Personal Trajectory and Interviews

Both intellectually and culturally, border-crossing has been the crucial source of my curiosity, empathy, and creativity. Having grown up in China, I received my undergraduate degrees in finance and statistics at Peking University, where I was ultimately drawn into the intersections of history and the social sciences. I embarked on the journey of becoming a historian through graduate studies at UCLA and have continued to live and work in the United States after graduation. 

My research interests and methodologies traverse from qualitative archival research, to theory-informed historical sociology and cultural studies, to the most quantitatively-driven branches of the social sciences. My work and life constantly bring me to confront and reflect on what it means to be a majority in one society and a minority in another, to carefully think about whether my beliefs and discourse about equity and inclusion hold constant as my vantage point shifts, and to contemplate how to position oneself as a scholar when issues of the most pressing concerns in one society (and so reflected its academic fields) are of secondary importance in another. Crossing the boundaries of academic disciplines as well as those of nation states has become a source of strength for me to see the world and history through multiple lenses with empathy and promote balanced, historically informed discourse on China.