Bio
Hu Hsu is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a Designated Emphasis in the Study of Religion. Previously trained as a historian at National Taiwan University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he has broad research interests in Chinese thought and religion across historical periods, with additional attention to political theory and comparative intellectual history.
His dissertation, “Transnational Invention of Neo-Confucian ‘Tradition’: Manufacturing Wang Yangming in Modern East Asia,” examines how the learning and image of the Neo-Confucian scholar Wang Yangming (1472-1529) were received and reconstructed vis-à-vis modern state-building since the turn of the twentieth century, within a transnational context. The project pays particular attention to how Chinese intellectuals engaged Wang’s teachings through the interpretive frameworks of Meiji and Taishō Japan. Situated at the intersection of transnational history, religious studies, philosophy, and anthropology, the dissertation explores how premodern intellectual resources contributed to the formation of modern East Asian identities, as well as how the secularization and re-religionization of Confucianism took place across the region. This project also incorporates anthropological fieldwork on contemporary religious practices of Wang Yangming’s Neo-Confucianism/yōmeigaku in China and Japan.
Hu has published journal articles and book reviews on Neo-Confucianism and modern Chinese intellectual history; he is currently developing a side project on the reception of social contract theory in modern China. Teaching is also an integral part of his academic vision. In fall 2025, Hu taught “The Foundations of Modern China’s Political Thought, 1850-2000” as an independent instructor at the University of California, Berkeley. He has also taught courses on the history and religion of East Asia as a graduate instructor and teaching assistant at UC Berkeley, UW-Madison, and NTU.
Awards and Fellowships (Selected)
Religious Tolerance Research Grant, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (2026)
Mabelle Mcleod Lewis Dissertation Writing Fellowship (2025)
Chiang Ching-kuo Dissertation Writing Fellowship (2025) (declined)
Graduate Student Fellowship in Japanese Studies, Berkeley Center for Japanese Studies (2025, 2024)
Summer Research Grant, Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies (2025, 2024)
Yu-Chih-chung Memorial Fellowship (First Prize), China Times Cultural Foundation (2024)
Japanese Studies Fellowship, Japan Foundation (2024)
David Hollinger Prize for Intellectual History, University of California, Berkeley (2024)
R.O.C. East Asian Fellowships, Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies (2023)
Mini-Grant for Graduate Students, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies (2022)
New Directions in Theology Grants for Graduate Students, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (2021)
David N. Keightley Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley (2021)
Excellent Essay Award for Young Scholars, Zhejiang Normal University (2019)
Ministry of Education Fellowship, Republic of China (2017)
Hsing-tian Kong Fellowship (2017)
Fu Ssu-nian Fellowship, College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University (2017)
Huang Chang-chien Memorial Fellowship, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica (2016)
Zhao Qi-na Memorial Fellowship, Department of History, National Taiwan University (2014)
Excellent Undergraduate Research Paper Award, Department of History, National Taiwan University (2011)
Presidential Award, National Taiwan University (2011, 2010, 2009)
Journal Articles
“Returning to the Local Pantheon: The Cult of the Neo-Confucian Scholar Wang Yangming in Contemporary China.” (Under review)
Book Chapters
“Understanding ‘Social Contract’ via ‘Human Nature’: The Reception and Reinterpretation of Rousseau in Modern China,” Human Nature and Humans in Nature in the History of Political Thought, ed. Adrian O’Connor and Adriana Luna-Fabritius. (Under review)
Book Reviews
Presentations (Selected)
“Yōmeigaku in Motion: The Japanese Interpretation of Wang Yangming’s Neo-Confucianism and Its Resonance in Early Twentieth-Century China,” American Historical Association Conference, Chicago, 8-12 January 2026.
“Orientalizing Socialism through Confucianism: Yōmeigaku in Left-wing Movements across Modern East Asia,” Asian Studies Conference, Tokyo, Sophia University, 5 July 2025.
“Returning to the Local Pantheon: The Cult of Wang Yangming in Jiufeng Town, Fujian Province,” Society for the Study of the History of Asian Cultural Exchanges, Tokyo, Daito Bunka University, 16 June 2025.
“From ‘Human Nature’ to ‘Social Contract’: The Reception History of Rousseau in Modern China,” 7th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the History of Political Thought, Vienna, Central European University, 25-27 September 2024.
“Training Confucian Citizens: Wang Yangming’s Neo-Confucianism in the Nationalist Social Mobilization,” The Ninth Annual Conference on Modern Chinese Intellectual History, Hangzhou, 16-18 August 2024. (In Chinese)
“Training Confucian Citizens: Wang Yangming’s Neo-Confucianism in the Nationalist Social Mobilization,” Association for Asian Studies, Seattle, 14-17 March 2024.
“Zhang Taiyan’s Dilemma between Particularity and Universality: A Case Study of Chinese Modernity.” China and the World: Language, Culture, Politics, the University of Sofia, 10-14 December, 2019.
“Progressive Humanity as Chinese Modernity: How Did Liang Shuming Reshape the Wang Yangming School in Modern China?” 68th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Michigan State University, 4-6 October, 2019.
“The School of Quan-ti Da-yong in Southern Song China: A Comparative Analysis of the Thought of Zhang Shi, Lu Zuqian, Lu Jiuyuan, and Zhu Xi.” The Zhe-School Forum, Zhejiang Normal University, 31 May-2nd June, 2019. (In Chinese)
“Rethinking Chinese Modernity and the Wang Yangming School: A Case Study of Liang Shuming.” The Wang Ming School and Modern China, College of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, 29-31 March, 2019. (In Chinese)
“The School of Quan-ti Da-yong in Southern Song China: An Analysis of Zhi Xi’s First-Generation Disciples.” 2018 Forum on Song History, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 30 June, 2018. (In Chinese)
“The School of Quan-ti Da-yong in Southern Song China: Zhedong Scholars’ Challenge against the Orthodox Neo-Confucianism.” The Academic Conference in Commemoration of the 888th Birthday of Zhu Xi. Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, 19 May, 2018. (In Chinese)
“Confucianism in the Era of Science: An Analysis of Liang Qichao’s Reinvention of Confucianism.” New Orders in Global Politics and Economics: The Challenges and Opportunities of China Studies (The 5th Young Scholars Conference on China Studies), Hong Kong Baptist University, 18-19 December, 2017. (In Chinese)
“The Formation of the Intellectual Structure of Zhu Xi’s Learning of Sage in Tang-Song Transition.” The Forum on the Scholarship of Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, 2 August, 2015. (In Chinese)
“Intellectual Foundations and Characteristics of Zhu Xi’s Deployment of Ti-and-Yong.” The Graduate Research Symposium on the Culture and the Political-and-Economical Developments in East Asia, Department of East Asian Studies, National Taiwan Normal University, 23 May, 2015. (In Chinese)
