Thank you for visiting my webpage! I am a scholar and teacher of Chinese history and digital humanities.

I studied history at Peking University and attended the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. My doctorate from Oxford focuses on epistolary culture in 10-13th century China. I have worked at Oxford and Harvard universities, and have held visiting fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Peking University, and Academia Sinica. I am also an Elected Fellow at the Royal Asiatic Society.

  • The quickest way to contact me is to email me at this address.
     
  • I write regularly about Chinese history and digital humanities in academic journals and public outlets. To view and download my publications, please go to this webpage.
     
  • With my teaching experience I am awarded an Associate Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy (UK). I have taught various courses on Chinese history (ancient to contemporary), literati culture, urban history, the Silk Road, Classcial Chinese, and digital humanities. Please contact me if you are interested in the syllabi of my courses.
     
  • Other than teaching, I also serve as a Reviews Editor for Cultural History (Edinburgh University Press & International Society for Cultural History). I also review books and articles for publishers, journals, and conferences. Please send all peer review invitations to my email address.
     
  • To learn more about the China Biographical Database (CBDB) project, visit the project website. It is a digital humanities project that is transforming all Chinese historical records into big biographical data. The CBDB project is also involved in building a cyberinfrastructure for Chinese studies. The open platform of digital resources created for this purpose can be found here.
     
  • I am the co-founder and editor of a Wechat site called 零壹Lab [01Lab] which shares up-to-date content on digital humanities research. To view its content, search for the ID "lingyilab" on Wechat. Together with some colleagues I also curate a feed on digital humanities on Facebook. Follow our page here.
     
  • I am active in public history initiatives. I have taken part in the production of the documentary series The Story of China, broadcast on PBS and BBC and presented by Michael Wood. Watch some clips from the documentaries here. I have also been a historical consultant for the recently opened theme park Little Big City in Beijing, run by Merlin Entertainments.