seminars
- Material Culture Forum
- Cambridge Workshop for the Early Modern Period
- Newnham College Graduate Conference
2023
- The Association for Southeast Asian Studies Conference
- History of Knowledge Conference
- Postgraduate Lunchtime Seminars (Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Manchester)
- Indigenous Histories of Encounter in Asia Pacific
- Medieval and Early Modern Student Association Conference (University of California, Los Angeles)
- Needham Research Institute Seminars
Public engagement
Exhibition: Practical Mathematics and Its Audience in Restoration London. Whipple Library, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, 2023
Blog Posts: Cranioclast: An Instrument of Hope and Fear & For the Good of the Living: Dissection and Medical Education in the Nineteenth Century. Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, 2022
Awards
Best Research Contribution: Newnham College Graduate Conference (2024)
PhD Scholarship: Gates Cambridge Trust (2023–2027)
Early Science and Medicine Essay Prize: History of Science Society (2023)
Rausing Prize: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge (2023)
Holgate Pollard Memorial Prize: University of Cambridge (2022)
Bronowski & Willmoth Prizes: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge (2022)
Clough & Newnham College Prizes: Newnham College, University of Cambridge (2022)