Interests

• Business and financial history
• Chinese overseas
• Capitalism
• Transnationalism
• Global history
• Southeast Asia’s past and present

Education and Work Experience

• October 2023–present: PhD Candidate in History, University of Warwick, UK
• 2021–2023: Research Associate, Nanyang Centre for Public Administration, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• 2018–2020: M.A. (Research) in Global and Interdisciplinary History, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• 2014–2018: B.A. (Highest Honours) in History and University Scholars Programme, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • 2015: Visiting Student, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, and Chung-Ang University, South Korea

Publications

Edited Volumes

• Forthcoming in 2025: ASEAN Centrality and the Revitalisation of Regional Connectivity (Singapore: World Scientific) (Co-edited with Hong Liu and Celia Lee)
• Good Governance in a Post COVID-19 World – Global Health and Economic Recovery (Brussels: International Institute of Administrative Sciences, 2023). (Open Access, co-edited with Hong Liu and Celia Lee)

Refereed Journal Articles

• 'Introduction: Agile governance for a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.' Special Issue: Governing a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous World, Global Policy, Volume 15, Issue S6 (2024), 5-11. (Open Access, co-written and co-edited with Hong Liu and Celia Lee)
• 'Emerging Business Transnationalism in Singapore and China: Governance, Networks, and Strategies.' Asia Pacific Business Review, Vol. 30, Issue 4 (2024), 640-666. (Open Access, co-written with Hong Liu)
• 'Industrialization and Chinese Big Business in Colonial Singapore, Malaya, and China: The Transnational Enterprises of Lim Peng Siang (1904-1941).' Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. Vol. 54, No. 1 (2023), 89-115. (Open Access, written with Keng We Koh)
• 'Semi-archives and Interim Archives: A History of the National Wages Council in Singapore.' Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2022), 427-449. (Open Access, co-written with Kah Seng Loh)

In Chinese

• ‘新加坡华商企业的商业跨国主义：族群网络与治理策略 [Chinese Business Transnationalism in Singapore: Ethnic Networks and Governing Strategies].' Southeast Asian Affairs, Vol. 4 (2023), 103-116. (co-written with Hong Liu)
• '新书发布会《长为异乡客？：当代华人新移民》 [Book Release: Forever Strangers? Contemporary Chinese Immigrants Around the World].” International Journal of Diasporic Chinese Studies (华人研究国际学报) Vol. 13, No. 1 (2021), 119-124.

• 'Continuing Education and Training in Post-COVID 19 Singapore.' In Good Governance in a Post COVID-19 World – Global Health and Economic Recovery (Brussels: International Institute of Administrative Sciences, 2023) (co-written with Celia Lee)
• 'Managing COVID-19: Singapore’s experience from a medical practitioner’s perspective.' In Good Governance in a Post COVID-19 World – Global Health and Economic Recovery (Brussels: International Institute of Administrative Sciences, 2023). (co-written with Dr Dale Fisher)
• 'Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry: An Institution in Transition.' In Kwa, Chong Guan and Kua, Bak Lim eds. A General History of the Chinese in Singapore (Singapore: World Scientific, 2019), 345-359.

• 'Theatres of Memory: Industrial Heritage of 20th Century Singapore'. Berita (Official Publication of Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group Association for Asian Studies). Vol. 48, No. 1 (2022), 52-56.

• Blog: 'The Singapore Ratepayers' Association.' Library, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (2024).
• Blog: 'Researching Chinese Big Business in the British Straits Settlements.' Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick (2024).
• 'Beyond Ethnicity and Dialect: The Organization, Scope and Clientele of the Kwong Yik Bank in Singapore.” Berita, Vol. 48, No. 1 (2022), 17-30.

• 'Between culture and enterprise: The business history of Tan Yeok Seong.' HistorySpeaks (2022), 48-61.

• 'British, Dutch, Japanese or Chinese? The Sugar King Inheritance Dispute in Pre-war Singapore.' HIST:RE, Vol. 1 (2019), 65-69.

• 'Singapore Infopedia: Marsiling Road.' National Library Board, Singapore (2016).

• In Chinese: '觉世牗民 独任其难：薛有礼与《叻报》 [See Ewe Lay, the Founder of Lat Pau].' Yuan, No. 5, Issue 123 (2016), 12-13.

