Her research interest is in the twentieth-century Chinese entertainment culture and literature, in particular the relationship between entertainment and the transformation of society as a whole. She has published widely on the subject, and her most recent book publication is Shanghai Love: Courtesans, Intellectuals and Entertainment Culture, 1850-1910 (2006). A monograph entitled A Literary Fashion Goes Global: The Political Novel in Late Qing China is forthcoming. She is currently in the finishing stages of a project with the working title: “From Male ‘Flower’ to National Star: Media, International Politics, and the Transformation of Patronage Culture in the Rise of the Peking Opera Female Impersonator.”