I thoroughly enjoyed attending the Thirtieth Term Member Conference at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City this week! I was having too much fun meeting new people and forgot to take many conference photos, but here are a few! @cfr.org

Next Friday at the Elliott School of International Affairs! @gwu1821.bsky.social

Thanks to the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for this animated shot of me discussing my research on World War II in China and Manchuria on Friday, September 26th! @gwu1821.bsky.social

Very happy to be this panel’s discussant and excited to see everyone in Vancouver in March! @asianstudies.org

I had a great time giving a talk about World War II memory, Manchuria, and my new book at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, Sigur Center for Asian Studies on Friday! Thanks to Daqing Yang and Mike Mochizuki for the invitation! @gwu1821.bsky.social

Big congrats to my graduate student in Georgetown University's Department of History, Enrico Osvaldi, for passing his comprehensive exams yesterday! It was a privilege to participate as one of the examiners for his subfield on nationalism in China and Japan. @georgetownuni.bsky.social

If you are in DC, this upcoming event on Friday reflecting on WWII in the Asia Pacific 80 years on should be special (no better keynote speaker imaginable for this than Carol Gluck) sigur.elliott.gwu.edu/2025/09/10/9...

Next Friday at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies! @gwu1821.bsky.social

A new op-ed from me on China's WWII! @asianstudies.org www.asianstudies.org/why-does-chi...

Great audience (with outstanding questions!) for our third cohort fellows @kyleichan.bsky.social, Yingyi Ma, @carlminzner.bsky.social, & Elsa Kania tonight at JF Books

I was interviewed by Chinese media outlet Guancha about my research on China’s WWII and Unit 731. The article came out a few days ago: m.guancha.cn/EmilyMatson/...

Looking forward to attending this next Wednesday as part of our Penn Project D.C. week agenda!

With China set to host a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of World War II’s end, now’s an excellent time to preorder my book “China’s Date Debate: How Manchurian Scholars Rewrote World War II”! press.umich.edu/Books/C/Chin...

#VJDay80 Eighty years ago today the war in Asia ended, or did it? - docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I told Bloomberg that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s current narrative on World War II highlights that “the CCP were really the ones resisting Japan from the start.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

“(WWII is) a really important part of the Communist Party’s legitimizing narrative as the leader of the Chinese people,” said Emily Matson, a scholar of modern Chinese history who teaches at Georgetown and George Washington universities.” apnews.com/article/chin...

@georgetownuni.bsky.social grad students - Dr. Denise Ho's fall seminar "ASST5083/HIST6383: From Pearl River Delta to Greater Bay Area" examines the history & politics of the South China region - topics include diaspora & migration, urbanization & industrialization, revolution & politics!

I'm excited to share that my first monograph, "China's Date Debate: How Manchurian Scholars Rewrote World War II," is available for preorder through the University of Michigan Press, China Understandings Today series! China’s Date Debate press.umich.edu/Books/C/Chin...

Excited to teach this course at the George Washington University's Sigur Center for Asian Studies again this fall! @gwu1821.bsky.social

It was so kind of Rana Mitter to give my research and forthcoming book on China’s WWII and the 14-year war a mention in this recent episode of Pekingology on “History, Memory, and the Party.” It’ll be out with the University of Michigan Press next June! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

We are delighted to invite applications for our new Program Manager position! This is a full-time position, with benefits, @upenn.edu. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis through Friday, August 29. The full job posting is available on our website at: global.upenn.edu/future-of-us...

Honored to have had the incredible opportunity to engage with outstanding Chinese academics on timely issues related to US-China relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing the other week.

Glad to see this reposted, gave me a chance to give shout outs for good books that were largely under the radar, eg a set of Liang Qichao essays, an accessible book by @katemh.bsky.social w/a great title:Women & Their Warlords, also includes an early plug for a 2025 book: by @emilyzfeng.bsky.social

In DC? On June 12, I'm giving a book talk on The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping at DC @hooverinstitution.bsky.social, hosted by @nytimes.com Edward Wong @ewong.bsky.social with commentary from Robert Zoellick lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/sgq7v...

Chris Horton's Ghost Nation now available for preorder. It's a great read--engaging, insightful, and relevant. This nuanced book explains Taiwan at the dawn of an new historical era in which once-obscure Taiwan will play a key and possibly tragic role. www.panmacmillan.com/authors/chri...

Happy pub day to Stephen R. Platt of @umassamherst.bsky.social who keeps writing lively and stylish as well as carefully research historical works on China, in the past on the Qing era but now on WWII: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... cc @ncuscr.bsky.social

A tad late, but I was so inspired last month by the amazing students from the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations, whom we met at in DC to discuss a wide range of promising policy proposals. Wishing them a wonderful trip to China with @neysunm.bsky.social! @penn-us-china.bsky.social

If you're in the Bay Area, the @hooverinstitution.bsky.social book launch for my @stanfordpress.bsky.social biography of Xi Jinping's father will be on June 3: the day of the book's release. You can also join virtually. www.hoover.org/events/party...