Awards

• 2023: Best Customer Service Award (Merit), Nanyang Centre for Public Administration, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

• 2022: Best Teamwork Award (Merit), Nanyang Centre for Public Administration, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

• 2018: Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal
  (Awarded by Nanyang Technological University to the top graduate in each programme)

• 2015, 2017, 2018: Dean’s List Award, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  (Awarded annually by the college to undergraduates within the top 5% of their cohort)

Conference Organisation and Papers

Co-organised at the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration in Singapore

• 25-26 August 2023: Lien International Conference on Good Governance: Good Governance for the Common Good
  Attracted 300 in-person participants from over 20 countries and online viewership of 1.3 million globally
  See Report (Chinese)
• 25-26 November 2022: Lien Development Conference: The Dynamics of Governance in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous World
  Attracted 300 in-person participants from over 15 countries
• 22-23 November 2021: Lien International Conference on Good Governance: Good Governance in the Post COVID-19 World - Global Health and Economic Recovery
  Attracted 400 in-person and online participants
• 2-3 March 2021: International Conference on Transnational Knowledge Transfer and Dynamic Governance: Comparative Experiences and New Challenges

Conference and Workshop Papers

• 'Banking Embeddedness in the British Straits Settlements: The Chinese Commercial Bank', Economic History Society PhD Student Workshop, University of Warwick, 27 to 30 November 2024

• ‘Chinese Big Business in the British Straits Settlements: The Transnational Enterprises of Lim Peng Siang (1904-1941).’ PhD Student Workshop, Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, 6 July 2024.

• 'Semi-archives and Interim Archives: Researching Chinese Business in Southeast Asia.’ History Postgraduate Conference, University of Warwick, 22 May to 24 May 2024.

• ‘Between the yinhao and modern bank: The Kwong Yik Bank and company law reform in the Straits Settlements.’ Annual Conference of the Association of Business Historians, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, 29 June to 1 July 2023.
• ‘Emerging business transnationalism in Singapore and China: governance, networks, and strategies.’ 10^th Global Social Sciences Graduate Student Hybrid Conference, Hong Kong Baptist University, 19 May 2023.
• ‘Culture, Nationality and Conflict: An Analysis of Tan Kah Kee & Company’s Advertisements in Pre-War Singapore.’ Annual Conference of the Association of Business Historians, Sheffield Hallam University, 5 July to 6 July 2019.
• ‘Philanthropy, Products and Patriotism: The Advertisements of Lim Peng Siang and Tan Kah Kee in Late Colonial Singapore (1920–1941).’ Hong Kong University Spring History Symposium, 2 May to 3 May 2019.
• ‘Chinese Shipping in Pre-war Southeast Asia and China: The case of the Ho Hong Steamship Company.’ Graduate Student Conference, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 20 October 2018.
• ‘Modern Hokkien Banking in Prewar Singapore and Asia: The Vicissitudes of the Ho Hong Bank (1917–1932).’ Early Career Conference, University of Tokyo, 11 September 2018.
• ‘Concordia Et Copia: An Examination of Lim Peng Siang’s Business Career and his Modernization Project in the Straits Settlements and Southern China (1872–1944).’ Annual Conference of the Association of Business Historians, Open University, United Kingdom, 29 June to 30 June 2018.
• ‘From Riches to Rags? Exploring the Lim Peng Siang Business Story 1904 – 1944.’ Annual Conference of the Association of Business Historians, University of Glasgow, 29 June to 1 July 2017.

Invited Talks and Public Engagement

• Discussant for Book Talk: 'Banking and Politics in the Age of Democratic Revolution' by Niccolò Valmori, Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century Centre, University of Warwick, 18 January 2024.
• Guest Lecture: 'Business, Industrialization, and Modernization in Colonial Singapore and Malaya: The Case of Lim Peng Siang's Transnational Enterprises (1900-1941)', HH1003 Asia-Pacific in Global History: From 1800, Nanyang Technological University, 15 March 2023.
• Sharing at Arkebe Oqubay, ‘Perspectives on Research Methodology for Social Sciences and Public Policy: Complexity, Experiences, and Insights.” Seminar for Research Students, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 28 November 2022.
• ‘Good Governance in the Post COVID-19 World – Global Health and Economic Recovery’. Resilience Governance and Soft Book Launch, International Institute of Administrative Sciences Special Panel, Lien Development Conference, 26 November 2022.
• ‘A Brief History of Chinese Banks and the SCCCI (1903-1932).’ Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry Culture & Heritage Docent Training Programme, 21 November 2021.
• ‘Lim Peng Siang and Chinese Big Business in Singapore (1904-1941).’ Collecting & Research on the Chinese in Southeast Asia, National University of Singapore, 25 October 2021.
• Guest Lecture: 'Between traditional and modern: Business, Race, and Class in colonial Singaporee and Malaya', HH1003 Asia Pacific in Global History: From 1800, Nanyang Technological University, 13 September 2021.
• Panelist, ‘Post-Graduation: What Comes Next?’ Nanyang Technological University Research Society, 22 January 2020.

Service

• 2020–2024: Member, Research Committee, Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations
• Peer Reviewer, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies; Business History