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Wayne Soon

@waynesoon.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.6K following 91 posts

Historian of Medicine, China, Taiwan, and Diaspora at the University of Minnesota. Associate Professor. Currently researching on global health insurance histories in East Asia. a.co/d/4tahHXR

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Reposted by Wayne Soon
Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
In Mpls burbs...So pleased today to attend a history doc. film showing of "A Chip Odyssey" on Taiwan Semi. Mfrg. Co. & an AMAZING panel organized by @honghongtinn.bsky.social @waynesoon.bsky.social (moderating) & @Gier Dullerud, Molly Steenson, @seungjoonyoo.bsky.social & I-Chun Catherine Chang
On stage L to R. Wayne Soon moderating, Honghong Tinn , Gier Dullerud, Molly Steenson, Seungjoo Yoon (not yet at table...soon to join stage & on screen) & I-Chun Catherine Chang
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Excited to be speaking at IHP@Sinicia tomorrow.
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Our program is hiring a one-year position in the History of 19th and/or 20th century Western medicine, with capacity for teaching courses related to women/gender and health history and the history of technology and medicine. Please share, and consider applying! Link: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/.
linkedin.com
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James Lin @jamestwotree.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
I spoke to Josh Edbrooke at National Taiwan Normal University's International Taiwan Studies Centre about my book, In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan. Many thanks to Josh for the thoughtful questions and discussion audioboom.com/posts/879447...
audioboom.com
In the Global Vanguard, with Professor James Lin
Professor James Lin from the University of Washington shares the backstory to his latest book and demonstrates how Taiwan's early development missions impacted Taiwan's own population in ways ...
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Honghong Tinn @honghongtinn.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
A podcast on my book Island Tinkerers is available today. Thanks to senior programs manager Adrienne Wu at Global Taiwan Institute for arranging the interview and publishing the podcast! 華府的智庫「全球台灣研究中心」幫我做了一個關於我的新書以及台灣科技產業的軟實力的訪談,是智庫的經理吳至芳主持的「台灣沙龍」這個節目的最新一集喔,歡迎大家線上收聽!謝謝至芳! mailchi.mp/globaltaiwan...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
I think the rise of an anti covid vaccine movement in Japan and the rise of Sanseito requires an in depth studies. I’ll be interested to read scholarly studies on the history of contemporary vaccines in Japan, in relations to the rise of right wing populism. 1/ www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/artic...
asahi.com
Sanseito retains populist message after silencing vaccine stance | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis
The minor opposition party Sanseito, which is projected to capture double-digit seats in the July 20 Upper House election, has muted some of its conspiracy theories.
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Hopkins Press @hopkinspress.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Read Wayne Soon's review of Fighting for Health: Medicine in Cold War Southeast Asia Edited by C. Michele Thompson, Kathryn Sweet, and Michitake Aso From the new issue of Technology & Culture, available at @projectmuse.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu
Project MUSE - <i>Fighting for Health: Medicine in Cold War Southeast Asia</i> ed. by C. Michele Thompson, Kathryn Sweet, and Michitake Aso (review)
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Miranda Yaver @mirandayaver.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Woohoo, I have page proofs for my book!
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NUS Press @nuspress.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Review in Technology and Culture of "Fighting for Health" by @waynesoon.bsky.social: "In sum, this is an excellent volume that deserves to be widely read by scholars of the #ColdWar, military medicine, #healthcare, and (post)colonialism." Read: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu
Project MUSE - <i>Fighting for Health: Medicine in Cold War Southeast Asia</i> ed. by C. Michele Thompson, Kathryn Sweet, and Michitake Aso (review)
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Pleased to share my review in T&C on the edited volume on Fighting for Health: Medicine in Cold War Southeast Asia. @nuspress.bsky.social I enjoyed reading the essays in the volume, and learned a lot from them. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Looking forward to Joan Judge’s forthcoming new book. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
press.uchicago.edu
The Politics of Common Reading
Examines the transformation of vernacular knowledge during a pivotal period of modern Chinese history, 1894 to 1954.   In The Politics of Common Reading, Joan Judge examines an era of modern Chinese h...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Ebook version of my 2020 book, Global Medicine in China: A Diasporic History is on sale at $16 from @stanfordpress.bsky.social Consider buying a copy! www.sup.org/books/asian-...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Pleased to share my interview with the excellent team at the Infectious Historians podcast. I hope it will be useful for folks interested in incorporating the history of SARS and COVID in a non-western context in their classes! infectioushistorians.com/2025/05/09/c...