Congrats, Georgetown grads! Also happy to finally have the opportunity to wear my doctoral robes 😅 #hoyasaxa #wahoowa #georgetown #universityofvirginia

I'm pleased to announce that the panel I am chairing, "The Long Second World War and Its Aftermath in China: Mobilization, Displacement and Transnational Diaspora," has been accepted for the 2026 American Historical Association annual meeting in Chicago! #aha2026 @historians.org

Feeling grateful for positive course evals like "many connections to outside scholars that added depth to the course." Thanks to Barak Kushner, Yen-han Chen, @katiestallard.bsky.social, Maria Barriga, @crystaljluo.bsky.social, Pattajit Tangsinmunkong, and Sophia Lu for your insights and expertise!

Such a great workshop - next stop, Beijing! :)

I had such a wonderful conversation about U.S.-China relations with Ambassador Nicholas Platt in March! uscet.org/emily-matson...

I am so honored and excited to be part of the third fellowship cohort for the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations!

If you're in the Bay Area on May 13, Ria Roy will moderate a discussion by Seong-Hyon Lee and me on "The Eastern Triumvirate: How Russia, China, and North Korea Are Reshaping Global Power" events.stanford.edu/event/the-ea...

Congratulations to Vanessa, Megan, and Samantha for their stellar Elliott School of International Affairs Global Capstone presentation on "Emotional Resonance in Disinformation: Lessons from East Asia and the Pacific Islands"! It was an honor to be interviewed for this project.

Had so much fun being the discussant for 5 excellent papers on the panel "Ideological Entanglements in Global Economies" at the 2025 Global Political Thought Conference, held at @americanuniversity.bsky.social yesterday. Thanks for the invite, from the Association for Global Political Thought!

I'm so proud of my former student Miranda, who successfully presented her senior honors thesis for Georgetown University's Department of History on Wednesday. Her thesis was "Money, Power, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Prison Labor in the United States and China, 1950s-80s." Congrats, Miranda!

Calling LA bookworms! The Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles will be at the L.A. Times Festival of Books showing off literature in translation from Taiwan this weekend. Taiwan has a massive translation program underway. Booth 148. @jwassers.bsky.social la.us.taiwan.culture.tw/News_Content...

Posting this here because why not 😅 I'm going to join the club and post that I am currently #OpenToWork related to China, history, foreign policy, government, and higher education. Thanks in advance for your consideration! www.linkedin.com/posts/emilym...

"Amid rising concerns about Chinese aggression in military and foreign policy we should not lose sight of the fact that in the 21st century China’s leaders continue to feel the need to have a frontier policy" | Aaron Glasserman on China's borderlands problem strategicspace.nbr.org/national-ins...

This was a stellar read - great book for closing out the spring semester!

Really looking forward to being back at American University on Saturday and serving as discussant for the panel "Ideological Entanglements in Global Economies" at the 2025 Global Political Thought Conference!

My last day teaching at Georgetown for the 24-25 academic year is tomorrow already. So thankful for the wonderful students I've been fortunate enough to not only teach, but also learn so much from in my "Life and Legacy of Mao Zedong" and "Historical Memory of WWII in Asia" classes.

Great annual U.S.-China Relations conference today at Georgetown! Fantastic commentary, including the panel on "China's Response in the New Era," moderated by Dennis Wilder, comments from @bglaser.bsky.social, @radchenko.bsky.social, @batesgill.bsky.social, Da Wei, Michael Schumann.

On Wednesday, I attended the US-China Education Trust's inaugural event of the China Connections Series, held at GWU's Elliott School. Rosie Levine moderated an engaging conversation with @emilyzfeng.bsky.social based on her new book, "Let Only Red Flowers Bloom." Congrats on a great event!

Language of the day: Khitan. It was the “state language” (國語) of the Liao 遼 state (916-1125); even the word Cathay/Китай derives from the word “khitan”. Probably related to Mongolian, we only poorly understand it now. It was written with two distinct beautiful scripts, and we don‘t know why.

New today from Jill Dougherty, long-term Russia scholar and veteran CNN Moscow correspondent. It's a memoir of watching the USSR and Russia change over decades. Despite the blurb, Jill is no "Russians good, Putin bad" apologist, and I'm greatly looking forward to reading it. amzn.to/42icJVm

Greatly looking forward to this!

Please join USCET for the launch of its "China Connections" with a conversation with award-winning journalist Emily Feng on her new book, "Let Only Red Flowers Bloom"! uscet.org/china-connec...