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Dr. Qing PEI
PolyU Scholars Hub

Dr. Qing PEI

Associate Professor

Historical Geography, History of Climate and Society, Social-Ecological Resilience, Digital Humanities, Historical GIS

Biography

Dr. Qing Pei joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Associate Professor in 2023 with a joint appointment between the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, and the Department of Chinese History and Culture. Before joining PolyU, he used to work as Associate Professor and Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences of the Education University of Hong Kong, Fellow in the University of Cambridge, UK, the Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Post-doctoral Fellow in the University of Hong Kong. His research interests traverse both physical and social sciences, which mainly encompass history and geography, climate change and human history, and social-ecological resilience. So far, his research has been funded by General Research Fund and the Early Career Scheme, Research Grant Council of Hong Kong. He has got many awards and prizes, including Presidential Young Scholars Scheme, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2023-2026), Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme, Hong Kong Research Grants Council (2022-2023), Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards, Second-class Award in Natural Sciences, the Ministry of Education, China (2019-2020), and Carson Fellowship, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany (2018).

Education and Academic Qualifications

  • 2011-2013, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong
  • 2008-2010, Master of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong
  • 2003-2007, Bachelor in Environmental Economics and Management, Renmin University of China
  • 2003-2007, Bachelor of Law, Renmin University of China (Double Degree)

Academic and Professional Experience

  • Associate Professor, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics and Department of Chinese History and Culture (joint appointment), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2023–present
  • Carson Fellow, Rachel Carson Center, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, 2018
  • Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, The Education University of Hong Kong, 2016–2023
  • Swiss National Fund Fellow, Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 2015
  • Fellow, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, 2015
  • Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, 2014–2016
  • Research Associate (part-time), Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong, 2014–2016

Research Interests

  • Historical Geography
  • History of Climate and Society
  • Social-Ecological Resilience
  • Digital Humanities
  • Historical GIS

Research Output

  • Qing Pei. Climate Change Economics between Europe and China: Long-Term Economic Development of Divergence and Convergence. Switzerland, Springer Nature. 2021. ISBN: 978-3-030-78745-5

  • Qing Pei, Yingqi Long, Xiaolin Lin, Climate change in historical perspective: violence, conflict, and migration, Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, 2023, Page 1-25

  • David D Zhang, Qing Pei, Christiane Fröhlich, Tobias Ide. Does climate change drive violence, conflict and human migration? Mike Hulme, Contemporary Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer. London and New York: Routledge, 2019, Page 51-64

  • Qing Pei. Research progress on the causal relationship between climate change and human socio-economic development (氣候變化和人類社會經濟發展因果關係的研究進展). Fangming Xia, Ping Hao, Disaster and History (災害與歷史). Beijing: The Commercial Press 2018, Page 250-259 (In Chinese)

  • David D. Zhang, Qing Pei. Gone with winds: A quantitative analysis of battlefield locations and climate shifts in Imperial China. Peter Dennis, Geo-strategy and War: Enduring Lessons for Australian Army. Canberra, Australia: Big Sky Publishing, 2015, Page 193-211

