Historian specializing in the history of Republican China and commentator and analyst on contemporary Chinese politics. Focuses on contemporary Chinese nationalism, the geopolitics of East Asia, Republican-era Chinese history, the Sino-Japanese War, 1931-1945, and its legacy, and the Cold War social and cultural history.

Director of the Oxford University China Centre (Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China)

Elected Fellow of the British Academy (2015).

MA PhD Cambridge (Chinese history)

Presenter, BBC Radio 3 "Free Thinking" arts and ideas programme and regular broadcaster