Professor Emily Hill is a specialist on the history of China during the twentieth century. Her main area of research has been China’s political and economic development during the period 1931-58. Her new project on the political economy of agriculture examines land reform programs in relation to the industrialization of agriculture in mainland China and Taiwan since the 1950s.
Smokeless Sugar: The death of a provincial bureaucrat and the construction of China's national economy
Publications
- Smokeless Sugar: The death of a provincial bureaucrat and the construction of China's national economy. University of British Columbia Press, 2010. For the Introduction and a sample chapter, visit:
- "War, disunity, and state building in China, 1912–1949." Twentieth-Century China 47.1 (2022): 20-29.
Chiang Kai-shek's Critical Years, 1935-1950 (forthcoming in 2025)
Forthcoming from the University of British Columbia Press, January 2025
Emily Hill is the editor and a co-author of a new book on Chiang Kai-shek’s decision-making during the fifteen-year period when his political influence was at its peak, including the invasion of China by Japan, eight years of anti-Japanese war, and the civil war against forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that ended disastrously for Chiang and his government. Drawing more fully on Chiang Kai-shek’s own writing than any existing book-length study in English, seven chapters analyze major episodes in Chiang Kai-shek’s career, examining Chiang’s reflections and decisions in a series of critical situations from 1935 to 1950, when he was closest to the center of major events in Chinese and world history. The work reveals that Chiang’s ability to improvise was an important foundation of his achievements, and that he prepared for action during his daily routine of diary writing. Chiang’s daily reflections enabled his versatile responses to wide-ranging challenges. Overcoming personal limitations, that contributed to setbacks and failures on occasion, Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly ensured his political survival through astute improvisation.
Professor Hill supervises MA and PhD students working on the history of China since the late nineteenth century.
