Lee later wrote his PhD dissertation on how Japanese consumed, inherited, and transformed Western objects, incorporating them into their own cultural tradition to create a "Japanified Western culture" that then became an influential model for its former colony, Taiwan.
後來他的博士論文題目，就是研究日本如何消化、承繼及扭曲西方事物，並融入自己的傳統，混血出一整套「日式的洋文化」，而這一套文化，又是如何變身成另一種典範，影響台灣這個曾經被它殖民的海島。