Baik Young-seo is one of South Korea's leading scholars of contemporary Chinese history. He is also a leading thinker developing an “East Asian discourse” that transcends borders from the perspectives of the people and citizens.

Born in Incheon, South Korea, in 1953, Baik graduated from the Department of Oriental History at Seoul National University in 1981. He later earned his PhD in literature (oriental history) from Seoul National University. After working at Hallym University, he was a professor at Yonsei University from 1998 to 2018, holding important positions as President of Korean Association for Contemporary Chinese Studies, and Korean Association for Studies of Modern Chinese History, and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies, Yonsei University. He was also editor-in-chief of the quarterly Creativity and Criticism, a journal of literature and social criticism that has significantly impacted the Korean intellectual world. He played a leading role not only in Chinese Studies but also in the Humanities and Social Sciences. During this period, he undertook overseas research at Harvard University, the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, Nagoya University, and Kyushu University.

Based on his doctoral thesis, Baik continued his research, focusing on the "National Congress Movement", a national revolution that emerged following the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the May Fourth Movement of 1919. By looking into the university culture that emerged to support the Movement through the lens of forming a "socially transformative ego”, his research culminated into Students and Revolution in China in the 1920s: from Identity Crisis to Social Transformation, (1994). Baik was deeply involved in campus protests during the 1970’s and 80’s that contributed to the democratization of Korea, and his awareness of social issues is reflected in his works. Until 1992, there was little accumulation of Chinese Studies in Korea due to the lack of Sino-Korean diplomatic relations. Therefore, as a second-generation leader in Chinese studies, he has made a significant academic contribution to raising the level of research in China to that of Japan, China, and Taiwan while utilizing a Korean perspective.

Baik's true value was best demonstrated when leading the debate on "East Asian discourse," based on his historical research and involving the world of thought in Japan, China, Taiwan, and elsewhere. The core of his argument, expressed in The Path to Coexistence and Core Locations: East Asia as a Practical Project (2016) and The Genealogy and Prospect of East Asia Discourse: The Path to an Alternative System (2022), is "approaching East Asia as a practical issue." He presents East Asia through an intellectual and practical process of searching for an "East Asian" identity based on constant self-reflection and as a dual task of “overcoming modernity while adapting to it”. Moreover, it is an ideological endeavor to consider and conceive East Asia not as being formed from relationships between governments and states but from the perspective of a "core locations" where citizens and people live. His major works have been widely translated in Japan, China, and Taiwan and have won the sympathy of intellectuals and others.

As tensions in the region rise due to the escalation of the Sino-American conflict and North Korea's nuclear development, Japan-Korea relations are going through significant changes, and historical issues are becoming more and more apparent. As an East Asian, Baik Young-seo's ideological work provides essential guidelines for tackling these complex issues, and he is a worthy recipient of the Academic Prize of the Fukuoka Prize.