Professor at the School of Social and behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University. He received his undergraduate degree from the Department of History, Xiamen University, majoring in archaeology, and his doctorate (Ph.D.) from the University of Washington (Seattle). He taught at the Department of Anthropology of Xiamen University before studying in the United States. He is now a professor, Ph.D. supervisor, and director of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the School of Sociology, Nanjing University. He is also a professor at the Nanjing University-Johns Hopkins University Center for Chinese and American Studies. His research focuses on the areas of identity politics, Muslims in South China, globalization and transnationalism. Academic Interests and Expertise Ethnicity and Nationalism, Political Anthropology, Identity Politics, Historical Anthropology, East Asian Muslims, Rituals and Beliefs, South China's Countryside, Transnationalism and Globalization, Material and Immaterial Culture. Language Proficiency Chinese, English, Japanese, and Fujian dialects such as Minnan.