Joseph BoscoPhD

• Ph.D. with distinction, January 1989, Columbia University, Department of Anthropology.
• M.Phil. 1984, Columbia University, Department of Anthropology.
• M.A. 1982, Columbia University, Department of Anthropology. Member of the Joint Program in Applied Anthropology with Teachers College.
• B.S. with honors, 1980, University of Notre Dame. Major: Biology, and Concentration in Anthropology.
• 1994 summer, National Science Foundation Institute in Research Methods at Colorado College.
• 1982 summer, Council on International Educational Exchange program at Peking University for intensive Chinese language course.
• 1976 summer, Northwestern University Archaeology Field School, Kampsville IL.

• 2015 June-December, 2016 April-June, fieldwork in Taiwan on “Pesticides, Sustainable Agriculture and Risk.”
• 2010-2013 “Ethnic rumors in Hong Kong”
• 2004-2010 “Rugby in Hong Kong.”
• 2001-2005 “Selling Soap to China: Global Consumerism and the Sources of Desire.” Fieldwork in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanning
• 1999 June Fieldwork in Taiwan on Commensality and the Family
• 1995 June to September, principal investigator, “The Shanghai lilong Neighborhood and the Commercialization and Globalization of Chinese Culture.”
• 1994 September to August 1997, co-principal investigator (with Dr. Puay Peng Ho, Dept. of Architecture, Chinese University), “The Mazu/Tinhau Temple: Iconography, Architecture, and Social Organisation in the South China Cultural Sphere.” Multi-disciplinary project involving research with local scholars and workshops in Taiwan, Fujian, Guangdong, and a final conference in Hong Kong.
• 1992 December to January 1993, interviews in Xiamen, Hong Kong, and Taiwan on Taiwan businessmen doing business in Fujian.
• 1990 January 15 to February 18, follow-up research in Pingdong, Taiwan.
• 1989 November 25 to December 4, research trip to Taiwan to study and observe the island’s first multi-party elections.
• 1984-1986 dissertation fieldwork in Taiwan (26 months).
• 1981 fieldwork in Panama on efforts to prevent deforestation (3 months).

• Political Economy
• Economic Culture
• Peasant Societies
• Political Anthropology
• Environmental Anthropology
• Development and Applied Anthropology
• Religion and Religious Movements

Geographic Areas: Taiwan, China, Latin America, Mediterranean Europe.

• Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, Aug. 2016 to present.
• Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Aug. 2016 to present.
• Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, August 1995 to Aug. 2016, (Lecturer from August 1992 to August 1995). Head of Anthropology Graduate Division, 1992-1995, 1996-2001, and 2006-07, 2008-2016, administering Postgraduate Programmes (research-based M.Phil. and Ph.D., and Taught MA starting 1998). Director MA Programme, 2009 to 2016.
• Associate Director, Taiwan Area Studies Program, and Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, East Asian Institute, Columbia University, July 1989 to June 1992.
• Taught ANTH S4265Q “Taiwanese Society,” advanced undergraduate/graduate level course, Columbia University, summer 1990.
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, taught ANTH 350 “Peoples of the Mediterranean,” Upsala College, East Orange, NJ, summer 1987.
• Archaeological Field Technician for Soil Systems, Inc., Bloomington, IN, summer 1979. Excavated sites in Indiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi.

