Broadly speaking, I am a critical scholar of information and communication technologies, especially interested in digital economies, and the mutual shaping of technology and society. My research and teaching situate at the nexus of various fields, including the political economy of communication and culture, cultural studies, science and technology studies, critical algorithmic studies, platform studies, and anthropology to contemporary China. My research primarily draws upon a qualitative methodology that entails a combination of ethnography, autoethnography, documentary research, policy analysis, and textual analysis, etc. I gained my Ph.D. in communication and media studies from the Institute of Communication Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.Phil. in communications from Hong Kong Baptist University, and B.A. in history from Peking University. 

I am  currently at work on two interrelated projects. One is a book-length project on Didi Chuxing, examining the techno-politics, cultural representations, and political-economy around this emerging platform giant; the other centers on the socio-technical, cultural, and regulatory perspectives of data-driven technologies. Her previous research also investigated the impacts of digital technologies on journalism in the Chinese context. 

In the academic year 2023-2024, I will be on leave and join Princeton University as Fung Global Fellow. 

NM2104 Qualitative Communication Research Methods (Lower Level Undergraduate Class)

NMC5368 Media, Markets and Policy (Taught Master Seminar)

I am currently working on my first book project. This manuscript centers on China's ride-hailing giant, Didi Chuxing. 

The fast-growing mobile platform companies and their cutting-edge technologies open the way for radical changes in how we work. This manuscript will bringing readers to China, a country that has long favored developmentalism over social equity and has a deep-seated culture of technological worship. My work seeks to enrich the existing research by accessing the closed subjects without endangering informants. Through ethnography, I bring a network of actors in to the foreground. This includes not only service workers of digital platforms as the existing literature tends to draw upon, but also policy makers, insiders from platform companies, university experts and researchers, and daily consumers. Situated at the nexus of the political economy of information and communication technologies, science and technology studies, labor studies, and China studies, my manuscript intends to offer a detailed analysis of how digital platforms--as new technoloigcal, socioeconomic, and cultural terrains--are quietly transforming relationship between human beings and computers, technicians and service workers, economic productivity and human dignity—not only in Chinese platform economy but worldwide.

BROAD: Political Economy of Communication and Culture, Science and Technology Studies, Cultural Studies, Technology and Labor, Anthropology to Contemporary China. 

NARROW: Platform Power and Regulations, Technology Governance, Gig Economy, Critical Data and Algorithmic Studies, Digital Labor. 

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

• JOURNAL ARTICLES

  2024. “Working with algorithmic management: Design logic, algorithmic unfitness, and labor repair behind the wall,"New Media &  Society.

  2022.“Beyond Precarity: Forced Labor in China's On-Demand Economy,”New Media & Society.

  2021.“Beyond Algorithmic Control: Flexibility, Intermediaries, and Paradox in the On-Demand Economy,” Information, Communication  and Society. 

  2019.“Papi Jiang and Microcelebrity in China: A Multilevel Analysis,”International Journal of Communication,13(2019): 3016-3034.

  2018.“Convergence and De-Convergence of Journalistic Practice in Chinese Newspaper,” Journalism,19(9-10): 1380-1396. 

  2017.“Chinese Newspapers and Investigative Reporting in the New Media Age,” Journalism Studies, 19(3):415-431. Co-authored with   Colin Sparks.

  2015.“Towards a More Proactive Way: Regulating Public Opinion on the Microblog in Xi’s New Leadership,” China Perspectives,     2015(4): 15-23.  --French version: “Vers une méthode plus proactive. Le contrôle de l’opinion publique sur les microblogs chinois sous   la nouvelle présidence de Xi Jinping,” Perspectives chinoises, 2015.

  BOOK REVIEWS

  2019. Review of Digital China's Informal Circuits: Platforms, Labor, and Governance, by Elaine Jing Zhao. Global Communication and China.

  2018. Review of The Chinese Typewriter: A History, by Thomas S. Mullaney. Chinese Journal of Communication. 

SELECTED FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, CERTIFICATES, AND GRANTS 

2024-2025. Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Faculty Research Fellowship, NUS (internal competitive).

2023-2024. Fung Global Fellowship, Princeton University (external competitive).

2022-2023. FASS-ARI Book Manuscript Workshop Fellowship, NUS (internal competitive).

