I study many forms of connection—news, rumor, print, manuscript, radio—and the ways in which these shape society. In addition to my book with Stanford University Press, these studies have been in Technology & Culture. I also advise graduate students in book and transportation history.

In the nineteenth century, Western scientific modes began to spread beyond coastal elites and among the official classes. These mathematical, astronomical, and cartographical methods became geopolitically important in the Second Age of Exploration, in which China was not just a passive object of study, but an active participant.

The ideas of “scientific spirit” and philosophical positivism remain central social and political organizing principles in contemporary China. They are even written into law. Where do such ideas come from, and how did they come to dominate so thoroughly? Why does this Chinese characteristic appear to diverge from the epistemes of the contemporary West?