I have been active in bringing together scholars broadly working on Chinese Business History, meaning the historical development of business and entrepreneurship in China. Together with my colleague and fellow business historian Prof. John D. Wong, I established and now co-convene the Chinese Business History research cluster at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. This cluster seeks to further research on the business history of modern China and bring together scholars from around the globe working on issues related to the historical development of Chinese business.

As part of this initiative, we have started to assemble resources of historians of Chinese business. So far, the first step in this regard has been the digitisation of the Chinese Business History Newsletter, the newsletter of the Chinese Business History Research Group published between 1990 and 2005. It contains research notes and articles, book reviews and other writings by leading business historians of China. The digitised newsletter can be found here. Furthermore, we edit the book series Asian Business Histories for Hong Kong University Press. It aims to publish new research on the business history of modern Asia. I am also the co-editor of a new book series by Cambridge University Press, the Elements in Business History.

Moreover, we also organise a regular Chinese Business History Webinar that provides an opportunity for scholars working on the history of Chinese business to present their work. You can sign up to the Institute’s newsletter here to receive updates about upcoming talks. Our line-up for the spring semester 2025 is as follows:

We have also started to upload selected recordings of our webinars on the YouTube channel of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.