Current Research Areas
1) Global Economy and Development
My focus centers around the ongoing tensions between globalization, regionalization and economic nationalism and their impacts on socio-economic development. I especially concentrate on global trade and finance as well as the Belt and Road Initiative.
Moreover, I examine various practices in the global knowledge economy and competing visions of economic/sustainable development.In particular, I try to understand how local and regional cultures and institutions shape social and economic development.
Recently, I have also looked at the restructuring of global value chains and supply chains as well as the future of work in a new era. I draw from economic geography, economic sociology and economic anthropology to study global value chains and global production systems.
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2) Global Migration
Specifically, I look at the mobility of high-skilled professionals, academics, and international students in the global knowledge economy. Moreover, I pay close attention to the issues of identity, racism and cultural encounters.
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Furthermore, I try to understand how both the international and internal migration processes, as well as globalization, shape identities and intimate relationships. I also try to see how they shape global cities and urban/suburban environments. In addition, I scrutinize their relationships to various forms of discrimination, especially anti-Asian racism.
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3) International Relations Theories
I examine the knowledge innovation and (re)production of emerging IR theories around the world. I especially look at IR theories beyond the West and try to understand how non-Western epistemologies, ontologies and cosmologies inform the different conceptualizations of the key concepts in IR, such as power transition, hegemony, state, security, global order, and international/world society.
My expertise lies in emerging Chinese IR theories and various Chinese conceptions of the world. I situate the emerging Chinese IR theories in the broader theoretical debates on Global IR, non-Western IR and post-Western IR. Besides, I also look at Canadian and European theoretical approaches to IR/IPE from a comparative perspective.
On the practical level, I look at grand strategies (or lack thereof) of leading powers, such as the US, China and the EU, and Russia.
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4) Global City and Megaregions
I am especially interested in urbanization in emerging global cities and megaprojects in the making. In particular, I focus on new emerging global cities, city clusters and megaregions, such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-MacauGreater Bay Area and the Greater Toronto Area.
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5) Sociology of Global Knowledge and Culture
I investigate how knowledge and culture are produced, disseminated and reproduced. Concerning knowledge production, a particular emphasis is on various academic disciplines in social sciences and how different stages of the knowledge production process position in the global value chain.
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6) Global Higher Education
Rapid changes in the political economy of universities are of particular interest. I try to ascertain the forces that drive the current rapid global transformation of universities, such as university ranking, scientific collaboration, international students and research funding.
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Regions of Focus
I primarily focus on Western Europe, East Asia and North America.
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Occasionally, I also research and write about Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Beyond Current Research Areas
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Generally, I am driven by a broad range of interests. I am very curious about almost everything, ranging from physics to biology, politics to economics, arts to music, history to philosophy, and anthropology to religion. I occasionally research and write about the following topics:
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1) I have an unexhausted curiosity about European and Chinese history and philosophy
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2) Popular/Pop music in America and Asia. Classical music and techno music in Europe. Recently, I have conducted some research on Cantonese Pop Music in the 70s, 80s and early 90s (arguably in the golden era of Canto-Pop)
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3) Modernity and modernization. For example, I examine the origin and development of Romantic Love and how it defines modernity.
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