Dr Ying Dai
2009 - 2014: Yuanpei College, Peking University, BA in Urban Planning
2014 - 2017: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, MSc in Geography (Urban and Regional Planning)
2018 - 2023: Faculty of History, Murray Edwards College, PhD in History, University of Cambridge
2022 - 2023: EHS/IHR Tawney Fellow, Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
My interest in industrialization dates back to my undergraduate and MSc studies in geography at Peking University, where urban morphological research drew my attention to the landscape change in industrialization. During my PhD at Cambridge, my focus shifted towards the labour force change in China’s industrialization. My thesis, titled ‘The occupational structure of the Yangtze Valley in the twentieth century’, illuminates the macro structures in economic development with data from jiapu, Chinese genealogies. I am now looking at biographies in jiapu for micro experiences of people’s work to recover a more comprehensive history of working lives in twentieth-century China. In the longer term, I hope to connect my previous studies in geography and economic history to develop a more holistic perspective on the interaction between people, an industrializing economy, and China’s cultural landscape.
Contact
Tags & Themes
Room 3.4 Campop, Faculty of History, West Road, Cambridge
Key publications
Song, F., Dai, Y., Shi, Y., Wang, B. (2019) 'Construction of national protected areas system: A reflection on the Western-based criteria and exploration of a Chinese approach', Journal of Natural Resources. [宋峰, 代莹, 史艳慧, 王博 (2019) '国家保护地体系建设:西方标准反思与中国路径探讨',自然资源学报.]
Song, F., Dai, Y., Li, N. (2017) ‘Reflections on the gap between academic research in urban morphology and heritage conservation’, Urban Morphology.
Dai, Y., Shi, C., Song, F. (2016) ‘Morphology Cognizes the Heritage of Urban and Rural Spatial Practice of Socialist China，Exemplified by Baiwanzhuang Neighbourhood in Beijing’, Urban Development Studies. [代莹, 石春晖, 宋峰 (2016) '形态学探析社会主义中国城乡空间实践的遗产——以北京百万庄为例', 城市发展研究]
Working Papers
Dai, Y.. ‘Jiapu as a new source for researching the occupational structure of twentieth-century China: tradition (partially) modernized’.
Dai, Y.. ‘By-employment in the twentieth-century Yangtze Valley: specialisation, structural change, and the land systems’.
Dai, Y.. ‘Occupational classification and social change in twentieth-century China 从职业分类透视二十世纪中国社会变迁’.
Talks
2023.09 ‘The occupational structure of the twentieth-century Yangtze Valley in a comparative perspective’, The Fifth Conference of the European Network for the Comparative History of Population Geography and Occupational Structure, Linz.
2023.07 ‘Jiapu as a new source for researching the occupational structure of twentieth-century China: tradition (partially) modernized’, The 9th International Symposium on Quantitative History, Shanghai.
2023.05 ‘The occupational structure of the twentieth-century Yangtze Valley: institutions, gender, and experiences’, Quantitative History Seminar, Cambridge.
2023.03 ‘By-employment in the twentieth-century Yangtze Valley: specialisation, structural change, and the land systems’, Chinese Economic and Social History Workshop, London School of Economics.
2023.02 ‘By-employment in the twentieth-century Yangtze Valley: specialisation, structural change, and the land systems’, Early Career Researcher Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London.
2022.10 ‘By-employment in the Yangtze Valley in the long twentieth century’ (poster), Chinese Economy in the Long Run conference, Manchester.
2022.07 ‘Women’s occupations in the governmental and lineage censuses of the Yangtze Valley in the twentieth century’, World Economic History Congress, Paris.
2022.04 ‘The occupational structure of the Yangtze Valley in the twentieth century’, Economic History Society’s Annual Conference, Cambridge.
2020.06 ‘Machine reading jiapu’, Machine Reading Archives Programme Workshop, Cambridge.
2020.04 ‘The occupational structure of the twentieth-century Yangtze Valley: comparing jiapu data with census data’, Occupational Project Day, Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure.
2019.04 ‘Personal careers in the ups and downs of China in the long twentieth century, a pilot study’, Graduate Research Day, History Faculty, Cambridge.
2019.01 ‘The occupational structure of Chongqing in the Upper Yangtze’, Economic and Social History Graduate Workshop, Cambridge.
2015.07 ‘Formed or Forming? Relative importance of townscape compositional form categories’, International Conference for Historical Geographers, London.
2014.07 ‘Danwei as an agent of change in modern socialist China, exemplified by Hongta Tobacco (group) Co., LTD’, International Seminar on Urban Form, Porto.
2013.10 ‘Characteristics and evolution: Chinese modern neighbourhood heritage of the first five-year plan period, exemplified by Baiwanzhuang neighbourhood in Beijing’, with Chunhui Shi and Feng Song, International Conference of Modern Architectural Heritage Conservation, Xi’an.
2012.09 ‘Research progress of Conzenian School in Peking University’, with Feng Song, International Seminar on Urban Form, Delft.