Submissions Are Closed

Deadline: May 15, 2026

Award Type

Award for Publications

The John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History is offered annually for an outstanding book in the history of China proper, Vietnam, Chinese Central Asia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, or Japan, substantially after 1800.

The current prize amount is $1,000.

The general rules for submission are:

  1. Only books of high scholarly and literary merit will be considered. Anthologies, edited works, and pamphlets are ineligible for the competition.
  2. Books with a copyright of 2025 will be eligible for the 2026 prize.
  3. Nomination submissions may be made by an author or by a publisher. Publishers may submit as many entries as they wish. Authors or publishers may submit the same book for multiple AHA prizes.
  4. Nominators must complete an online prize submission form for each book submitted. Once you fill out the form you will receive an email with the committee’s contact information.
  5. One copy of each entry must be sent to each committee member and clearly labeled “Fairbank Prize Entry.” Print copies preferred unless otherwise indicated. If only e-copy is available, please contact review committee members beforehand to arrange submission format.

Please Note: The competition will open in mid-March 2026. Entries must be received by May 15, 2026, to be eligible for the 2026 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2026 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2027 AHA annual meeting in New Orleans.

For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.

John K. Fairbank
John K. Fairbank

John K. Fairbank, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and director of the East Asian Research Center at Harvard University, was president of the AHA in 1968.

Current Recipient

Tristan G. Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China (Princeton Univ. Press)

Laws of the Land is grounded in archival research and beautifully written. By weaving together concepts as seemingly disparate as fengshui and institutional legal history, Tristan G. Brown opens a window on Qing society from the grassroots to halls of power, from practices as mundane as grave digging to as profound as predicting the future. Through local magistrates, powerful gentry, peasants, farmers, and imperial officials, Brown tells a story of how the Qing dynasty moved between tradition and modernity.