Thomas P. Barrett

写真a

Affiliation

Faculty of Law, Department of Political Science (Mita)

Position

Assistant Professor/Senior Assistant Professor

E-mail Address

E-mail address

Related Websites

External Links

Profile 【 Display / hide

  • Thomas is a Japan-trained historian of East Asia, who specialises in the international, diplomatic and transnational history of the region up until the end of the long nineteenth century. He is also interested in the historical development of the Japanese kangaku/sinological tradition, including its people, methodologies, and arguments, and the wider history of knowledge production in the Japanese academic and intellectual contexts. He currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and as Co-Editor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press' new Japanese Sinology Series.

    Thomas was trained in the Japanese Tōyōshi 東洋史 tradition, completing his BA at Aichi University (the successor to the Shanghai-based Toā Dōbun Shoin 東亜同文書院) and his MA at the University of Tokyo. In 2016, he began his PhD at the University of Tokyo as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science DC Research Fellow under the guidance of Professors Murata Yūjirō 村田雄二郎 and Kawashima Shin 川島真. In 2019, he moved to the University of Oxford to complete his doctoral work under the supervision of Professor Henrietta Harrison. He has also studied at Nankai University in Tianjin, China, and at National Taiwan University in Taipei. Before taking up his current post in Keio, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.

    Titled ‘Foreigners and the Making of the Chinese Diplomat’, Thomas’ doctoral thesis evaluated the significance of foreigners who were employed as counsellors, secretaries, legal advisors and consuls in late Qing and early Republican China’s legations and consulates, as a means to trace how Western European diplomatic culture and practice came to be institutionalised in China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The dissertation was the recipient of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland's 2023 Bayly Prize. The project was funded in Japan by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and in Britain by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Parts of the project have been published in Late Imperial China, the renowned Japanese journals Shigaku Zasshi 史学雑誌 (which was the recipient of the 10th Historical Society of Japan Prize 第10回史学会賞) and Tōyō Gakuhō 東洋学報, and in an edited French volume published in October 2021 by the École française d'Extrême-Orient. Monographs are currently being prepared in English and Japanese.

Career 【 Display / hide

  • 2023.01
    -
    2025.03

    University of Cambridge, Wolfson College, Junior Research Fellow

  • 2022.09
    -
    2025.03

    University of Cambridge, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Postdoctoral Research Associate

  • 2020.10
    -
    2022.07

    University of Oxford, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Lecturer (Modern Chinese History)

  • 2020.04
    -
    2022.07

    University of Oxford, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Lecturer (Modern and Contemporary Japanese History)

  • 2020.01
    -
    2021.01

    Williams College, Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford, Tutor (Politics of China)

Academic Background 【 Display / hide

  • 2019.10
    -
    2022.07

    University of Oxford, Faculty of Oriental Studies

    United Kingdom, Graduate School, Completed, Doctoral course

  • 2016.04
    -
    2019.07

    The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Area Studies

    Graduate School, Withdrawal after completion of doctoral course requirements, Doctoral course

  • 2014.01
    -
    2016.03

    The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Area Studies

    Graduate School, Completed, Master's course

  • 2008.04
    -
    2012.03

    Aichi University, Faculty of Modern Chinese Studies, Department of Modern Chinese Studies

    University, Graduated

 

Research Areas 【 Display / hide

  • Humanities & Social Sciences / Historical studies in general

  • Humanities & Social Sciences / History of Asia and Africa

Research Keywords 【 Display / hide

  • Modern Chinese History

  • Early Modern Chinese History

  • History of East Asian International Relations

  • East Asian History

 

Papers 【 Display / hide

  • Qing Diplomacy’s Scottish Face: Halliday Macartney, Yamen Culture, and Diplomatic Transformation in China’s London Legation, 1877-1905

    Thomas P. Barrett

    Late Imperial China 45 ( 2 ) 1 - 39 2024

    Research paper (scientific journal), Single Work, Lead author, Last author, Corresponding author, Accepted

     View Summary

    Recent scholarship offers compelling evidence of the proactive engagement of late Qing China’s legations with Western European diplomatic culture. However, the resounding emphasis of this work has been ministerial receptivity to international law. This article argues for the importance of taking a broader perspective, elucidating a concurrent transformation in ministerial attitudes towards achieving rhetorical and oratorical sophistication in their diplomacy. To illustrate this shift, I use the career of Halliday Macartney, a Scotsman who served at the Qing London legation from 1877 to 1905, as a conduit. Initially responsible for interpretation and cultural explication, Macartney’s role evolved in the 1880s to become the legation’s lead rhetorician and negotiator. I argue that rather than constitute an instantiation of ministerial ineptitude, the ministers’ recalibration of Macartney’s remit was an important indication of their commitment to achieving rhetorical and oratorical sophistication in their diplomacy. Furthermore, I make the case that we need to understand Macartney’s position in the legation in line with the yamen culture of outsourcing technical work to muyou. In doing so, I argue that the ministers drew upon aspects of their own bureaucratic culture in order to meet the challenges posed by this foreign diplomatic culture.