  • Mengyuan Qiu, Qing Pei, Ziyuan Lin. The Geography of Religions: Comparing Buddhist and Taoist Sacred Mountains in China. Geographical Research. 2023, 61(1):58-70.
  • Sam White, Qing Pei, Katrin Kleemann, Lukáš Dolák, Heli Huhtamaa, Chantal Camenisch. New Perspectives on Historical Climatology. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change. 2023, 14(1): e808.
  • Chantal Camenisch, Fernando Jaume-Santero, Sam White, Qing Pei, Ralf Hand, Christian Rohr, and Stefan Brönnimann. A Bayesian Approach to Historical Climatology for the Burgundian Low Countries in the 15th Century. Climate of the Past. 2022, 18: 2449–2462.
  • Ziyu Chen, Binzizi Dong, Qing Pei, Zhonghao Zhang. The impacts of urban vitality and urban density on innovation: Evidence from China’s Greater Bay Area. Habitat International. 2022, 119: 102490.
  • Dagomar Degroot, Kevin Anchukaitis, Martin Bauch, Jakob Burnham, Fred Carnegy, Jianxin Cui, Kathryn de Luna, Piotr Guzowski, George Hambrecht, Heli Huhtamaa, Adam Izdebski, Katrin Kleemann, Emma Moesswilde, Timothy Newfield,Qing Pei, Elena Xoplaki, Natale Zappia. Towards a rigorous understanding of societal responses to climate change. Nature. 2021, 591: 539–550.
  • Yiru Pei, Qing Pei, Harry F Lee, Mengyuan Qiu, Yuting Yang. Epidemics in Pre-industrial Europe: Impacts of Climate Change, Economic Well-Being, and Population. Anthropocene. 2021, 37: 100317.
  • David D. Zhang, Matthew R. Bennett, Hai Cheng, Leibin Wang, Haiwei Zhang, Sally C. Reynolds, Shengda Zhang, Xiaoqing Wang, Teng Li, Tommy Urban, Qing Pei, Zhifeng Wu, Pu Zhang, Chunru Liu, Yafeng Wang, Cong Wang, Dongju Zhang, R. Lawrence Edwards. Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet. Science Bulletin. 2021, 66 (24): 2506-2515.
  • David J. Nash, George C. D. Adamson, Linden Ashcroft, Martin Bauch, Chantal Camenisch, Dagomar Degroot, Joelle Gergis, Adrian Jusopović, Thomas Labbé, Kuan-Hui Elaine Lin, Sharon D. Nicholson, Qing Pei, María del Rosario Prieto, Ursula Rack, Facundo Rojas, and Sam White. Climate indices in historical climate reconstructions: A global state-of-the-art. Climate of the Past. 2021, 17 (3): 1273-1314.
  • Alex Y Lo, Shuwen Liu, Alice SY Chow, Qing Pei, Lewis TO Cheung, Lincoln Fok. In government we trust? Micro-business adaptation to climate change in four post-colonial and transitional economies of China. Global Environmental Change. 2021, 69: 102305.
  • Alex Y Lo, Shuwen Liu, Alice SY Chow, Qing Pei, Lewis TO Cheung, Lincoln Fok. Business vulnerability assessment: a firm-level analysis of micro-and small businesses in China. Natural Hazards. 2021, 108: 867-890.
  • Han Xu, Lewis TO Cheung, Jon Lovett, Xialei Duan, Qing Pei, Dan Liang. Understanding the influence of user-generated content on tourist loyalty behavior in a cultural World Heritage Site. Tourism Recreation Research, 2021: 1-15
  • Shengda Zhang, David D. Zhang, Qing Pei. Spatiotemporal shifts of population and war under climate change in imperial China. Climatic Change. 2021, 165 (1): 1-19.
  • David D. Zhang, Qing Pei, Harry F. Lee, Jim, C.Y., Li, G., Zhang, M., Li, J., Wu, Z., Wang, L., Yue, R.P.H., Zhang, S. Climate change fostered cultural dynamics of human resilience in Europe in the past 2500 years. Science of The Total Environment. 2020, 744: 140842.
  • Qing Pei, Guodong Li, Bruce Winterhalder, Meg Lowman. Regional patterns of pastoralist migrations under the push of reduced precipitation in imperial China. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 2020, 29(3): 433-443.
  • Qing Pei. Division of Hunan and Hubei Provinces in the Qing Dynasty: Pragmatism in the Unity of Heaven and Governance. The Professional Geographer, 2020, 72(2): 283-296.
  • Jie Fei, Qing Pei. Water level changes of Lake Nansi in east China during 1758–1902. Regional Environmental Change. 2020, 21 (1): 1-9.
  • Olivier Damette, Stéphane Goutte, Qing Pei. Climate and nomadic migration in a nonlinear world: evidence of the Historical China. Climatic Change. 2020, 163: 2055-2071.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Jie Fei, Pui Yau Hui. Demographic crises of different climate phases in preindustrial Northern Hemisphere. Human Ecology. 2020, 48: 519-527.
  • David Wong, Harry F. Lee, Simon XB Zhao, Qing Pei. Region-specific determinants of the foreign direct investment in China. Geographical Research. 2020, 58(2): 126-140.
  • Shengda Zhang, David D. Zhang, Jinbao Li, Qing Pei. Secular temperature variations and the spatial disparities of war in historical China. Climatic Change. 2020, 159: 545-564.
  • Chantal Camenisch, Sam White, Qing Pei, Heli Maaria Huhtamaa. Recent results and new perspectives in historical climatology: An overview. Past Global Changes Magazine. 2020, 28(2): 35.
  • Fiona Williamson, Qing Pei. Archives of societies and historical climatology in East and Southeast Asia. Past Global Changes Magazine. 2020, 28(2): 40-41.
  • Sam White, Qing Pei. Attribution of historical societal impacts and adaptations to climate and extreme events: Integrating quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Past Global Changes Magazine. 2020, 28(2): 44-45.
