I am a socio-cultural researcher contributing to the fields of Health, Sport, and Education through the following three areas:

1. Chinese Diasporas in Health, Sport, and Physical Cultures/Education

The first area is to build and connect the findings of Chinese diasporas particularly in the areas of social inclusion, citizenship and migration, and ethnic relations to Health, Sport, and Physical Cultures especially in the fields of mental wellbeing, and physical activity engagement. This focus meets the need of a lack of sociological imagination of Chinese diaspora communities in health, sport and physical cultures in Anglophone countries. I have made original and sustained contributions to my internationally-situated research program, “Rethinking Health Experiences and Active Lifestyles: Chinese Communities” REHEAL-C. Together with international collaborators, I have advanced empirical and theoretical knowledge which aims to enhancing an understanding of Chinese people’s experiences in health, sport and physical cultures and the nation’s capacity to promote active, healthy and inclusive citizens in an increasingly ethnic and culturally diverse environment.

2. Diversity and Inclusion in Health and Bodily Education

The second area is about the teaching and learning process in diversity and inclusion, aiming to contribute to the knowledge base of critical pedagogy in health and bodily education. My work focuses on problematising knowledge construction and critically engaging in the pitfalls of Enlightenment thinking and the neglect of subjectivity in teaching and learning. I explore ways of cultivating greater responsiveness among teachers and students in higher education settings through reflective practices based on e.g. strengths-based approaches, a heuristic of differences model, trans-local learning, and post-monolingual education.

3. Using Creative Research Methods in Health, Sport, and Education

The third area focuses on the relationship between creative research methods/artworks, and health, sport, and education (with vulnerable and resilient people). This work is grounded in embodied knowing through increasing insights into the trajectories and complexities of ‘truth’ and life, personal and social knowledge, and evoking memories and generating meanings conducive to ethical relational engagement. Creative research methods include: arts-based research, research using digital technology, and transformative research frameworks such as decolonising methodologies, participatory research, autoethnography. This work aims to reach the broader communities in promoting thinking and dialogues that raise consciousness about emotions and subjectivities, diversity and inclusion, and the need for change in health and physical cultures.

I am a recipient of the prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellowship (2019–2020), AIESEP Young Scholar Award (2011) and the Higher Education Academy Fellow (FHEA).

Externally, I am an editorial board member of Sport, Education and Society, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society in Western Sydney University.

I am a named investigator on research funding (> £400,000) from the European Union Horizon 2020 Scheme, Australian Research Grant Council, philanthropic donations, and Western Sydney University Research Funding Schemes.