Tsz Ho Wong
Thesis title: A Realm of Private Capital: The Economic and Financial Mobilisation of the Wartime Japanese Empire
PhD supervisors:
Background
Tsz Ho Wong is a Ph.D. candidate in East Asian Studies and a CDCS Training Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He is particularly interested in the history of modern East Asia, with a focus on economic, financial, and business history. He is passionate about using digital tools (Gephi, QGIS, and Google Earth) in his research. He has organised a postgraduate conference at LSE in June 2022 and has presented his research in the UK, continental Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States over the past four years. His current research explores the networks of capital and power elites in the wartime Japanese Empire, and the use of private capital to fuel imperial ambitions.
Qualifications
M.Sc. (International and Asian History), London School of Economics and Political Science (2022)
B.A. (First Class Honours), University of Hong Kong (2021)
Responsibilities & affiliations
Fellow, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Member, CARE International Project, CWAR Institute, Wilson Centre
Member, The Business History Conference
Undergraduate teaching
At School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures:
Tutor in Modern East Asian History A
Postgraduate teaching
At Centre for Data, Culture & Society:
Digital Method of the Month: Network Analysis
Introduction to Network Analysis with Gephi
Beyond Social Networks: Advanced Uses of Gephi in Humanities Research
Data Carpentry: From Data Wrangling to Data Visualisation
Current research interests
History of Modern East Asia (particularly Japan and China, c. 1840-1970), Social, Financial, and Business History, Digital Humanities, Zaibatsu, AristocracyPast research interests
Classical Scholarship, as well as Astronomical and Astrological Manuscripts in Medieval China (c. 800-1300 CE).Current project grants
Henry Kaufman Financial History Research Fellowship, The Business History Conference (2024)
Invited speaker
2025.6 “The Sino-Japanese Banking Networks and Capital Flows during the Pacific War: A Research Based on Network Analysis Tools 太平洋戰爭期間的日中銀行網絡及資金流動——基於網絡分析工具的研究,” New Technologies and New Media in Chinese Historical and Cultural Studies: AI, Games, and the Humanities, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong (in Mandarin Chinese)
2025.5 “Gephi in Historical Network Mapping and Beyond,” InterTASC Information Specialists’ SubGroup (ISSG) Meeting, Newcastle University, UK
2024.9 “My Research Journey我的研究之路 (Alumni sharing),” Lam Tai Fai College, Hong Kong (in Cantonese Chinese)
Organiser
2022. 6 Reimagining Progression and Retrogression in History: 1st LSE Department of International History Student Conference (co-organised with Alston Li, Lukas Baake, Elena Dahlem, Rongsheng Liu and Manpreet Sandhu)
Papers delivered
2026.1 2026 AHA Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA (panel organiser and presenter, with panellists Hye-Kyoung Kwon, Ghassan Moazzin, Jason Petrulis, Lillian Tsay, and Timothy Yang)
2025.5 Emerging Paths in Hong Kong History: Graduate Conference 2025, University of Bristol, UK
2025.3 Early Career/Doctoral Workshop on Cross-Border Payments in Historical Perspective, University of Oxford, UK
2024.9 Japanese Military Violence During the Asia-Pacific War: Reviewing the Field, Opening up New Paths, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
2024.6 HKHC & HKIHSS Conference: Journeys, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2024.6 Hyperinflation: Financial History Conference, EABH and the Central Bank of Hungary, Budapest, Hungary
2024.3 2024 BHC Meeting, Providence, USA
2023.6 Ecologies of Health and Diseases in Eurasia: New Perspectives in the Medical-Humanities and History, University of Oslo, Norway
2023.5 GloCoBank Early-Career Researcher Workshop, University of Oxford, UK
2023.3 2023 BHC Meeting, Detroit, USA
2023.2 NTU History Postgraduate Workshop, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2022.8 The Global Biography Working Group (GloBio) Summer Institute, Cheltenham, UK
2022.6 Oxford TGHS Postgraduate Conference, University of Oxford, UK
2022.6 BPCS Annual Conference 2022, University of Oxford, UK
“The ‘Internal Financing Mechanism’ and (Hyper-)inflation in the Wartime Japanese Empire,” Financial History Review (in press).
“Unearthing Modern Japan’s Subterranean Networks with the National Diet Library’s (NDL) Full-Text Search System,” Digital Orientalist (blog),
Part 1: “Kugimiya Iwao and the Circles of Orthodox Christians,” 11 February 2025, https://digitalorientalist.com/2025/02/11/unearthing-modern-japans-subterranean-networks-with-the-national-diet-librarys-ndl-full-text-search-system-part-1-kugimiya-iwao-and-the-circles-of-orthodox-christians/
Part 2: “Private Capital and the Financing of Historical SMEs,” 20 May 2025, https://digitalorientalist.com/2025/05/20/unearthing-modern-japans-subterranean-networks-with-the-national-diet-librarys-ndl-full-text-search-system-part-2-private-capital-and-the-financing-of-historical-smes/
“Introducing Network Analysis in the Classroom,” Digital Orientalist, 29 October 2024. https://digitalorientalist.com/2024/10/29/introducing-network-analysis-in-the-classroom/.
“A CARE Package for Hirohito,” Sources and Methods (blog), 1 February, 2024. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/care-package-hirohito.
“Humble and Diligent: The Origins and the Welfare Services of the Wartime Chinese Charitable Organisations in Singapore.” Malaysia in Transformation and the Southeast Asian Chinese Community: Selected Papers on The Fifth Biennial International Conference on Malaysian Chinese Studies, 2021 (Kuala Lumpur: Center for Malaysian Chinese Studies, 2022), 127-158.
“Dating Pottery from its Decoration,” Armenia (blog), 6 September, 2020. http://openarchaeology.org/armenia/2020-blog02.