• 2014-2016 GRF Grant 14400114 “Pesticides and Pollution: Sustainable Agriculture and the Risks of Development in Taiwan.”
• 2013 Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (March 2014)
• 2001-03 grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR: “Selling Soap to China: Global Consumerism and the Sources of Desire.”
• 1998-99 Grant from the Pingtung County Cultural Centre for research to publish book on the Wanhui Gong Mazu temple.
• 1997-98 Direct Grant for Research (CUHK): “Analysis of shanshu (Holy Books) of the Yiguan Dao.”
• 1995-96 Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research International Collaborative Research Grant, for 11 months of fieldwork on “The Shanghai lilong Neighborhood and the Commercialization and Globalization of Chinese Culture.” (Declined)
• 1995 Special Grant for Teaching Staff to Conduct Research Outside Hong Kong during Summer Months for initial stages of research on Shanghai lilong project.
• 1995-97 Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Grant to support editing and production of Taiwan Studies: A Journal of Translation.
• 1994-96 Hong Kong RGC Earmarked Grant (co-principal investigator with Dr. Puay Peng Ho) “The Tianhou Temple: Iconography, Architecture, and Social Organisation in the South China Cultural Sphere.”
• 1994-96 Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Grant (co-principal investigator with Dr. Puay Peng Ho) “The Mazu Temple: Iconography, Architecture, and Social Organisation in the South China Cultural Sphere.”
• 1992-93 Chinese University Incentive Research Fund grant for trips to Xiamen and Taiwan and research assistants in Hong Kong for research on Taiwan businessmen in China.
• 1990 Columbia University Taiwan Area Studies Program Postdoctoral Research Grant (for 5 weeks of fieldwork, January-February).
• 1989 Columbia University East Asian Institute Taiwan Research Fund Grant (January-August).
• 1986 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship for research in Taiwan (January-August).
• 1985 American Council of Learned Societies Pre-doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (June-December).
• 1984-1985 Columbia University Traveling Fellowship (September 1984-May 1985).
• 1984 summer, National Resource Fellowship for Mandarin Chinese language study at Inter-University Language Program, Taipei, Taiwan.
• 1983-84, 1982-83, 1980-81, Columbia University President’s Fellow.
• 1982-83, National Resource Fellowship.
• 1981 summer, Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies Grant for summer research in Panama.
• 1980 Rev. Raymond W. Murray, C.S.C., Award in Anthropology as the outstanding graduate in Anthropology, University of Notre Dame.

Major publications.

