Help us develop and expand the recently established Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (LCQC, 莱顿华语酷儿文献收藏) at Leiden University Libraries (UBL).

Jue Wang is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. Jue is a scholar of Chinese economy and Global Political Economy. With a regional focus on China, her areas of expertise include international political economy, development finance, international organisations, technology…

Casper Wits is a University Lecturer in the Institute for Area Studies. His research focuses on postwar diplomatic and international history in East Asia, with a special interest in the development of Chinese and Japanse foreign policy and Sino-Japanese relations in this period. He also takes an interest…

Svetlana Kharchenkova is Assistant Professor at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

Jingjing Cao is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Archaeology.

Jingwen Liao is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Archaeology, funded by the China Scholarship Council.

Contrary to what one might expect, societal actors influence China’s foreign policy. PhD candidate Sabine Mokry investigated how Chinese academics and think tanks impact the authoritarian leadership’s views on what constitutes the country’s national interest in the international arena. On 14 November…

Three enormous maps of China, created during the reign of three different emperors of the Qing dynasty, have now been made available in open access and are downloadable via Leiden University Libraries’ (UBL) Digital Collections. The rich maps are an early example of academic collaboration between the…

In the coming years, Hilde De Weerdt gets to spend over three million euros. She received grants from both the European Research Council (ERC) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for research on Chinese infrastructure. ‘It is great that it is also possible to develop large projects in the social sciences…

Jiyan Ilbrink is an assistant professor at the Institute for Area Studies.

Assistant professor Vincent Chang spoke in various media outlets about the Chinese commemoration of World War II.

To celebrate the formal launch of the Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (LCQC, 莱顿华语酷儿文献收藏), promote Chinese queer studies scholarship, and raise the visibility of Chinese queer history and culture, the LCQC steering committee will hold a workshop on 24-25 July 2025, under the aegis of the Leiden University…

Assistant professor Rogier Creemers discusses in Times Higher Education how China’s universities and companies collaborate to advance AI.

On the occasion of the Workshop organized last July to officially launch the Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (LCQC), the National Museum of Taiwan Literature (NMTL) donated 30 titles of Taiwanese LGBTQ+ literature to support this initiative. These works where published between 1971 and 2022 by authors…

Chinese athletes must perform this Olympics. Anything less than a gold is being seen as athletes being unpatriotic by furious nationalists online. Florian Schneider, director of the Leiden Asia Centre, explains the situation on BBC News.

After a gap of five years, Leiden has a new Professor of Modern China. Florian Schneider started his position on 1 September.

When Floris Harm took up his role as director of the Leiden Asia Centre, he made a remarkable discovery on the university website. It turned out that a past family member was one of Leiden University’s first sinologists.

At many university locations the health, safety and environment tasks are coordinated by the General Services Department (UFB). The Faculty of Sciene has its own HSE-service. You can contact your health and safety coordinator (HSE coordinator) for advice and information on working conditions. In most…

Hundreds of millions of Chinese workers have moved from the countryside to the city. This social transformation has birthed a tradition of migrant worker poetry, professor Maghiel van Crevel states in Jacobin.

Middle East Studies Lecture

Renfei Bai is a PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.

Weishuo Li (Arthur) is a PhD candidate at Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Read where to go with your questions.

Festival, New year reception

In all matters regarding education, Leiden University faculties are supported by the Expertise Centre for Student and Educational Affairs and the Faculty Educational Office.

The world’s attention will shift to China as the Communist Party is set to hold its five-yearly congress beginning on 16 October. We talk to Senior University Lecturer Florian Schneider about how its leader Xi Jinping is expected to cement his place as the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Ze…

Within just a few years, the Chinese government's policy towards the Uyghurs deteriorated sharply. From control and marginalisation, it shifted to violation of human rights. PhD candidate Elke Spiessens was right in the middle of it with her research. 'The fabric of the community is being completely…

This year, the Netherlands and China reflect on fifty years of diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level. How has the relationship between the countries developed over the past half century? An interview with university lecturer Vincent Chang.

Lecture, China Seminar

Yi-Hsien Hsieh is teacher at the Institute for Area Studies.

Lecture, China Seminar

When we hear the word ‘bird house’, do we process it as a whole or does our brain see it as ‘bird’ and ‘house’? PhD student Jiaqi Wang explored this for speakers of Mandarin Chinese.

PhD defence

That it was students who started the protests in China against its zero Covid policy makes things more dangerous for politicians. China expert Frank Pieke explains the role of students in China, what makes the protests unique and what might happen next.

Lecture, CHiLL series

Aholi So is a lecturer at International Studies.

Professor of Modern China Florian Schneider researches what people do with technology and what technology does with people. Social media, for example. And then mainly in China.

I am a PhD candidate at Leiden University supported by a CSC scholarship, working on an individual research project in Buddhist art history. My work explores the sensory history of Buddhist art with particular attention to affect theory, visual and narrative rhetorics, and the localisation of iconography.…

Lecture, China Seminar

Rogier Creemers is a lecturer in Modern Chinese Studies. While he looks for challenges in his lectures, in his free time he much prefers to go back to basics and work with his hands.

Hongwei Bao is a guest researcher at the Institute for Area Studies.