infectioushistorians.com
Episode 137 – Covid in Taiwan with Wayne Soon, Infectious Historians
Marian Devotion and Plague in Late Medieval Italy with Bianca Lopez Episode 134 - March 7, 2025 Bianca Lopez (Southern Methodist University) joins the...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Pleased to be sharing my review essay in HSNS on “New Directions in Global Health Histories of China and Taiwan”. I reviewed Mary Brazelton, Rachel Core, Fang Xiaoping and Yi-Tang Lin’s monographs & identified key themes in global health histories. online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Enjoyed reading Tristan Brown‘s book. Pairs well with Rogaski’s new book on Knowing Manchuria, which I enjoyed reading too. 1/ @tristangbrown.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Thank you Dr. Hsieh for a kind review of my book in Asian Medicine! brill.com/view/journal...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Read Rana Mitter’s piece in FP’s latest issue. I enjoyed it, but was also hoping that some of Sulmaan Wasif Khan’s insights in his recent book on US-China-Taiwan historical relations will make it more into the piece. www.foreignaffairs.com/china/once-a...
foreignaffairs.com
The Once and Future China
If you dropped in to China at any point in its modern history and tried to project 20 years into the future, you would almost certainly end up getting it wrong. In 1900, no one serving in the late Qin...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Do folks know of any presses that are open to publishing shorter monographs, besides Columbia Shorts and Cambridge Elements? Thanks!
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Reposted by Wayne Soon
Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
I had a lot of fun teaching the Geopolitics of Chips session in today's HUDT3001 class using Honghong Tinn's fantastic new book, Island Tinkerers. I'm not sure whether my students understood the technical details I explained, but they recognize the centrality of high-end chips produced in Taiwan.
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Jay Shaw @nacahistorian.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
An amazing book.
The Book Island Tinkerers. A book about technology in Taiwan.
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
AAHM Asia network breakfast meeting. Great to meet everyone! @aahmhistmed.bsky.social
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
With Singapore's election in two days time, a couple of academic readings to recommend on Sg. Carl Trock's approach showed the impt of understanding the (post)colonial histories--control over raw materials & human resources were central themes of ruling authorities on the island 1/
routledge.com
Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control
This volume examines Singapore’s culture of control, exploring the city-state’s colonial heritage as well as the forces that have helped to mould its current social landscape. Taking a comparative app...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
theatlantic.com
Long COVID Showed Me the Bottom of American Health Care
Access to clinics has only gotten patchier as attention to the disease has faded.
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Paul Vierthaler @vierth.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Anna Shields and I have organized the first China-Princeton Digital Humanities workshop! This week-long workshop on the digital humanities for Chinese studies will be held in person at Princeton University, June 16th to 20th! chinesedh2025.eas.princeton.edu
chinesedh2025.eas.princeton.edu
China-Princeton Digital Humanities Workshop 2025
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Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Photos from talks at Luther College in Iowa (Wednesday), w/my host & the great poster another undergrad made for the event & at U of Minnesota (Thursday, photo t by @waynesoon.bsky.social), also spoke at Carleton (Tuesday), introduced there by Tun Myint (a local prof & someone I profile in my book)
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
@jwassers.bsky.social at UMN!
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Congratulations @jamestwotree.bsky.social! Looking forward to reading this very important book!
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
I-mei, Wei-chuan foods, and Taiwanese food ind. are probably going to do very well in the short term; predict a surging export to the US, esp. to Asian supermarkets and restaurants stateside with the way the tariffs are structured. #surging www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/0...
washingtonpost.com
The most surprising things Americans are panic buying amid tariff fears
Can you buy dried seaweed or imported cat food in bulk? Devoted shoppers have been trying to find out.
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Really enjoy Sunil Amrith’s new book (saw it in Barnes and Nobles) and I like how he integrated his observations growing up in Singapore in the book. China, India, Egypt, US, and Southeast Asia features prominently. wwnorton.com/books/978132...
wwnorton.com
The Burning Earth
Longlisted for the 2025 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award<br /><br />One of <em>The New Yorker</em>'s 'Essential Reads' of 2024 • One of NPR's 'Books We Love' for 2024<br /><br />A brilli...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Looking forward to @jwassers.bsky.social's talk @umn-tc-aaup.bsky.social.
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Beatrix Hoffman's New Book. Heard her @aahmhistmed.bsky.social keynote, and glad to see that the book is out! "Borders of Care Immigrants, Migrants, and the Fight for Health Care in the United States" (hopkinspress.bsky.social, 2025) press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
press.uchicago.edu
Borders of Care
Probes the relationship between the immigration and health care systems in the United States.   For the roughly ten million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, federal health care cov...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Tsai Ming-Liang Vive L Amour at the Walker Art Center today walkerart.org/calendar/202...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Best and clearest article on Long Covid in a while. www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...
washingtonpost.com
‘Something was wrong with my brain’: How covid leaves its mark on cognition
Five years after the pandemic began, the neurocognitive effects of long covid are numerous and troubling. And some may extend to people who quickly recovered.
