Yuan Yi

Field: Chinese History
Advisor: Eugenia Lean
Email: yy2510@columbia.edu

Yuan is a PhD candidate in modern Chinese history. Her dissertation examines the industrialization of Chinese textile production in the early twentieth century with emphasis on the textile machinery business between China and the US. By charting the challenging process of mechanization on the shop floor, where US machines often malfunctioned, it attempts to show how various groups of experts engaged in the making of the factory system, with multiple layers of knowledge obtained through hands-on experience of machines, formal engineering education, and the long tradition of handicraft technology in spinning and weaving. Yuan received her BS in Business Administration from Korea University, Seoul; an MA in Clothing & Textiles from Ewha Womans University, Seoul; and an MA in History from the University of Utah. Before coming to the US she worked for Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation and LG Electronics.