This profile was current as of May 2022, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community.
Xiaosong Yu’s research interests focus on the state systems and political philosophies of ancient and modern China as well as the impacts of China’s extensive history of imperialism on the contemporary communist regime in mainland China. Yu assists Professor Victoria Tin-bor Hui in her research project on war and state formation, which examines the centrality of war in the formation and transformation of China in the long span of history. Currently, Yu’s work involves conducting substantial archival research in ancient and modern Mandarin, identifying and extracting essential data of war including military sizes, casualties, marching routes, and battlefield locations, and organizing and compiling the information into a systematized and easily trackable form, with the goal of constructing an interactive geographic information system (GIS) map that demonstrates the routes of significant wars and changes of the Chinese border. Yu’s research with Professor Hui ultimately aims at analyzing and investigating whether the popular rhetoric of a magnificent, war-loving central kingdom, which has been endorsed by the leaders of communist China, accurately reflects the history of Chinese politics.
In addition to research with Professor Hui, Yu is and has been involved in a number of experiences exploring his research interests in American politics, contemporary China, and international relations. Currently, Yu is in the process of composing his senior thesis under the guidance of Professor Brian Fogarty of the political science department, which employs statistical inference to analyze the interplay between religiosity and voter turnout among the American electorate. Additionally, Yu works as a non-residential research intern for the Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, with an emphasis on East Asian and Trans-Pacific politics. From the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2021, Yu assisted Professor Karrie Koesel in her book-length research project on political education in mainland China, which explores how and to what extent the contemporary Chinese government utilizes standardized education to engender and foster patriotic spirit and partisan loyalty among citizens. During freshman year, Yu also conducted extensive research with Professor Eileen Hunt Botting on the social aspect of bioengineering, in which Yu investigated how the legal, educational, and political atmospheres in mainland China had influenced the Chinese researcher He Jiankui and shaped his controversial creation of the world’s first genetically modified human babies in 2018.
Thesis Title: Faith in Political Participation: Are More Religious People More Likely to Vote?
Thesis Adviser: Brian Fogarty
Xiaosong Yu’s research interests focus on the state systems and political philosophies of ancient and modern China as well as the impacts of China’s extensive history of imperialism on the contemporary communist regime in mainland China.
Yu assists Professor Victoria Hui in her research project on war and state formation, which examines the centrality of war in the formation and transformation of China in the long span of history. Currently, Yu’s work involves conducting substantial archival research in ancient and modern Mandarin, identifying and extracting essential data of war including military sizes, causalities, marching routes, and battlefield locations, and organizing and compiling the information into a systematized and easily trackable form, with the goal of constructing an interactive geographic information system (GIS) map that demonstrates the routes of significant wars and changes of the Chinese border. Yu’s research with Professor Hui ultimately aims at analyzing and investigating whether the popular rhetoric of a magnificent, war-loving central kingdom, which has been endorsed by the leaders of communist China, accurately reflects the history of Chinese politics.