He also serves as the director of the Asian Studies program at Baylor University. He was born in Xi’an, an ancient capital of China and completed his master’s and doctorate in education at Baylor. In addition to his recent book Higher Education as a Field of Study in China: Defining Knowledge and Curriculum Structure, his publications have been mainly focused on the civic culture of the emerging middle class in China and China’s higher education reform. His recent research projects include China's newly emerged urban art communities. Besides teaching and research at Baylor, he directs and leads the Baylor in China study abroad program every summer.