She is the author of Public Passions: the Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican China (UC Press 2007), which was awarded the 2007 John K. Fairbank Award from the American Historical Association. She is interested in a broad range of topics in modern Chinese history with a particular focus on the history of science, consumer culture, emotions and gender, and law and media. Her current project, “Manufacturing Modernity in Early Twentieth Century China: Chen Diexian, a Man-of-Letters in an Age of Industrial Capitalism,” examines the cultural, social, and intellectual dimensions of industrialization by focusing on the commercial practices and writings of polymath Chen Diexian, a professional writer/editor, science enthusiast, and pharmaceutical industrialist.