  • Olivier Damette, Qing Pei. Changement climatique et migrations: un nouveau regard à travers les migrations nomades dans la Chine historique. Region et Developpement. 2020, 51: 17-30.
  • Qing Pei, Zachary Nowak, Guodong Li, Chong Xu, Wing Ki Chan. The strange flight of the peacock: Farmers’ atypical northwesterly migration from central China, 200BC-1400AD. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 2019, 109(5): 1583-1596.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Jinbao Li, Jie Fei. Proxy-based temperature reconstruction in China for the Holocene. Quaternary International, 2019, 521:168-174.
  • Jie Fei, Qing Pei. Ferdinand von Richthofen’s loess research in China. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment. 2019, 43 (1): 144-156.
  • Qing Pei, Harry F. Lee, David D. Zhang, Jie Fei. Climate change, state capacity and nomad–agriculturalist conflicts in Chinese history. Quaternary International. 2019, 508(1): 36-42.
  • Kena Mi, Rulong Zhuang, Zhonghao Zhang, Jun Gao, Qing Pei. Spatiotemporal characteristics of PM2.5 and its associated gas pollutants, a case in China. Sustainable Cities and Society. 2019, 45: 287-295.
  • Chantal Camenisch, Martin Bauch, Heli Maaria Huhtamaa, Qing Pei, Sam White. Climate reconstruction and impacts from the archives of societies (CRIAS). Past Global Changes Magazine. 2019, 27(2): 73-73.
  • Qing Pei, Philippe Forêt. Source note: Introduction to the climate records of imperial China. Environmental History. 2018, 23(4): 863-871.
  • Qing Pei, Harry F. Lee, David D. Zhang. Long-term association between climate change and agriculturalists’ migration in historical China. The Holocene. 2018, 28(2): 208-216.
  • Alex Lo, Lindsay Qianqing Mai, Anna Ka-yin Lee, Maria Francesch-Huidobro, Qing Pei, Ren Cong, Kang Chen. Towards network governance? The case of emission trading in Guangdong, China. Land Use Policy. 2018, 75: 538-548.
  • Xufeng Fei, Wanzhen Chen, Shuqing Zhang, Qingmin Liu, Zhonghao Zhang, Qing Pei. The spatio-temporal distribution and risk factors of thyroid cancer during rapid urbanization-a case study in China. Science of The Total Environment. 2018, 630(15): 1436-1445.
  • Chong Xu, Qing Pei, Veronica Kayan Wong, Chenxian Gu, David D. Zhang. Western wind meets eastern soil: road to industrialization in China (1874–1927). Asian Geographer. 2018, 35(1): 1-15.
  • Qing Pei. Migration for survival under natural disasters: A reluctant and passive choice for agriculturalists in historical China. Science China Earth Sciences. 2017, 60(12), 2089-2096.
  • Harry F Lee, David D. Zhang, Qing Pei, Xin Jia, Pak Hong Ricci Yue. Quantitative analysis of the impact of droughts and floods on internal wars in China over the last 500 years. Science China Earth Sciences. 2017, 60(12): 2078-2088.
  • Jianyong Li, John Dodson, Hong Yan, David D. Zhang, Xiaojian Zhang, Qinghai Xu, Harry F. Lee, Qing Pei, Bo Cheng, Chunhai Li, Jian Ni, Aizhi Sun, Fengyan Lu, Yongqiang Zong. Quantifying climatic variability in monsoonal northern China over the last 2200 years and its role in driving Chinese dynastic changes. Quaternary Science Reviews. 2017, 159: 35-46.
  • Harry F. Lee, Jie Fei, Christopher Y.S. Chan, Qing Pei, Xin Jia, Ricci P.H. Yue. Climate change and epidemics in Chinese history: A multi-scalar analysis. Social Science & Medicine. 2017, 174: 53-63.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Jinbao Li, Harry F. Lee. Proxy-based Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstruction for the mid-to-late Holocene. Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 2017, 130(3-4):1043-1053.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Guodong Li, Philippe Forêt and Harry F. Lee. Temperature and precipitation effects on agrarian economy in late imperial China. Environmental Research Letters, 2016, 11: 064008.
  • Harry F. Lee, David D. Zhang, Qing Pei, Xin Jia, R.P.H. Yue. Demographic impact of climate change on northwestern China in the late imperial era. Quaternary International. 2016, 425:237-247
  • Harry F. Lee, David D. Zhang, Qing Pei, and Jie Fei. Downscaling and disaggregating NAO-conflict nexus in pre-industrial Europe. Chinese Geographical Science. 2016, 26(5):609-622.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Harry F. Lee. Contextualizing human migration in different agro-ecological zones in ancient China. Quaternary International. 2016, 426: 65-75.
  • Qing Pei. Conquest of Beijing: Hidden contributions of climate change to the Tumu Crisis, 1449–1450. Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia Autumn 2016, no. 12. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/7639.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Harry F. Lee, Guodong Li. Crop management as an agricultural adaptation to climate change in early modern era: A comparative study of Eastern and Western Europe. Agriculture. 2016, 6(3), 29.