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Enjoy reading Thomas Chan’s new article on rallies, emotions, and propangada against drug users as a form of state building in early PRC. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
‘A sea of blood and hate’: Mass mobilization of emotion in China’s Anti-narcotics Campaign, 1949–1952 | Modern Asian Studies | Cambridge Core
‘A sea of blood and hate’: Mass mobilization of emotion in China’s Anti-narcotics Campaign, 1949–1952
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Hear Honghong Tinn’s virtual talk tomorrow (2/25 2 pm CT)! cse.umn.edu/cbi/events/i...
cse.umn.edu
Island Tinkerers: A virtual talk with Prof Honghong Tinn
HSTM Asst. Professor and CBI Affiliated Historian Honghong Tinn will be presenting a talk on her most recent book, Island Tinkerers: Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan's Computing I...
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Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Thrilled my tremendous HSTM & CBI, U. of Minnesota colleague Honghong Tinn will give a CBI lecture from her incredible new book Island Tinkerers on History of Computing in Taiwan. Feb 25th at 2pm Central. #histtech Join us! Register at link below for Zoom link. cse.umn.edu/cbi/events/i...
Screen shot of Island Tinkerers book lecture of Prof Honghong Tinn. Book cover and description.
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Speaking at Hopkins on Wednesday. Will bring the Arctic Air from Minnesota to Baltimore, but also hopefully, interesting insights on why financing and money matters in medical histories of China and Taiwan. krieger.jhu.edu/east-asian/e...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Perhaps we need a prize for Taiwan Studies at AAS. #congratstoallthewinners @asianstudies.org
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Join me next Wednesday at Johns Hopkins!
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Why health insurance matters. "Health insurers process more than five billion payment claims annually, federal figures show. About 850 million are denied, according to health-policy nonprofit KFF. Less than 1% of patients appeal."-WSJ www.wsj.com/health/healt...
wsj.com
Health Insurers Deny 850 Million Claims a Year. The Few Who Appeal Often Win.
Patients who contest denials face a daunting process, but many are successful. ‘This appeal saved my life.’
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Breaking News. www.statnews.com/2025/02/10/n...
statnews.com
22 states sue to block Trump administration cuts to NIH research payments
Attorneys general sued the Trump administration to block a NIH decision that would slash grant payments for research overhead
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
East Asian Science, Technology and Society and I are thrilled to share that our papers in the special issue on "New Histories of Health Insurance, Medicine, and Society in East and Southeast Asia" are now open-access till the end of Feb. 2025. 要讀要快喔! www.tandfonline.com/toc/teas20/1...
tandfonline.com
East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal
New Histories of Health Insurance, Medicine, and Society in East and Southeast Asia. Volume 18, Issue 4 of East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Nice to see Medical Humanities recognizes its reviewers on its website. mhsite-bmj.vercel.app/pages/thank-...
mhsite-bmj.vercel.app
Thank you to our reviewers | Medical Humanities
Medical Humanities publishes original interdisciplinary studies on the history of medicine, cultures of medicine, disability, gender, bioethics & medical education.
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Interesting new article brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Delighted to share news that our special issue on the history of health insurance, medicine, and society in Asia that I've been working on has just been published by EASTS! 1/ www.tandfonline.com/toc/teas20/1...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Sharing @honghongtinn.bsky.social new book on the history of computing industry in Taiwan! Get your copy here: mitpress.mit.edu/978026254938...
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
My essay with Matthew Booker, "Seed Oyster Inspection, Matsushima Bay, Circa 1958," is now online in Environmental History! It's a first step in our project to rethink Northeastern Japan and the North American Pacific Northwest in aquacultural terms. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
journals.uchicago.edu
Seed Oyster Inspection, Matsushima Bay, Circa 1958 | Environmental History
Abstract This gallery essay opens with a photograph of people in northeastern Japan’s Matsushima Bay packing seed oysters for export to the North American Pacific Northwest. The photo offers opportuni...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Chen Jian’s Jan 1 review of RS’s Hu Yaobang. “Even as he sought to remake China in the world, he understood that the biggest challenges facing China come not from without but from within”-CJ www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/man-...
foreignaffairs.com
The Man Who Almost Changed China
Hu Yaobang and the unfinished business of reform and opening.
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James Lin @jamestwotree.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
It was nice to be interviewed for this article by Taiwan's Central News Agency about our new East Asia MA program with a Taiwan Studies track: focustaiwan.tw/culture/2024...
focustaiwan.tw
University of Washington to offer Taiwan Studies track for M.A. degree - Focus Taiwan
The University of Washington (UW) in the United States has announced that it will offer a new East Asia Studies master of arts degree (M.A.) program from next year that includes a Taiwan Studies track...
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Wayne Soon @waynesoon.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Bring Din Tai Fung to the Twin Cities! foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/13/t...
foreignpolicy.com
Soup Dumplings as Soft Power
Din Tai Fung has become a potent global symbol of Taiwan, at a time when the island sorely needs it.
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