  • D.B. Makkāti to ‘Ryūkyū shobun' mondai: Shinchō zaigai kōkan ni okeru gaikokujin kan’in no shiteki katsudō to sono igi wo megutte

    Thomas P. Barrett

    Shigaku Zasshi 131 ( 2 ) 1 - 38 2022

    Research paper (scientific journal), Single Work, Lead author, Last author, Corresponding author, Accepted

     View Summary

    本稿は、一八七七年から一八八〇年にかけて、清朝駐日公使館に勤務した米国人館員のマッカーティ(Divie B. McCartee)に焦点を当て、琉球問題をめぐる彼の私的活動を考察したものである。

    マッカーティは、公使館の中で主に事務と翻訳作業を担当していた。しかしながら、明治政府が一八七九年に「琉球処分」を断行すると、彼は清と琉球との旧来の「宗属関係」を復活させるべく、個人的な活動の中でいくつかの対抗策を模索し、用意することとなった。

    本稿が明らかにしたのは、以下の二点である。第一に、マッカーティは琉球を二つ、また三つに分割する案の考案・具体化に深く関わり、両案をこの問題の調停に当たった元米国大統領グラント(Ulysses S. Grant)に提示したという点である。日本側は、二分割案はグラントの支持を得たものであると考え、一八八〇年の日清交渉において、実際の解決策として清朝側に提案した。第二に、マッカーティは、明治政府の「琉球処分」を正当化しようとする作意を徹底的に批判した論説を英字紙『ジャパン・ガゼット』(Japan Gazette)に匿名で発表したという点である。この論説は、明治政府の歴史認識の不備を指弾して話題を呼んだばかりでなく、一八八〇年に日本側が二分割案を妥協策として清朝側に提示することとなった要因の一つと考えられる。

    清朝駐日公使館の下級館員だったマッカーティは、従来ほとんど注目されることはなかったが、私的活動を通じて清琉間の旧来の「宗属関係」の復活のために尽力し、琉球問題をめぐる外交に「透明」な足跡を残した。本稿の考察によって、「外交」のプロセスを、代表者というアクター、公文書という媒体、そして交渉現場という「公」的場に押し込めるのではなく、より広い意味で捉える視野の有効性がはっきりと示されるだろう。

  • (Book Review) Remaking the Chinese Empire: Manchu-Korean Relations, 1616-1911, written by Yuanchong Wang

    Thomas P. Barrett

    China and Asia 5 ( 1 ) 120 - 124  2023.07

    Single Work, Lead author, Last author, Corresponding author

  • Foreigners and the making of the Chinese diplomat

    Thomas P. Barrett

     2022

    Doctoral thesis, Lead author, Last author, Corresponding author, Accepted

  • Un pont entre les mondes: les diplomaties de l’ombre de Halliday Macartney au temps de la guerre franco-chinoise

    Thomas P. Barrett

    (EFEO)     275 - 302 2021.10

    Part of collection (book), Lead author, Last author, Corresponding author, Accepted,  ISSN  1269-8067

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Awards 【 Display / hide

  • 2023 Bayly Prize

    2023.12, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

    Type of Award: Award from publisher, newspaper, foundation, etc.,  Country: United Kingdom

  • 10th Historical Society of Japan Prize

    2023.11, The Historical Society of Japan

    Type of Award: Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc.

 

Courses Taught 【 Display / hide

  • The Political and Diplomatic History of Late Imperial China: From the Yuan-Ming Transition to the Opium War

    2025, Undergraduate (specialized), Lecture, Within own faculty

  • The Political and Diplomatic History of Modern China: From the Macartney Mission to the Founding of the People's Republic of China

    2025, Undergraduate (specialized), Lecture, Within own faculty

  • SEMINAR 2

    2025

  • SEMINAR 1

    2025

  • SEMINAR (DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE) 2

    2025

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Committee Experiences 【 Display / hide

  • 2025.01
    -
    Present

    Associate Editor, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

  • 2024.01
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    Present

    Series Editor, Japanese Sinology Series, Chinese University of Hong Kong Press