  • Yiying Chen, Ke Wang, Qing Pei, Ji Zou. Synergy between virtual local air pollutants and greenhouse gases emissions embodied in China’s international trade. Journal of Resources and Ecology 8 (6), 571-583.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Guodong Li, Bruce Winterhalder, Harry F. Lee. Epidemics in Ming and Qing China: Impacts of changes of climate and economic well-being. Social Science & Medicine. 2015, 136-137: 73-80.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Guodong Li, Harry F. Lee. Climate change and the macroeconomic structure in Pre-industrial Europe: new evidence from Wavelet Analysis. PLoS ONE. 2015, 10: e0126480.
  • Harry F. Lee, Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, and K.P.K Choi. Quantifying the intra-regional precipitation variability in northwestern China over the past 1,400 years. PLoS ONE. 2015: 10(7): e0131693.
  • Harry F. Lee, David D. Zhang, Qing Pei. Reconstruction of the geographic extent of drought anomalies in northwestern China over the last 539 years and its teleconnection with the Pacific Ocean. The Holocene. doi: 10.1177/0959683615581203
  • David D. Zhang, Qing Pei, Harry F. Lee, Jane Zhang, C. Q. Chang, Baosheng Li, Jinbao Li, Xiaoyang Zhang. The pulse of imperial China: a quantitative analysis of long-term geopolitical and climate cycles. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 2015, 24, 87-96.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Harry F. Lee. Evaluating the effectiveness of agricultural adaptation to climate change in preindustrial society. Asian Geographer. 2015: 32(2): 85-98.
  • Harry F. Lee, David D. Zhang, Peter Brecke, Qing Pei. (2015) Regional geographic factors mediate the climate-war relationship in Europe. British Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 2(1): 1-28.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang. Long-term relationship between climate change and nomadic migration in historical China. Ecology and Society. 2014, 19(2): 68.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Harry F. Lee, Guodong Li. Climate change and macro-economic cycles in pre-industrial Europe. PLoS ONE. 2014, 9(2): e88155.
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Jingjing Xu. Price responses of grain market under climate change in pre-industrial Western Europe by ARX modelling. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications. 2014, 811-817. DOI: 10.5220/0005025208110817
  • Qing Pei, David D. Zhang, Guodong Li, Harry F. Lee. Short and long term impacts of climate variations on the agrarian economy in pre-industrial Europe. Climate Research. 2013, 56: 169-180.
  • Qing Pei, Lanlan Liu, David D. Zhang. Carbon emission right as a new property right: rescue CDM Developers in China from 2012. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics. 2013, 13(3): 307-320.
  • David D. Zhang, Harry F. Lee, Cong Wang, Baosheng Li, Qing Pei, Jane Zhang, Yulun An. The causality analysis of climate change and large-scale human crisis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 2011, 108(42): 17296-17301.
  • David D. Zhang, Harry F. Lee, Cong Wang, Baosheng Li, Jane Zhang, Qing Pei, Jingan Chen. Climate change and large scale human population collapses in the pre-industrial era. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 2011, 20: 520-531.
  • Qing Pei, Dongmei Jiang, Mengheng Zhang. A study of contract legal issues in Chinese carbon market. Ecological Economy, 2009, 5(4):314-322.
  • Qing Pei. Dongmei Jiang, Mengheng Zhang. A study of legal attributes of carbon emission rights in carbon trading. Ecological Economy, 2009, 5(1):11-19.
  • Qing Pei. Environmental rights study under current climate change (氣候變化語境下對環境權的現實思考). Law Science Magazine (法學雜誌), 2008, 29: 80-83 (In Chinese)
  • Qing Pei. Can Wang. Introduction and analysis on Programmatic CDM (規劃方案下清潔發展機制介紹與分析). Environmental Science and Management (環境科學與管理). 2008, 32(12): 65-68, 74 (In Chinese)
  • Qing Pei. Can Wang. Xuedu Lv, A review and analysis on the international technology oriented agreements (應對氣候變化的國際技術協議評述), Advances in Climate Change Research (氣候變化研究進展), 2008, 4(5): 261-265 (In Chinese)
  • Qing Pei. Can Wang. CDM potential of existing residential buildings’ energy efficiency enhancement project in North China (中國北方既有住宅建築節能CDM項目開發潛力研究). 4th International Conference on Development and Environment in China (第四屆環境與發展中國論壇). 2008 (In Chinese)
  • Wen Sun, Qing Pei . Flourishing Clean Development Mechanism in China (蓬勃發展的清潔發展機制). Environmental Education (環境教育), 2008, 9: 79-81 (In Chinese)
  • Mengheng Zhang, Dongmei Jiang, Qing Pei, Genfa Lu. Legal Issues in Chinese carbon trade (淺析中國碳交易中的法律問題). Environmental Protection (環境保護), 2008, 128(410): 80-83 (In Chinese)
  • Qing Pei, Consideration of perfecting executions of environment government from the angle of legislation and executions of law (完善環境管理的法運行角度思考), Environment Pollution & Control (環境污染與防治) 2007, 3, http://www.zjepc.com/upload/rudearticle/2007/2007418134638.doc (In Chinese)
  • Qing Pei, Public government in market economy (市場經濟體制需要公共管理), Education Science & Culture Magazine (科教文匯), 2006, 1: 32-34 (In Chinese)

