Yang Huei joined SUTD in 2012. His monograph, Strait Rituals: China, Taiwan, and the United States in the Taiwan Strait Crises, 1954–1958 is published by Hong Kong University Press (2019). He argues that the Taiwan Straits Crises could be understood as an evolution towards tacit accommodation via symbiotic ritualization. Simply put, it was a strenuous process, which a series of “lessons” was learnt over time. Ultimately, the ROC, PRC and US had learnt to uneasily accommodate each other. These exacting understandings laid the groundwork for a substantive change in the nature of Sino-American relations – from one of hostile nuclear confrontation in 1954 to one of tacit accommodation in 1958. Presently, he has contributed to academic journals, inter alia, Modern Asian Studies, Asian Affairs, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, Small Wars & Insurgencies, and open access platforms such as The Middle Ground Journal. He has also reviewed a dozen of monographs and edited volumes.

His next project concerns the cultural interstices apropos of technological exchanges among Taiwan, China, and the United States in the late 1970s. Buffeted by seismic changes of leadership in all three nations, the adaption process adopted by all parties is the cornerstone in understanding the shape of the current East Asian nexus.

Besides the Cold War, he is caught up by themes revolving around transnational businesses, and alienation in the diaspora community in the late 19^th century. Therewithal, he has come across a certain Hainanese sojourner, Chow Kwai For (d. 1907), in the Transvaal Colony. In addition, Jardine Matheson Company’s indispensable compradore par excellence – Tong King-sing (1832-1892) caught his imagination. He was a former editor at the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College. Before his stint as a graduate student, he taught at various local schools.