Angela Ki Che Leung 梁其姿
Collaborator
University of Hong Kong
Working group: Local Practices
Angela Ki Che Leung is Professor Emerita at the University of Hong Kong, elected Academician of the Academia Sinica in 2010, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques (French Ministry of National Education) in 2015. She is a historian and researcher who has dedicated her career to exploring the intriguing intersections of culture, health, food, and society in East Asia, particularly China. With a long academic career and insatiable curiosity, Angela has been a leading authority in her field.
Angela has published extensively in English, Chinese, and French, making her research accessible to diverse audiences. Her works explore a wide range of topics, from the history of charitable organizations in imperial China to the impact of diseases on society in the late imperial and modern periods and in modern times. Notable publications in English include Leprosy in China: A History (Columbia University Press, 2009) and Health and Hygiene in East Asia: Policies and Publics in the Long 20th Century, co-edited with Charlotte Furth (Duke University Press, 2010), Gender, Health, and History in Modern East Asia, co-edited with Izumi Nakayama (Hong Kong University Press, 2017), Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia, co-edited with Melissa L. Caldwell (University of Hawai’i Press, 2019), and Crafting Everyday Food: Technology, Tradition, and Transformation in Modern East Asia, co-edited with Hallam Stevens (University of Hawai’i Press, 2025).
Beyond her individual research endeavors, Angela has also led collaborative projects that examine the history of health and diseases in modern East Asia, and the role of everyday technologies in the making of modern East Asia. She has notably led a successful collaborative project generously funded by the Hong Kong Government 2017-2021) — Making Modernity in East Asia: Technologies of Everyday Life, 19th-21st Centuries with a team of international scholars that looks at the ways different kinds of everyday technology re-conceptualize East Asian societies as system where the technological and social processes intertwine. Her innovative approach and dedication to interdisciplinary exploration have garnered recognition within the academic community. Her current project on the history of Chinese soy sauce has inspired her to take a closer look at the importance of agriculture and the current global rural revitalization movements, which are crucial to our food security crisis and deteriorating ecology.