Biography
I am a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, expecting to complete my degree in spring 2027. Born and raised in China, I first came to the United States to study international relations. Living in the U.S. led me toward American history and eventually toward the histories connecting Chinese migrants with communities across the Pacific. I hold an M.A. in History from Rutgers University and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.
Research Interests
Women, Gender and Sexuality
The Chinese Diaspora
US in the World
Research Description
My research brings Chinese American history into conversation with women’s and gender history and Chinese social history. I examine how migration and racial exclusion shaped intimate relationships, cultural practices, and the authority to judge other people’s conduct.
My dissertation, Norms in Transit: Chinese Migrant Intimacies in California and Guangdong, 1900–1940, follows disputes over adoption, interracial marriage, cross-gender performance in Cantonese opera, and households divided by migration. It asks how practices of disputed legitimacy could sustain claims to family continuity, respectability, and modern progress. These disputes also shaped who could make decisions, whose cooperation mattered, and who bore the consequences.
Drawing on Chinese- and English-language newspapers, Guangdong migrant periodicals, family correspondence, immigration files, and theater materials, I distinguish public representations from evidence of conduct and practical authority. I pay particular attention to women’s discretion that is the room they had to act even when they lacked recognized authority.
Education
M.A. History - Rutgers University
B.A. International Studies - University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China
Grants
Nelle M. Signor Graduate Scholarship in International Relations, Illinois International, UIUC - Summer 2023
Short-Term Fellowship, Huntington Library - Fall 2023 (declined)
Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant, Graduate College, UIUC - Spring 2024
China-U.S. Scholars Program (CUSP) Research Travel Grant, Institute of International Education - Summer 2024
Jeffrey S. Tanaka Asian American Studies Grant, Department of Asian American Studies, UIUC - Summer 2024
CEAPS Graduate Student Dissertation Travel Grant, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, UIUC - Winter 2025
Hsi Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Department of History, UIUC - 2026-2027
Awards and Honors
CCWH-Berkshire Conference Graduate Student Award, Coordinating Council for Women in History - Winter 2025
Courses Taught
HIST 170 - US History to 1877 (Advanced Composition - TA) Spring 2025
HIST 171 - US History to 1877 (Teaching Assistant) Fall 2024
HIST 172 - US History since 1877 (Teaching Assistant) Fall 2021
HIST 281 - Constructing Race in America (Teaching Assistant) Fall 2022
HIST 283 - Asian American History (Teaching Assistant) Spring 2022; Spring 2023
Highlighted Publications
"Fake Mothers and Wild Lovebirds: Emigrant Wives, Adopted Sons, and Transnational Kinship in Siyi, Guangdong," Journal of Women's History (Accepted with Changes).
"From 'Yellow–White Unions' to 'White Peril': Chinese American Newspapers, Interracial Marriage, and the Politics of Respectability, 1900-1912," Journal of Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Global GAPE Special Issue (Invited Contribution, Under Peer Review).