I am a political scientist by training and before I joined Bristol I had worked in Department of Public and International Affairs of City University of Hong Kong for 25 years. I was Associate Head between 2012 and 2019. In the early part of my career, my works focused on local governance and political economy of reform China. I have published extensively on local finance, land administration, central-local relationship and state-society interaction in China. My recent projects focused on late colonial governance in Hong Kong. I am currently working on two book projects. The first one examines the governorship of Murray MacLehose (1971-1982). The book tentatvely titled as MacLehose, British Hong Kong and London: The Long 1970s examines the dynamics and logic of interaction between London and Hong Kong and reflects on how local autonomy could be defined and articulated. The second book, Cultural Revolution in Hong Kong: The 1967 Riots and Beyond, evaluates how the local authority endured the full-fledge communist attacks in 1967 and its long term implication for colonial governance. 

I also see myself a public intellectual and have been actively involved in public debates in Hong Kong. I am a co-founder of various civil society organizations e.g. Society for Hong Kong Studies, and SynergyNet, an independent policy think-tank. I also had direct engagement with govenment via my membership in numerous government advisory and statutory bodes, among which are Central Policy Unit, Advisory Council for Environment, Telecommunication Authorities, and Sustainable Development Council. Over the last decade, I have written more than 200 articles on Hong Kong politics for local and international media outlets. 

Supervision of PhD on Hong Kong History and Politics

Tang Ka Yi (2023), "Colonial Medical Reform under Cold War: A Comparative-Historical Analysis of the Cases of Hong Kong and Singapore".

Chan Kwun Hong (2022), "Colonial Private Policing: District Watch Force and Colonizer-Indigenous Elite Relationship".

Zheng Bixian (2016), "Rise of New Social Movement and its Impact on Governance in Hong Kong: The Case of Spatial Movement".

Fong Chi Hang (2012), "Rethinking Hong Kong's Governance Crisis under Chinese Sovereignty: The Failure of the State-Business Coalition after 1997?"

Selected Publications on Hong Kong History and Politics

(with Lui Tai Lok and Stephen Chiu)(eds.), Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Hong Kong, London: Routledge, 2018. 

(ed.) Negotiating Autonomy: Hong Kong and its Sovereign Before and After 1997, Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press, 2013.

"The Crusade against Corruption in Hong Kong in the 1970s: Governor MacLehose as a Zealous Reformer or Reluctant Hero?" China Information, 32: 3: 197-221, July 2013.

"Cultural Revolution in Hong Kong: Emergency Powers, Administration of Justice and the Turbulent Years of 1967," Modern Asian Studies, 46: 4: 1007-1032, July 2012.

(with Lui Tai Lok), "Revisting the Golden Era of MacLehose and the Dynamics of Social Reforms," China Information, 29: 3: 249-272, November 2010.

"Understanding the Autonomy of Hong Kong from Historical and Comparative Perspectives," China Information, 29: 3: 235-248, November 2010.

(with Robert Bickers) May Day in Hong Kong: Riot and Emergency in 1967, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008.

"1967 Riots in Hong Kong: The Diplomatic and Domestic Fronts of the Colonial Governor," China Quarterly, 133: 122-139, March 2008.

(with Ma Ngok and Ian Holliday) "After 1997: The Dialectics ofc Hong Kong Dependence," Journal of Contemporary Asia, 34: 2: 254-270, 2004.

(with Ahmed S Huque) "Globalization and Reunification: Administrative Reforms and the China-Hong Kong Convergence Challenge," Public Administration Review, 63: 2: 141-152, 2003.

(with Ma Ngok and Ian Holliday)"A High Degree of Autonomy? Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 1997-2002," Political Quarterly, 73: 4: 455-464, 2002.