• 2024 “Rugby Sevens, Globalization, and Cosmopolitan Nationalism: Hong Kong’s Surprising Role in Rugby’s Rise to Olympic Sport.” In Sport in Hong Kong: Culture, Identity, and Policy, Tobias Zuser and Lawrence Ho, eds., pp. 105-135. New York: Peter Lang.
• 2023 “On the use of Chinese characters and Romanization in English publications.” Asian Anthropology 22 (3): 220–225. doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2023.2232190
• 2017 “The View from Hong Kong Anthropology.” Asian Anthropology 16(1).
• 2016. “The Sacred in Urban Political Protests in Hong Kong.” International Sociology 31(4) 375-395. (Selected as one of six “Outstanding Papers in Hong Kong Studies for 2015/16” by the Academy of Hong Kong Studies, Hong Kong Education University, January 2017.)
• 2015. “Urban Processions: Colonial Decline and Revival as Heritage in Postcolonial Hong Kong.” In Peter van der Veer, ed., Handbook of Religion and the Asian City: Aspiration and Urbanization in the Twenty-first Century, pp. 110-130. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• 2015. “Chinese Popular Religion and Hong Kong Identity.” Asian Anthropology 14(1):8-20.
• 2014 “The Problem of Greed in Economic Anthropology: Sumptuary Laws and New Consumerism in China.” Economic Anthropology 1: 167–185. DOI:10.1111/sea2.12011
• 2013. “The Hong Kong Ocean Park Kidnapping Rumor.” Ethnology 50(2):135-151.
• 2012. “The Formula as a Managerial Tool: Audit Culture in Hong Kong.” Journal of Workplace Rights 16(3-4) 383-403.
• 2010 “The Problem with Relativism in the Comparative Study of Religion.” In Aspects of Transformation through Cultural Interaction (Bilingual publication in English and Japanese), edited by Shinohara, Inoue, Huang Yun, Konino, Sun Qing, pp. 3-49. Osaka, Japan: Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies, Kansai University.
• 2009 “Underground Lotteries in China: The Occult Economy and Capitalist Culture” (with Lucia Huwy-Min Liu and Matthew West). In Research in Economic Anthropology: Economic Development, Integration, and Morality in Asia and the Americas, No. 29, Donald C. Wood, ed. Emerald Publishing. (Winner of the Outstanding Author Contribution Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2010).
• 2009 “SEAA 人类学词汇维基词典的简介 (Introduction to the SEAA Online Dictionary of Keywords in Anthropology).” 西北民族研究 Northwest Journal of Ethnology No. 63, pp. 102-105.
• 2008 “台湾家庭企业的文化诠释.” In 人类学经典导读 (Understanding Anthropology), 莊孔韶主编 (Zhuang Kongshao, ed.). 北京: 中国人民大学出版社 (Beijing: Renmin University Press). Reprint of 1996 article, “On Cultural Explanations for the Development of Family Factories in Taiwan.”
• 2007 “Young People's Ghost Stories in Hong Kong.” The Journal of Popular Culture 40(5):785-807.
• 2004 “Asian Anthropologies: Foreign, Native and Indigenous” (with Shinji Yamashita and J.S. Eades). In Making Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia Shinji Yamashita, Joseph Bosco, and Jerry Eades, eds. Oxford: Berghahn Books, p. 1-34.
• 2004 “Local Theories and Sinicization in the Anthropology of Taiwan.” In Making Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia Shinji Yamashita, Joseph Bosco, and Jerry Eades, eds. Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 208-252.
• 2004 “Anthropological Fieldwork in the 1980s: The Final Years of Martial Law.” Issues & Studies 40(3-4): 428-439.
• 2004 “Hong Kong.” In Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, and Ian Skoggard, eds. NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 506-514.
• 2004 “Longer Contemplation.” In New Reflections on Anthropological Studies of (greater) China, ed. Xin Liu. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, pp. 71-77.
• 2003 “The Supernatural in Hong Kong Young People's Ghost Stories.” Anthropological Forum 13(2):141-149.
• 2003 “天后宮之重建與活力—台灣與香港比較研究 (The rebuilding and vitality of Tianhou Temples: A Taiwan and Hong Kong Comparison).” In 媽祖信仰的發展與變遷 (Mazu Belief and Modern Society). Lin Meirong, Chang Hsun and Tsai Hsiang-hui, eds. Taipei: Taiwan Association for Religious Studies and Beigang Chaotian Gong, pp. 95-116.