Esteem Measures

Major Honors and Prizes

  • Presidential Young Scholars Scheme, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2023-2026
  • Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, 2022–2023
  • Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards, Second-class Award in Natural Sciences, the Ministry of Education, China, 2019–2020
  • President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Research (Early-Career Research Excellence Award), The Education University of Hong Kong, 2019
  • Carson Fellowship, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, 2018
  • Early Career Scheme (ECS) Award, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong, 2017
  • Li Ka Shing Prize, 2010

Conference Organized

  • PAGES-CRIAS 3rd workshop “State of the Art of Historical Climatology in International Perspective”, March 19-20, 2021

Keynote and Invited Presentations

  • Qing Pei. A scientific story from humanities: Climate change and its impacts in history based on the archives of societies. World Conference on Environmental and Earth Sciences. Valencia, Spain, October 24-25, 2022 (Keynote Speaker)
  • Qing Pei. Document-based precipitation reconstruction and its impact in Chinese history. The 1st Japan-China Joint Workshop on Historical Climatology in East Asia. Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan, 21st December, 2019
  • Qing Pei. The digitization of historical documents and climate reconstruction. 7th China Forestry Science Conference-Division of Forestry History. Nanjing, China, 8th–11th November, 2019 (Keynote Talk).
  • Qing Pei. Cultural implications from the climate records of imperial China. Joint ACRE China, Southeast Asia, and Japan workshop. Wuhan, China, 4th–6th November, 2019.
  • Qing Pei. Mandate of Heaven – Climate change, migration and geopolitical cycles in imperial China. International Conference Climate Change and Human Responses. Hong Kong, 31st October–2nd November, 2018
  • Qing Pei. Introduction to the climate records of imperial China. PAGES-CRIAS Workshop Methods and Interdisciplinary Communication in Historical Climatology. University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 1st–2nd October, 2018
  • Qing Pei. Climate change and economic development across Eurasia. Rachel Carson Center, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany, 5th July, 2018
  • Qing Pei. Mandate of Heaven: Climate change, migration and geopolitical cycles in imperial China. A Climate Change and History Research Initiative (CCHRI) Colloquium in Princeton University, Princeton, US, 24th–27th May, 2018
  • Qing Pei. Climate push and pull: A hidden driver of geopolitical cycle in China. Institute for Advanced Studies Workshop Climate, Archaeology and History in the Eurasian Middle Ages. Princeton, US, 28th–30th April, 2018
  • Qing Pei. Divergence and Convergence across Eurasia: A comparative analysis on long-term economic development under climate change. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 17th March, 2017.
  • Qing Pei. Great Divergence: Comparative analysis on economic development in Europe and China under climatic impacts. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, 1st June, 2016 (in Chinese).

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