The focus of my research is located at the crossroads of Chinese history, geography, politics and society with the aim to explore and better understand China’s self-positioning and its relationship with the rest of the world. Through an interdisciplinary lens, the exploration of China’s intellectual discourses of governance and its socio-spatial transformation becomes a means to engage with universally experienced themes, such as colonial-global cities, the impact of gentrification on living heritage, and the search for global prosperity. I have studied for many years the transformation of the hyper-colonial port-city of Tianjin (1860-1945) and its recent globalizing ambitions using the lens of histoire croisée (entangled history). I published my findings on Tianjin’s urban transformation in two books (Palgrave, 2014, 2017) and numerous articles. I am part of the AHRC Network ‘China Ports: History, Heritage and Development’ led by Nottingham University, and the knowledge network ‘River-cities in Asia’. My research has been published in several languages in various journals, including Theory and Society,  Emotion, Space and Society, China Information, Urban History; China Heritage Quarterly, Cultural Studies Review, Journal of Postcolonial Studies, and more recently in a co-edited special issue in the Journal of Chinese Political Science. I am currently writing a new book entitled Hong Kong: Street Markets, Street Hawkers and the Fight against Gentrification.