Qingrou Zhao

Thesis title: Counting in, counting out: a history of census-making in Shanghai, 1840s-1949

Biography

Background

BA Finance, Peking University (2016 - 2020)

BA International Politics (Dual Degree), Peking University (2017 - 2020)

MPhil Economic and Social History (Distinction), University of Oxford (2020 - 2022)

PhD Economic and Social History, University of Edinburgh (2022 - expected 2026)

PhD project funded by Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS) ESRC DTP PhD Studentship (2022 - 2026)

Visiting student, École normale supérieure (ENS) de Lyon (May 2025)

Undergraduate teaching

I was awarded an Advance HE Associate Fellowship in November 2025.

I tutor on the following courses in history:

  • Historian's Toolkit (sem 1, 2025-26, 2024-25, 2023-2024)
  • The History of Edinburgh: From Din Eidyn to Festival City (sem 2, 2025-26)
  • Britain, Ireland & Empire (sem 2, 2024-25)
  • The Global Economy since 1750 (sem 2, 2023-24, 2022-23)

I have also been a tutor at the HCA Writing Centre from 2024. 

I have tutored on the following course in social and political science, as a tutor for three years and as a senior tutor in 2024-25:

  • Introduction to Political Data Analysis (sem 2, 2024-25, 2023-24, 2022-23)

 

Research summary

Thesis title: Counting In, Counting Out: A History of Census-Making in Shanghai, 1840s–1949

My PhD project studies census-making in Shanghai’s International Settlement, French Concession, and Chinese jurisdictions. It examines both the perspectives of administrators and the responses of the enumerated.

  • Grounded in multilingual archival research across the PRC, France, Britain, and online collections, the thesis advances the transimperial study of modern Chinese history, focusing on informal and marginalised empires.
  • Integrating political, social, and economic history approaches through the unique lens of census-making, it bridges fragmented historiographies on Shanghai and its settlements and rebalances siloed narratives.
  • Deepening the historical understanding of social data production in China during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it enables future interdisciplinary economic and social history works drawing on this rich source.  

Current research interests

History of Sino-British and Sino-French Relations, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Chinese History, Global and Imperial History, Economic and Social History, History of Migration, Children's History

Past research interests

History of Financial Crisis, Chinese Financial History

Project activity

Zhao, Qingrou. 2026. “Greener on the Other Side? The Motivations for Chinese Migration to the Shanghai International Settlement, 1853–1943”. Revista De Historia Industrial — Industrial History Review 35 (96) New Perspectives in Global Economic History (II) : 23-62. https://doi.org/10.1344/rhi-ihr.48095.

Organiser

Co-Convenor:

  • Edinburgh Centre for Global History Graduate Workshops (University of Edinburgh, July 2023 - May 2024)
  • First Annual Graduate Student Conference on Economic and Social History (University of Edinburgh, 7 July 2023)
  • Oxford Economic and Social History Graduate Seminar (University of Oxford, October 2021 - June 2022)
  • Oxford Annual Economic and Social History Workshop (University of Oxford, 26-27 April 2021)

Papers delivered

Counting In, Counting Out: Practical and Ideological Considerations Behind Nineteenth-Century Shanghai Settlement Census-Making

History of Science/European Society for the History of Science Conference | Presentation | Edinburgh  12 – 16 Jul 2026

Involution and Revolution: PKU Conference on Information in 19th Century China | Presentation | Beijing       14 Jun 2025

Scottish Global History Network Workshop | Poster | Glasgow     27 Sep 2024

Oxford International History of East Asia Seminars | Presentation | Oxford       23 Oct 2023

To Know, or To Be Ignorant? Developments of Shanghai Settlement Census-Making from 1865 to 1910s

Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies Biennial Symposium | Individual Paper Talk | Paris 17 – 19 Jun 2026

Concepts and Clarity in Studies of the Chinese Past | Presentation | Cambridge 14 Apr 2026

Emulation, Cooperation, and Friction: Census-making in the Shanghai Trinity, 1920s–1937

Association for Political History Conference: Dynamizing and Decentring Empires | Paper | Münster     11 – 13 Jun 2026

Greener on the Other Side? The Motivations for Chinese Migration to the Shanghai International Settlement, 1853–1943

Economic History Society Annual Conference | New Researcher Paper | London   10 – 12 Apr 2026

Economic History Society Residential Training Course | Workshop | Coventry    29 Nov – 2 Dec 2023

Enculturating Britishness in Shanghai: Children’s Columns in The North China Herald, 1891–1894

Children’s History Society Conference 2024 | Presentation | Newcastle  4 – 6 Jul 2024

The 1882–1883 Shanghai Financial Crisis Revisited: An Analysis from the Perspective of Self-Strengthening Enterprises

CEPR The Chinese Economic History in the Long Run Conference | Poster | Manchester                  21 Oct 2022

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