Liz P.Y. Chee is an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She was previously Senior Research Fellow in the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Cluster at the Asia Research Institute (ARI) and a Lecturer at Tembusu College, both at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Liz was the first graduate of the Edinburgh University-NUS Joint PhD Program (History/STS) and also holds an MA in History and a BA (Honors) in Japanese Studies from NUS. Her monograph Mao's Bestiary: Medicinal Animals and Modern China was published in 2021 by Duke University Press, and her work has appeared in such journals as Urban Studies and Science, Technology and Society. Her research centers on the history of medicine and pharmaceutics in modern China, and particularly the medicalization of animals. She was Co-PI on the grant "History and Sustainability of Animal-Based Drugs in Asian Traditional Medicines" with a focus on historicizing zootherapies in East and Southeast Asia, and understanding their relation to the wildlife trade and zoonotic disease. More recently she has begun research on the history of kitchens and home appliances in Asia.  

Research Interests

STS, Chinese Medicine Studies, Animal Studies, Food Studies, History of Home Technologies

Representative Publications

Books:

1. Mao's Bestiary: Medicinal Animals and Modern China (Durham: Duke University Press, 2021).

Refereed Articles:

2. "Traditionality and Lab-Work: Chinese Anti-Cancer Drug Research and the Cultural Revolution" [first author, with Gregory Clancey], Bulletin of the History of Medicine (currently under review).

3. "Heat, Cold, and Climatic Determinism in China's Urban Epidemics" [first author, with Dongxin Zou and Gregory Clancey], Urban Studies, published online October 31, 2022.

4. "Singapore's Cold War Kitchen: Women, Technology and Consumerism in a Landlord State", Technology and Culture (preliminarily accepted and under revision).

5. "To Cure a Hundred Diseases: Animal Blood Therapies in Mao's China", Science, Technology & Society 23:2 (2018): 195-213.

6. "The Human Proteome and the Chinese Liver" [first author, with Gregory Clancey] Science, Technology & Society 18:3 (2013): 307-319.

7. ""Down with Shark Fin!": The Politics of Eating Shark Fin and Its Shifting Nationality in Republican China", in Eric Olmedo, et. al. (Eds.) Consuming. Eating. Well-being: Proceedings of the 2016 Food and Society Conference (Bangi: KITA-UKM Press, 2018), 21-27.

Edited Journal Special Issue:

8. Editorial Introduction (Guest Editorship) Special Issue on Asian Medicine, Science, Technology & Society 23:2 (2018): 189-194.

Book Chapters:

9. "Formulating "New Drugs" within Traditional Chinese Medicine: Inside Guangzhou Huahai Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd" in Stephan Kloos and Calum Blakie, Asian Medical Industries: Contemporary Perspectives on Traditional Pharmaceuticals (London: Routledge, 2022).

10. ""Health Products" and the Boundary between Food and Pharmaceuticals: The Case of Fish Liver Oil", in Celine Coderey and Laurent Pordie, eds., Governance and Circulation of Asian Medicines (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 103-117.