Joseph Seeley

My new book is open-access! Now available at the most reasonable price imaginable. Relevant to folks interested in histories of border-making, the environment, Japanese Empire, Korea and China, etc. Many thanks to all who helped make this possible! #bookTabs=1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/978150177…

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Join the East Asia Center as we celebrate 50 years of East Asian Studies at the UVA, April 17-19. Our flagship conference will feature eleven UVA graduates, including a lunch with former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink.

What happens when you place the timeless themes of Austen in the historical setting of Ming-dynasty China? Come find out this September!

I am so thrilled to see this gorgeous #coverreveal today!!! Congratulations on this phenomenal debut, Margaret!!! September cannot come soon enough!!! #properromance #writingcommunity #historicalromance #janeaustenretelling

Flights were horribly delayed and I barely got into Vancouver after midnight, but I'm here at #aas2026 ! Yay! Even brought an old AAS tote bag since there's not a new one this year (someone remind me what year was green?)

Read about my new book here! And come hear about it at #AAS2026 on Saturday at 5:45 ucpress.edu/blog-posts/a-r…

ありがたいことに拙著Making Mao's Steelworksを経済史学会（英国）の社会経済史最優秀第一著作賞（隔年）の最終候補作の一つに選んでいただきました。私以外の候補者の皆様はライジングスターです。とりあえず候補者全員におめでとうございます📷

Gearing up for #AAS2026! I'll be on two panels this year--one on technology and nature as discussant and the other on hunting and animal symbolism as presenter. Excited to reconnect with friends and colleagues and learn more about the field in a whirlwind of nerdy revelry.

I'm so excited for Margaret Seeley's cover reveal!!! #writingcommunity #silkandsensibility #janeaustinretelling #historicalromance #coverreveal

I did a similar assignment at UVA in my premodern Korean history course. One student told me it was the first time they had ever had to look up a book by call number in a library. 😐

So excited that my book cover is finally here! press.umich.edu/Books/C/China-…

Coming June 2026: #bookTabs=1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/978150178…

I got a discount code for my book:

By happy coincidence, the latest issue of the Journal of Japanese Studies features my review of Stefan Huebner et al's great new edited volume, Oceanic Japan, and Huebner's review of my own book Border of Water and Ice. Check out JJS to see our evaluations of each other's work!

@hirako13 The use of "hanja" by English speakers is a more recent phenomenon, mostly limited to Koreanist/Korean-learning communities. I don't mind it because "Chinese characters" doesn't fully capture the unique, Korea-specific context of its usage and deployment.

When did English-speaking scholars of Japanese/Korean begin to call 한자/漢字 “hanja/kanji” rather than “Chinese characters”?

@KaiserKuo It's been so long since I've read the book/seen the movie adaptation that I forgot about that plot point! I've never been tempted to wet my fingers to turn a page but apparently it happened a lot historically??

@JosephASeeley This must be where Umberto Eco got his idea for the plot line of "The Name of the Rose."

This watchful owl hits a little different when I'm seeing it on a digital scan and not the paper original, but still, I'll be careful! (Translation: "Warning: please do not put saliva on your fingers to open the pages"--from 1930s library book in Japanese-occupied Korea)

So excited to be moderating this MJHA book talk! Please join us next Thursday.

Thankful to @adamcathcart for his review of Border of Water and Ice in the new issue of American Historical Review. Please check out @Sino_NK for Adam and colleagues' cutting-edge analysis on the Sino-Korean border and broader PRC-DPRK relations past and present.

Also, not quite animation, but Mochinaga's post-1945 career in China reminded me of @hirako13 's work on Japanese engineers who remained in China after WWII and contributed to the CCP's steel industry: cambridge.org/core/books/mak…

Credit to this substack for introducing me to Du's work and the life of Mochinaga: animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-complica…

TIL that the animator behind the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which I and many others grew up with, was a former Japanese propagandist who ended WWII in the puppet-state of Manchukuo and later worked in China for the CCP. His first puppet animation mocked Chiang Kai-shek.