Welcome!

I am a member of the History Department at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. I specialize on China’s twentieth-century history, and also have wide-ranging interests in the analytical approaches of social science and the cultural components of China Studies, such as literature and visual art. It is probably accurate to say that I am a China specialist first, secondly a historian, and thirdly appreciative of the insights and methods of all the other disciplines. What’s more, it’s probably most accurate to say that after so many years studying China and living in several parts of the country, China feels like home to me. In fact, thanks to the rapid and far-reaching changes that have taken place since I first visited, it seems that I have already spent several lifetimes here.

My experiences living in China and doing research in Chinese libraries and archives began to accumulate during the 1980s after I graduated from a program in History and Chinese Language at the University of Toronto. During my time as a PhD student at Cornell University, I made several long visits to Guangzhou (Canton) to gather source materials for my dissertation. Even though (or perhaps because) I am Canadian by birth, my time in China has been limited to regions south of the Yangzi River. Since 2004, I have been based in Shanghai for part of every year, enjoying the charms of an apartment in the Xuhui district (once part of the French Settlement) shared with my partner Rob Clark.

Updated in Shanghai, 11 August 2011