• 2001 “The McDonald’s Snoopy Craze in Hong Kong” in Gordon Mathews and Lui Tai-lok, eds. Consuming Hong Kong, pp. 263-285. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• 2001 “Hong Kong.” In Ember, Melvin and Carol R. Ember, eds. Countries and Their Cultures Volume 2, pp. 991-1000. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.
• 2001 The Tianhou Temple Ritual and Architecture (CD-ROM) (with Puay Peng Ho). Published by the Depts. of Architecture and Anthropology, Chinese University, and distributed by The Chinese University Press.
• 1999 “An Anthropological View of the Hong Kong McDonald’s Snoopy Craze.” Hong Kong Anthropologist, No. 12: 23-30.
• 1999 屏東縣萬丹鄉萬惠宮 (The Wanhui Temple of Wandan Township, Pingdong County [Taiwan]). Pingdong: Pingdong Cultural Center. (Bilingual)
• 1999 Temples of the Empress of Heaven (with Puay Peng Ho). Images of Asia Series. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
• 1998 “Anthropology among the natives: the indigenization of Chinese anthropology.” In Sidney C.H. Cheung, ed. On the South China Track: Perspectives on Anthropological Research and Teaching. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, pp. 23-44.
• 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Co-Editor (with Grant Evans) Hong Kong Anthropologist (no. 10, 11, 12, 13).
• 1996 “Pagers and Culture in Hong Kong.” The Hong Kong Anthropologist No. 9, pp. 16-23.
• 1996 “Taiwan jiating qiye de wenhua quanshi [On Cultural Explanations for the Development of Family Factories in Taiwan].” (In Chinese) Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan (Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly) vol. 14 (April).
• 1995 Editor, Taiwan Studies: A Journal of Translation, issue on “Land Issues in Taiwan History” edited by Joseph Bosco and Chiu-kun Chen (vol. 1 no. 1), published by M.E. Sharpe, Armonk NY.
• 1995 co-editor (with Mau-kuei Michael Chang) of vol. 1 no. 2 of Taiwan Studies: A Journal of Translation, issue on “Ethnic Relations and National Identities.”
• 1995 “Better the Head of a Chicken than the Tail of an Ox: On Cultural Explanations for the Development of Family Factories in Taiwan.” Taiwan Studies Workshop, Fairbank Center Working Paper No. 12, Harvard University.
• 1994 “Taiwan Businessmen Across the Straits: Socio-Cultural Dimensions of the Cross-straits Relationship.” Working Paper No. 1, Department of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
• 1994 “Faction versus Ideology: Mobilization Strategies in Taiwan’s Elections.” China Quarterly 137: 28-62.
• 1994 “Yiguan Dao: ‘Heterodoxy’ and Popular Religion in Taiwan.” In Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., The Other Taiwan, 1945 to the Present. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 423-444.
• 1992 “The Emergence of a Taiwanese Popular Culture.” In American Journal of Chinese Studies 1(1):51-64. Reprinted in Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., 1994, The Other Taiwan, 1945 to the Present. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 392-403.
• 1992 “The Effects of Land Reform on the Political Economy of Wandan Township.” Land Issues in Taiwan History. Chiu K. Chen and Hsueh-chi Hsu, eds. Taiwan History Field Research Office, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
• 1992 “Research Note: The Role of Culture in Taiwanese Family Enterprises.” Chinese Business History 3(1):1-4.
• 1992 “Taiwan Factions: Guanxi, Patronage, and the State in Local Politics.” Ethnology 31(2):157-183. Reprinted in Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., 1994, The Other Taiwan, 1945 to the Present. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 114-144.
• 1992 Approaches to Teaching About Taiwan (background booklet for social science teachers). Published by the East Asian Curriculum Project, Columbia University. Also wrote sections on “Family,” “Social Relations,” and “Taiwan” for China: A Teaching Workbook.

