Qingrou Zhao

University of Edinburgh

Counting in, counting out: a history of census-making in Shanghai, 1840s–1949

I am extremely grateful for the financial assistance provided by the EHS bursary during the final write-up year of my PhD thesis. Investigating census-making by Shanghai’s international and multilayered authorities from the 1840s to 1949, the project offers a case study of primarily British and French transimperial governance beyond formal empire and within multilateral institutional settings. During this period, I also published an article on migration into the Shanghai International Settlement in the RHI-IHR. Finally, the bursary supported me through the transition to the next stage of my career as an LSE Fellow in Economic History, beginning in September 2026.