2020-2024. Against Platform Determinism: Evidence from Digital Platforms in China and Singapore. National University of Singapore,     Start-up Grant. PI. 

2020- Decoding AI and Data Governance for Improving the Digital Health of Internet Platforms. National University of Singapore, Center   for Trusted Internet and Community. Collaborator. 

2019-2020. Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Taiwan (external   competitive)

2019. Christians Summer Research Fellowship, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

2019. Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-finance Students Abroad, Chinese Government (external competitive).

2019. Graduate Teacher Certificate, Center for Innovation Teaching & Learning, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

2018. Block Grant for Outstanding Graduate Student, Graduate School, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

2018,2017,2016. Summer Fellowship, Institute of Communication Research, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

2017,2016,2015. Graduate Student Travel Grant, Institute of Communication Research, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

2013. Summer School Certificate, Simon Fraser University. 

2012-2014. Full Scholarship of M.Phil. Student, Hong Kong Baptist University.

2008-2009. Jun Zheng Foundation Research Fellowship,Taiwan Jun Zheng Foundation. Peking University.

2023

"China’s Gig Economy: Forced Labor, Externalization, the Failures of Regulations,”an invited talk at the graduate seminar Political Economy of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Nov 30.

“Rendering Technical: Ride-hailing Platforms as a Project of Department,” presented at Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Conference (4S), Honolulu, Nov8-11.

“The Unkept Promises of Fixing: Ride-hailing and the Failures of Digital Innovation,” invited talk at the Institute of Communication Research, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Oct 27.

“Working with Algorithmic Management: Design Logic, Algorithmic Unfitness, and Labor Repair behind the Wall,” presented at Association for Internet Researchers Annual Conference (AoIR), Philadelphia, Oct 21.

“The Unkept Promises of Fixing: Ride-hailing and the Failures of Digital Innovation,”a talk delivered for the seminar series of the Global Fung Program, Princeton University, Oct 12.

“Digital Taylorism? Understanding the Design Logic behind Algorithmic Management in the Gig Economy,”presented at Pre-conference of American Sociological Association Annual Conference, organized by sessions of Organization, Occupations and Work (OOW-ASA), Philadelphia, Aug 17.

“Working with Algorithmic Management: Technical Fetishism, Failure, and Labor Relations behind the Wall,” presented at Asian Studies Association Annual Conference (AAS), Boston, Mar 15-19.

“Working with Machines: Human Values, Algorithmic Unfitness, and Labor Repair Behind the Wall,” A talk delivered at the CNM Brown Bag Seminar Series, National University of Singapore, Mar 17.

“Platform Capitalism as Cybersyn Capitalism,” position paper presented at Unplatform Conference, Los Angeles, Feb 6-9.

2022

“How Humans Think Behind Algorithmic Management—A Case Study of China's Food-Delivery Platform Meituan Waimai,”presented at the Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference (CSA).June 2-4.

“Producing Platform Power through Cultural Production: A Case Study of Didi Chuxing,”presented at the conference of Global Perspectives on Platforms and Cultural Production. June 1-3.

2021

“Beyond Algorithmic Control: Flexibility, localized Control, and Paradox in the Decentered Labor Process of the On-Demand Economy,” presented at the American Association of Geographers Annual Conference, Virtual, April 4-11.

  "Bring Political Economy back to Algorithmic Analysis,”an invited presentation at SG Research Nexus, NUS, May 12.

“Beyond Precarity: Forced Labor in China's Gig Economy and the Logics of Externalization,”an invited talk at East Asian Institute, NUS, April 21.

2020

“Towards Materialist Approaches to Communication Research, Urban Space, and Digital Platforms,” presented at the annual conference of Communicative Cities Research Network (CCRN), virtual, Oct 11-18.

2019

“Algorithmic Making in China's Didi Chuxing," an invited talk at the Department of Communication and New Media, NUS, Oct 9.

2018

“Media-Corporation Clientelism in China: A Case Study of Economic Corruption of CCTV-2,” presented at the Annual Conference of International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Eugene, Oregon, June 20-24.

2017

“Micro-Celebrity in the Age of Mobile Communication: Papi Jiang and her Performative Videos. Paper presented at the International Communication Association Annual Conference (ICA), San Diego, CA, May 25-29.