I am a social and cultural anthropologist with an interdisciplinary approach to research and scholarly production. My research interests focus on state-making and power; affect and sentiments; ritual, public, and mediation; urban governance; marriage and social reproduction, in both contemporary and modern China. I am currently working on a book project, tentatively titled, The Matchmaking Party: Intimacy and State-Building in China’s Urban Publics. In conducting research, I draw on diverse methodologies, such as ethnographic participant observation, interviews, popular and official archival research, surveys, and digital and textual analyses of media content.
My academic training was both interdisciplinary and international. I received my B.A. in Philosophy from People’s University of China in Beijing, M.A. in East Asian Studies at Duke University, and Ph.D. in Anthropology at Harvard University with a secondary field in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. In addition, I completed course programs in Netherlands, Italy, and Chinese cities of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Nanjing. All these experiences have enriched my core scholarly identity as an anthropologist of China.
Outside academia, I do public writings on topics of the politics of gender and intimacy, the urban culture of marriage-making, anthropology, and the U.S. campus culture. You can find a collection of my writings under
Publications