Book reviews and other publications.

• Blog: anthrofragments.blogspot.hk
• 李明洁 及 Joseph Bosco. <網絡傳言是更新換代的語言民俗>. 《社會科學報》 第1419期, 第六頁. 上海: 上海社會科學院, 2014.07.17.
• Review of Hugh Baker, Ancestral Images: A Hong Kong Collection. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011. Journal of Chinese Religions, 40 (2012):93-94.
• Review of Eric Kit-wai MA, Desiring Hong Kong, Consuming South China: Transborder Cultural Politics, 1970-2010. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. Chinese Journal of Communication 5(4):481-483, 2012.
• Organizer and webmaster of the SEAA Online Dictionary of Keywords in Anthropology (wiki English-Chinese-English dictionary) accessible at http://seaaterm.wjh.harvard.edu/wiki/doku.php/ (65,000 views between June 2 and Oct. 2, 2011).
• Review of Maria Heimer and Stig Thørgerson, eds., Doing Fieldwork in China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006. Asian Anthropologist 6: 183-186.
• Review of Wong, Bernard P. The Chinese in Silicon Valley: Globalization, Social Networks, and Ethnic Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Journal of Chinese Overseas 3(1): 165-167.
• Review of CHANG Hsun Wenhua Mazu: Taiwan Mazu xinyang yanjiu lunwenji文化媽祖：臺灣媽祖信仰研究論文集 (Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 2003) and LIN Meirong Mazu xinyang yu hanren shehui 媽祖信仰與漢人社會 (Harbin: Heilongjiang renmin chubanshe, 2003). Journal of Chinese Religions 33 (2005): 135-143.
• Review of Feuchtwang, Stephan Popular Religion in China: The Imperial Metaphor. Surrey: Curzon, 2001. China Perspectives No. 38 (2001) (also in French in Perspectives chinoises no. 67(2001): 90-92).
• Review of Robert Weller, Alternate Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999. Journal of Asian Studies 59(3):720-721 (Aug. 2000).
• Review of James L. Watson, ed. Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. The China Journal No. 42 (July 1999): 125-128.
• “Fieldwork and Learning in Anthropology” in Quality in Teaching & Learning: A Celebration of Best Practices in Hong Kong Higher Education, published by the Teaching Development Unit, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dec. 1998, pp. 11-13, in conjunction with “Conference on Quality in Teaching and Learning.”
• Review of Hung-mao Tien, ed. Taiwan’s Electoral Politics and Democratic Transition: Riding the Third Wave. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. Journal of Asian Studies 57(3)839-41 (Aug. 1998).
• Review of Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini, eds. Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism. New York: Routledge, 1997. Journal of Asian Studies 57(3):832-3 (Aug. 1998).
• Review of Meir Shahar and Robert P. Weller, eds., Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1996. Journal of Asian Studies vol 56(4):1078-9 (1997).
• Review of Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong, Taiwanese Culture, Taiwanese Society: A Critical Review of Social Science Research Done on Taiwan. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994. China Quarterly, no. 143 (1995).
• Review of Irene Bain, Agricultural Reform in Taiwan: From Here to Modernity. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. The China Journal No. 35 (January 1996).
• Review of Fei Hsiao-tung, Rural Development in China: Prospect and Retrospect. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1989. American Asian Review, Winter 1991, Vol. 9(4).
• Review of Perry Link, Richard Madsen, and Paul G. Pickowicz, eds. Unofficial China: Popular Culture and Thought in the People’s Republic. Westview Press, 1989. American Asian Review, Winter 1991, Vol. 9(4).
• Review of Huang Shu-min, The Spiral Road: Change in a Chinese Village Through the Eyes of a Communist Party Leader. Westview Press, 1989. American Asian Review, Winter 1991, Vol. 9(4).
• Contributor, Constitutional Reform and the Future of the Republic of China, Harvey J. Feldman, ed. M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1991.
• Review of Janice E. Stockard, Daughters of the Canton Delta: Marriage Patterns and Economic Strategies in South China, 1860-1930, Stanford University Press, 1989. American Asian Review Summer 1990, Vol. 8(2):93-96.
• Review of Richard Curt Kraus, Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music, Oxford University Press, 1989. American Asian Review Summer 1990, Vol. 8(2):97-100.

