Yong-ha Kim

Field: Chinese History
Advisor: Li Feng
Email: yk2727@columbia.edu

Yongha is a doctoral student concentrating on early Chinese history. Before joining Columbia’s community of scholars (Fall 2016), he received both his B.A (2009) and his M.A in history (2014) from Korea University. Under the guidance of Professor Li Feng, he is currently analyzing China’s first empires, the Qin and the Han, from the perspective of the Warring States Period, and seeks to explore the tension between integration and disintegration that constantly haunted the empires. Yongha is especially engrossed in research topics such as the diversity of the Warring States, the counter-reaction towards standardization, and the empires’ measures to pacify the force of dissolution. He is also interested in comparing the process of Chinese empire formation with other cases of the world. As well as using the received texts, he is eager to blend archaeological data, and paleographic sources to reconstruct the history of this era.