Research Interests
Transnationalism, Chinese Diasporas, Chineseness, Decolonial methods, Queer Anthropology, Gender/Sexuality, Sex Work, Affect, China, Hong Kong
Research Description
My work focuses on the intersection of sexualities, gender, and class in neoliberal economies. My ethnographic work describes the labor conditions, moral systems, and modes of intimacy of MSM sex workers (MSM: men who have sex with men) in Hong Kong. I am interested in how sex workers produce their own system of ethics vis-à-vis money, sex, and love, and how the expanding informal economy—in view of widening class disparities and shrinking class mobility in neoliberal economies—complicates the respectability politics in the queer communities.
Currently, my research focuses on transnationalism, (de)coloniality, migration, and various Chinese diasporas in the context of China's growing economic and geopolitical influence on the global stage. My research inquiries include—a) how does China's multibillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative impinge on the racial dynamics in Latin America?, and b) what do Hong Kongers, who aspire to migrate to the former colonizing country, the UK, in the aftermath of the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill movements, tell us about the colonial relations in the postcolonial world order with a marked presence of China?
Education
MPhil, Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
BA (First Class Honours), Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Grants
Global Intersections Grant, The Center of Global Studies 2023
Awards and Honors
Point Foundation (LGBTQ), BIPOC Scholar 2022-2023