Selected works and research practice
My work on archival sources, business and financial history, ethnic Chinese networks, capitalism, transnationalism, and the past and present of Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Recent publications
Book Review of David Chew’s Coins in Singapore as
Economic History, 1819-1938.
… “As a historian, I am interested in methodologies and approaches. Professor Chew’s book takes an “uncustomary perspective” (p. 8) in understanding economic history and change through coins. This approach is targeted not only at academic scholars, but more importantly, the man on the street and coin collectors. As far as I am aware, there are very few attempts undertaking this approach as most studies on Singapore and Southeast Asian economic history are done through the perspectives of the state or big businesses, and they are rarely accessible, in terms of writing, to non-academics. Thus, I find Professor Chew’s approach to be bold, fresh, and inspiring.”
Banking Failure and Regulatory Reform on the Periphery: The Kwong Yik Bank in the British Straits Settlements
Business History, 2025 – Open Access
Study showing that stricter banking regulations emerged not through a purely top-down approach but through negotiations between the colonial state and corporate and banking interests, shaped by racial and cultural dynamics that reveal the complex links between banking failure and regulatory reform in a colonial, multicultural context.
The Historian’s Second Home? Navigating Archives and Interim Archives in Global Perspective
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 2025 – Open Access
In this Comment, I reflect on my personal experience in doing research at institutional archives as an early career historian. I discuss how my research has been shaped by encounters with physical and digital sources across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong SAR and the United Kingdom.
Emerging Business Transnationalism in Singapore and China: Governance, Networks, and Strategies
While ethnicity and culture remain as a significant factor in shaping transnational Chinese business, Chinese companies in Southeast Asia have adopted new corporate governing models and strategies in their engagement with China markets at the time of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Industrialization and Chinese Big Business in Colonial Singapore, Malaya, and China
A study of the transnational industrial ventures of Lim Peng Siang and their wider effects. This study seeks to foreground the dynamics of industrialisation and modernisation in the historiography of Chinese business in colonial Singapore, Malaya, and Southeast Asia.
Writings
I maintain a research blog where I share my ongoing work on Chinese business and banking history, with particular attention to ethnic Chinese enterprises in Southeast Asia. The blog includes short essays on firms, entrepreneurs, and financial institutions, as well as reflections on archives, sources, and the process of writing business history beyond Western contexts. It serves as a space to present research in progress, highlight new publications, and think openly about evidence and interpretation. You can follow the blog and subscribe here to receive new posts.
Get in touch
Academic inquiries
Collaboration, conferences, research partnerships.
[email protected]
Profiles
Research practice
Archival methods, Chinese sources, Southeast Asian studies. Please contact for any informal consultation.