Publications

2023
Lang C, Zhuo J, Szonyi M. 揭开东南亚华侨华人历史上经济成就之谜 ("Solving the riddle of the economic success of Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia: evidence from Yongtai, Fujian"). Malaysia in Transformation and the Southeast Asian Chinese Community: Selected Papers on The Fifth Biennial International Conference on Malaysian Chinese Studies. 2023 :27-46. lang_zhuo_and_szonyi_2023_01.pdf
2022
Szonyi M. The Case in the Vase: ­Legal Pro­cess, ­Legal Culture, and Justice in The Plum in the Golden Vase. In: Approaches to Teaching The Plum in the Golden Vase (The Golden Lotus). Vol. 1. 1st ed. MLA ; 2022. pp. 151-171. Publisher's Version
Szonyi M, Carrai A, Rudolph J. The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations. 1st ed. Harvard University Press; 2022 pp. 464. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Following the success of The China Questions, a new volume of insights from top China specialists explains key issues shaping today’s United States–China relationship.

For decades Americans have described China as a rising power. That description no longer fits: China has already risen. What does this mean for the U.S.–China relationship? For the global economy and international security? Seeking to clarify central issues, provide historical perspective, and demystify stereotypes, Maria Adele Carrai, Jennifer Rudolph, and Michael Szonyi and an exceptional group of China experts offer essential insights into the many dimensions of the world’s most important bilateral relationship.

Ranging across questions of security, economics, military development, climate change, public health, science and technology, education, and the worrying flashpoints of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Xinjiang, these concise essays provide an authoritative look at key sites of friction and potential collaboration, with an eye on where the U.S.–China relationship may go in the future. Readers hear from leading thinkers such as James Millward on Xinjiang, Elizabeth Economy on diplomacy, Shelley Rigger on Taiwan, and Winnie Yip and William Hsiao on public health.

The voices included in The China Questions 2 recognize that the U.S.–China relationship has changed, and that the policy of engagement needs to change too. But they argue that zero-sum thinking is not the answer. Much that is good for one society is good for both—we are facing not another Cold War but rather a complex and contextually rooted mixture of conflict, competition, and cooperation that needs to be understood on its own terms.

Szonyi M, Khanna T ed. Making Meritocracy: Lessons from China and India, from Antiquity to the Present. 1st ed. Oxford University Press; 2022 pp. 400. Publisher's VersionAbstract
How do societies identify and promote merit? Enabling all people to fulfill their potential, and ensuring the selection of competent and capable leaders are central challenges for any society. These are not new concerns. Scholars, educators, and political and economic elites in China and India have been pondering them for centuries and continue to do so today, with enormously high stakes.

In Making Meritocracy, Tarun Khanna and Michael Szonyi have gathered over a dozen experts from a range of intellectual perspectives--political science, history, philosophy, anthropology, economics, and applied mathematics--to discuss how the two most populous societies in the world have addressed the issue of building meritocracy historically, philosophically, and in practice. They focus on how contemporary policy makers, educators, and private-sector practitioners seek to promote it today. Importantly, they also discuss Singapore, which is home to large Chinese and Indian populations and the most successful meritocracy in recent times. Both China and India look to it for lessons. Though the past, present, and future of meritocracy building in China and India have distinctive local inflections, their attempts to enhance their power, influence, and social well-being by prioritizing merit-based advancement offers rich lessons both for one another and for the rest of the world--including rich countries like the United States, which are currently witnessing broad-based attacks on the very idea of meritocracy.
2021
Szonyi M, Zhao S. The Chinese Empire in Local Society : Ming Military Institutions and Their Legacies. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group; 2021.
2019
Deal J, Szonyi M. China's Demographic Trends: How Will They Matter. In: China's Changing Family Structure: Dimensions and Implications. Washington: American Enterprise Institute ; 2019. pp. 126-148. Publisher's Version
2018
社會及文化石中的檔案運用 (Using archives for social and cultural history). 國史館館刊. 2018;(58) :205-232.
Military mobilization and the experience of living with the Chinese State. In: State Formations: Global Histories and Cultures of Statehood. Cambridge: Cambridge UP ; 2018. Publisher's Version
Rudolph J, Szonyi M ed. The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 2018 pp. 337. Publisher's Version
2016
The Cold War on the Ground: Reflections from Jinmen. Journal of Asian Studies. 2016;75 (4) :1041-1048. Publisher's Version
Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Frontline (Chinese Edition). National Taiwan University Press; 2016 pp. 360. Publisher's Version
2015
Stone Inscription of South Fujian Village Dispute. International Society for Chinese Law and History Chinese Legal Documents Series. 2015;(5). Publisher's Version
Lineages and the making of contemporary China. In: Modern Chinese Religion II (1850-2015). Brill ; 2015. pp. 433-487. Publisher's Version