I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. I received my B.A. and M.A. in Asian history (1993 and 1996) from Korea University, after which I headed to the University of California, Berkeley, where I completed my Ph.D. in History in 2005. Before joining the Department of History at the NUS in August 2007, I taught East Asian history as an assistant professor for two years at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. Through my past experience on two sides of the Pacific over decades, I fully enjoyed and developed my fondness for multi-cultural atmosphere. This eventually brought me to cosmopolitan Singapore to pursue my personal and intellectual journey. I am currently working on a book manuscript based on my dissertation, tentatively entitled, National Rice vs. Foreign Rice: Culture and Politics of Food Consumption in Modern China, 1900-1937. My research interests include social and cultural history of modern China with particular focus on the consumption of foodstuffs, discourse and practice of western medical knowledge, as well as the relations between science and modern statecraft in the rise of nationalism in twentieth-century China. As an approach to East Asian history with a broader perspective, I will incorporate modern Korean history into my teaching areas as well. In my own time, I used to practice running, cardio kickboxing, and many other types of gym activities. In these days, I am rather playing more with my two sons (mostly, swimming in a kid’s pool or mocking Pro Wrestling on a bed), while trying to regularly exercising.

Detailed CV can be found at https://fass.nus.edu.sg/hist/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2023/09/CV_Lee.pdf.