Reading and writing filled up most of my life, and during my undergraduate studies, Anthropology provided me with new lenses of perception. Worlds collided when I was offered an opportunity to work in independent bookstores – I discovered there was so much more going on beyond reading and buying books. What is so special about books as commodities? What is being exchanged in these compact spaces? How do knowledge, ideologies, and moral meaning circulate in these processes?

My current project examines the independent bookselling and publishing industry in Hong Kong, aiming to look beyond existing discussions of independently owned book businesses and demonstrate how different people involved in the industry, from publishers to customers, engage and make meanings within capitalist society.

I am also thrilled to study the Traditional Chinese and Cantonese literary sphere, which might be peripheral from a global perspective on bookselling, yet constitutes a significant part in this very city where I was born and raised.

My research interests lie in economic anthropology, consumption, commodities, gifts, capitalism and knowledge production. With a background of studying literature and translation, I also take great interest in ethnography.