Papers and presentations since 2005.

• “‘Traditional’ pesticide-based farming and its alternatives in Taiwan: Scientific arguments and moral and political-economic factors.” Paper presented at panel on “Food Futures and Agroecologies in Damaged Environments: Entangled Species, Sustainable Livelihoods, Contested Knowledge,” at the EASA (European Association for Social Anthropology) meetings in Milan, 20-23 July 2016.
• “Pesticide Use and Misuse in Southern Taiwan.” Paper presented at the Society for East Asian Anthropology meeting, Hong Kong, 19-22 June 2016.
• “What is the anthropological contribution to the study of pesticide safety?” Paper presented on panel on “Public anthropology in the pan-Chinese cultural context.” ICAES meetings, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 4-9 May 2016.
• “Agricultural Development and Ideas of Wealth among Taiwan’s Organic Farmers.” Presented at the 发展·财富·流动 (Development, Wealth, Motion) Workshop, East China Normal University, 16-17 April 2016.
• “Pesticide vs Organic Farming: NGOs’ Roles in Imagining Alternatives.” Paper presented at 114th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Denver, CO, on Panel “Moral Controversies and NGOs in Taiwan and China,” 21 November 2015.
• “農藥的使用與濫用，以台灣南部為例 (Pesticide Use and Misuse in Southern Taiwan)” Invited lecture, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, on 2 November 2015.
• “The Sacred in Urban Political Protests in Hong Kong.” Paper presented at conference on “The Sacred and the Urban: Confluences and Conflicts of Aspirations,” held at the National University of Singapore, 15 December 2014.
• “Teaching Values and Culture through Children’s Mini Rugby: Contrasting Visions Among Chinese and Expat Parents in Hong Kong.” Paper presented at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, on the panel Between Politics and Socialization: Children, Youth, Parents and Education, Washington DC, December 6, 2014.
• 体育与全球化 (Sports and Globalization). Presentation at the Southwest University of Nationalities, 7 Nov. 2014.
• 发展、消费主义与现代化 (Development, Consumerism and Modernization). Presentation at the Southwest University of Nationalities 10 Nov. 2014.
• “Chinese Economic Culture.” Guest Lecture for MBA Programme at the CUHK Business school, 24 October 2014 and, 17 May 2013.
• “Religious Processions in Urban Hong Kong.” Paper presented in the Ethnic and Cultural Diversity, organized by Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany, and The Center for the Study of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China, 9 July 2014.
• “The Bubble of Progress: Communicating a Critique of Consumerism Using the Example of Shampoo in China.” Paper presented at the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, IL, 23 November 2013.
• "Child Kidnapping Fears In Hong Kong: Ethnic and Political Border Maintenance Through Rumors." Paper Presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, 14 November 2012.
• “Child Kidnap Rumors in Hong Kong.” Paper presented at the Dept. of Anthropology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 31 May 2012.
• “Child Kidnap Rumors in Hong Kong.” Paper presented at the Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsin Chu, Taiwan, 9 April 2012.
• “Globalization and Sport: What the Growth of Rugby Tells Us about Globalization.” Presentation at FISIP UI – CUHK Workshop, University of Indonesia, 6 Dec. 2011.
• “The Problem of Greed in Economic Anthropology: Sumptuary Laws and New Consumerism in China.” Paper presented at the Society for Economic Anthropology annual conference, University of Notre Dame, IN, USA, 11-12 March 2011.
• “Child Kidnapping: An Analysis of Rumours Among Expatriates in Hong Kong.” Paper presented to the Hong Kong Anthropological Society at the Hong Kong Museum of History, Thursday, 09 December 2010.
• “七人欖球與全球化：香港對於欖球成為奧林匹克項目的作用 (Rugby Sevens and Globalization: Hong Kong's Surprising Role in the Rise of Rugby's Rise to Olympic Sport).” Paper presented at the International Conference on Asian-Pacific Societies in Changing Times: Anthropological and Archaeological Perspectives, National Taiwan University, 3-4 December 2010.
