Zhongtian Han

Education

Ph.D. George Washington University
M.Sc. London School of Economics
BA Peking University

 

Biography

Zhongtian Han is a Visiting Lecturer of Asian History at Southern Methodist University. His research focuses on secret information and technological institutions in Republican China, 1912–1949. His current book project examines how the Chinese Communist Party’s information culture influenced its wireless telegraphy and cryptography institutions, 1927–1953. Articles based on the project have been published in Modern China, American Journal of Chinese Studies, and War in History.

Zhongtian’s teaching interests are wide-ranging, but in all his teaching he emphasizes using digital history methods to develop the students’ attitude of applying new tools to respond to changing scenarios.

Before joining Southern Methodist University, Zhongtian completed his Ph.D. in History at the George Washington University in 2023, was a Visiting Assistant Professor at University at Buffalo and Trinity University, and a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at University of Notre Dame.

 

Publications

Peer-reviewed

“Institutionalization within Revolutionary Crisis: The Chinese Communist Party’s Radio Communications and Reconnaissance, 1933–1936.” 2025. Modern China, Vol. 51, No. 2: 177–204.

“Information Culture and Technological Competition: The Chinese Communist Party’s Radio Communications and Reconnaissance, 1947.” 2025. American Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1: 19–35.

“Strategic Culture and Intelligence Failure: British Intelligence on Japan before the Imphal-Kohima Battle, 1943–1944.” 2021. War in History, Vol. 28, No. 4: 889–907.

Selected Book Reviews

Review of Joseph W. Esherick. Accidental Holy Land: The Communist Revolution in Northwest China. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2022. xxvii + 314 pp. 2025. American Historical Review, 130/1: 406–7.

Review of Ying Qian. Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024. xiii + 305 pp. 2024. China Studies International.

Review of Ying Jia Tan. Recharging China in War and Revolution, 1882–1955, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021. xvii + 257 pp. 2022. Journal of Military History, 86/4: 1008–9.

Review of Yan Xu. The Soldier Image and State-Building in Modern China, 1924–1945, Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2019. viii + 238 pp. 2019. American Journal of Chinese Studies, 26/2: 158–59.