I am an economic historian of modern Korea and East Asia. My research takes Korea as a point of entry into transnational histories of trade, finance, and empire, with a focus on Hong Kong and the British Empire in Asia after 1945.
I examine how Korean private traders used Hong Kong’s commercial networks to secure alternative supply routes as the United States sought to integrate capitalist economies around Japan in Cold War East Asia. Following their dealings with Chinese merchants, British firms, and colonial authorities, I also ask how these exchanges shaped Hong Kong’s regional role and the reach of British imperial commerce and finance.
My research on Hong Kong grew out of tracing the livestock trade that connected rural Korean producers to overseas markets through the colony. Across my work on agriculture and trade, I ask how producers and traders in peripheral positions sought to expand their access to markets and capital by turning existing institutions and networks to their own advantage.
From the inside out, I follow Korean actors through East Asia’s maritime trade networks; from the outside in, I ask how imperial structures, commercial institutions, and monetary regimes shaped economic change within Korea.