• “全球化与运动：为什么世界超级七人榄球赛在香港发展起来？ (Globalization and Sport: Why the World’s Premier Rugby Sevens Tournament Developed in Hong Kong).” Presentation at Dept. of Anthropology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, 19 Nov. 2010.
• Discussant for “Playing Games in East Asia: Gaming and Gambling” organized by Dixon Wong and William H. Kelly, for papers by Daisuke Murakami, Hans Steinmuller, Duan Lanfang, Paul Festa, Dixon Wong, and Kim Se Gun, University of Hong Kong, 28-29 August, 2010.
• “Identity ‘Papers’ and Ethnic Identities in Hong Kong.” Paper presented at Conference on Ethnicity in the City, Center for Ethnic Studies, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 18 May 2010.
• “The Problem with Relativism in the Comparative Study of Religion.” Keynote speech, 2nd International Academic Forum for the Next Generation, Kansai University, 12-13 December 2009
• “The Hong Kong Rugby Sevens: A Sporting Event as Carnival.” Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, 5 Dec., 2009
• “The Hong Kong Rugby Sevens: The Carnival of Globalization.” Paper Presented at the CASCA-AES (Canadian Anthropology Society-Société Canadienne d’Anthropologie / American Ethnological Society) Joint Meeting, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 14 May 2009.
• “Introduction to the SEAA Online Dictionary of Keywords in Anthropology.” Workshop on Anthropological Concepts and Translation, Jointly sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, Zhongshan University, and the Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, in Guangzhou, 21 February 2009.
• “The Hong Kong Rugby Sevens and Globalization.” Paper presented in the International Conference on Globalization: Cultures, Institutions and Socioeconomies, organized by Washington University in St. Louis and CUHK, 13 Dec. 2008.
• “人類學, 魔法與超自然 (Anthropology, Magic, and the Supernatural).” Talk at Central University for Nationalities, 5 Dec. 2008.
• Discussant for “Transformation Politics: Religion Encounters Modernity/Postmodernity in China and Taiwan.” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 20 Nov., 2008
• “重論神聖與世俗─一個媽祖崇祀的案例 (Sacred and Secular Revisited: The Case of the Mazu Cult).” Paper presented at the International Conference on Matsu Cult and Matsu Islands, Matsu, Taiwan, 17 Oct. 2007.
• Roundtable Discussion Panelist (with Kageaki KAJIWARA and George KUNIHIRO) on “Cultural Heritage and the Public Sphere in Asia.” Seminar on “Cultural Diversity in Globalizing Asia” co-sponsored by the Centre for Cultural Heritage Studies, CUHK, and the Asia-Japan Research Center, Kokushikan University, Japan.
• “Informal Lotteries in China: The Occult Economy and Capitalist Culture” (with LIU Huwy-min, and Mathew WEST). Presented at the International Symposium on Cultural Diversity and the Contemporary World” in Guangzhou, China, on 24 November 2006.
• “Underground Lotteries in China: The Occult Economy and Capitalist Culture” (with LIU Huwy-min, and Mathew WEST). Presented 18 December 2006 at the American Anthropological Association Meetings in San Jose, CA.
• “Soap and Shampoo as a Lens on Contemporary Chinese Consumption.” Presented 21 July at the “2006 Summer Camp of Anthropology: Material Culture” in Huaxi, Guizhou, organized by the School of Ethnological Studies of Southwestern Minzu University, the Center for Theoretical and Methodological Inquiries in Anthropology of Central Minzu University, and Beijing University.
• “Fake Shampoo in China: Consumer Desire and Fear.” Presented on panel “Reconstituting the Body through Consumption of Self and Other” at the Society for East Asian Anthropology meetings, 13 July 2006, Hong Kong.
• “Teaching 'Chinese Culture and Society' in Hong Kong.” Presented on panel “Problems in Teaching East Asia” at the Society for East Asian Anthropology meetings, 14 July 2006, Hong Kong.
• “The Poverty of Nationalism and the Anthropology of Taiwan.” Presented at the session “State Making and Anthropological Complicity? The Case of Taiwan” at the American Anthropological Association Meetings, 3 December 2005, in Washington DC.

• Magic, Myth and the Supernatural
• Economy, Culture and Power
• Sports and Culture
• Graduate Seminar in Research Methods
• Political Anthropology
• Economic Anthropology
• Culture & Business
• Anthropology of Development
• Chinese Culture and Society
• Anthropological Research Methods
• Urban Anthropology, Religion & Culture
• Graduate Seminar on Ethnography
• Graduate Seminar in Anthropological Theory (organized and taught sections)

Theses supervised.

• NICHINI, Elena (PhD expected 2018) Toxic textiles: Dealing with contamination in a Chinese rural village.
• YUSUPOV, Ruslan (PhD expected 2017) Pious Citizenship: Islam, Nationalism and the Chinese Modernity in a Muslim Town.
• DENG Ting, Grazia (PhD expected 2017) Occupying Coffee Bars: Spatial Politics of Chinese Entrepreneurship in Bologna, Italy.
• SCHMITT, Edwin (PhD 2016) The Atmosphere of an Ecological Civilization: A Study of Ideology, Perception and Action in Chengdu.
• DEMGENSKI, Philipp (PhD 2015) Seeking a Future for the Past: Negotiating Inner City Redevelopment and Heritage in Qingdao, China.
• ZHANG Jieying 張劼穎 (PhD 2015) 垃圾之戰：廣州的綠色治理，反焚運動與技術爭議 (Garbage Wars: Guangzhou’s Green Governance, Anti-Incineration Movements and Technical Controversies)
• XUE Cheng (MPhil 2013) Deceptive Development: Practices and Discourses of Microfinance in Rural China.
• DENG Yuanye (MPhil 2013) Eurasians in Hong Kong: Race, Ethnicity, and Beauty.
• LIANG Yaqian (MPhil 2013) Making Gold: Commodification and consumption of the Medical Fungus chongcao in China.
• TAN Xilin (MPhil 2011) China’s Ghost City: Popular Religion, Tourism and Local Development in Fengdu.
• CHAN Hui Ting, Cassandra (MPhil 2011) The Magic of Modernity: Fengshui in Hong Kong.
• ZHU Yujing 朱宇晶 (PhD 2011) 國家統治、地方政治與溫州的基督教 (State Rule, Local Politics and Christianity in Wenzhou).
• LUO Pan 罗攀 (PhD 2011) 迷失的发展: 泉州的现代化、城市规划与文化遗产保护 (Lost in Development: Modernization, Urban Planning and Heritage Preservation in Quanzhou)
• NG Shuk Kwan (MPhil 2009) Magic and Modernity: A Study of Shamanism in Hong Kong.
• PONG, Teresa (MPhil 2007) Modernizing Hong Kong Buddhism: The Case of the Chi Lin Nunnery.
• POON Man Hon 潘文瀚 (MPhil 2006) 發展與女工充權:一個香港非政府組織在深圳成立女工合作社的研究 (Development and Women Workers’ Power: The Experience of a Woman Workers’ Cooperative Established by a Hong Kong NGO in Shenzhen).
• HOU Jingrong (PhD 2006) The French in Shanghai: A Study of Cosmopolitan Culture under the Predominance of Anglo-American Globalization.
• WEST, Matthew Ellis (MPhil 2005) Cultural Conceptions of Intellectual Property: The Pirated Disc Market in Xi’an, China.
• LIU Huwy-min (MPhil 2005) Betel Nut Consumption in Contemporary Taiwan: Gender, Class and Social Identity.
• TIAN Hongliang 田宏亮 (PhD 2004) 控制與協同: 一家高科技企業組織文化的民族志報告 (Control and Commitment: An Ethnographic Study on Organizational Culture in a High-Tech Corporation).
• SIU Yuen-man (MPhil 2004) Qigong in Hong Kong: A Study of Complementary Medicine and Health Consciousness.
• ZHU Jiangang (PhD 2002) 國與家之間: 上海鄰里的市民團體與社區運動的民族志 (Between the Family and the State: An Ethnography of the Civil Associations and Community Movements in a Shanghai lilong Neighborhood).
• CHOW Man Wai (MPhil 2001) Dead End Work? Youth in Menial Wage Fast Food Jobs in Hong Kong.
• MA Fung Shan, Rebecca (MPhil 2001) Eating Western Food in China: A Study of Consumption and Globalization in a Guangzhou Restaurant.
• YEUNG, Linda (MPhil 2000) Consuming Designer Fashion in Hong Kong.
• CHEUNG Hiu Wan (MPhil 1999) Beijing Cartoon: A Contested Site of Cultural Production.
• LAM Hiu Yin 林曉燕 (or Lin Xiaoyan) (MPhil 1998) 關係"文化: 香港商人在珠江三角洲的投資經驗 (Guanxi Culture: The Experiences of Hong Kong Businessmen in the Pearl River Delta).
• BRITO, Ana Teixeira de Sousa (MPhil 1995) Religion, Politics and the Construction of Ethnic Identity in Macao.

At The Chinese University of Hong Kong, since 2010.

• Appointed Member, Arts Faculty Sub-committee on Survey and Behavioural Research Ethics 1 Aug. 2014 to 31 July 2016.
• Appointed Member, Committee on Overseas Experience, New Asia College, 2011 to 2016.
• Member, Executive Committee, Universities Service Centre for China Studies, 2014 to 2016.
• Member, Board of Studies, School of Architecture, 2002 to 2016.
• Member, Board of Studies, Dept. of Psychology, 2009-2012.

• Member, Editorial Board, American Anthropologist, July 2012 to June 2016.
• Member, Editorial Board, Asian Anthropology, 2002 to present.
• Member, Series Editorial Board, “Asian Anthropologies” Series, Berghahn Books, Oct. 2005 to present.
• Member, Board of Directors, AFS Intercultural Exchanges Hong Kong, Oct. 2006 to 2016; co-chair 2015-16.
• Member, Board of Directors, Rehabaid Society (HK) Jan. 2007 to 2016.
• Member, Editorial Board, Revista Nuevas Tendencias en Antropología, Aug. 2012 to present.
• Member, Editorial Board, The Bulletin of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology (National Taiwan University) 考古人類學刊 (國立臺灣大學） Oct. 2009 to Sept. 2013.
• Member, Editorial Board, Issues & Studies, 2004 to Sept. 2012.
• Head of Youth, Flying Kukris Rugby Football Club, 2004-2007.
• Treasurer, Society for East Asian Anthropology (Section of AAA), 2003-2005.

• Italian: fluent
• French and Spanish: speaking and reading excellent
• Mandarin Chinese: speaking excellent, reading very good
• German: good
• Cantonese and Taiwanese Hokkien: basic

• United States
• Italy (European Union)
• Hong Kong Permanent Resident