I am a third-year doctoral student in modern Chinese history at Columbia University.
I am interested in the industrialization of Chinese textile production in the early twentieth century
with emphasis on the technological challenges and innovations on the shop floor.
In my dissertation, I plan to examine how various skilled workers drove Chinese industrialization
with multiple layers of knowledge obtained through hands-on experience of imported machinery,
formal engineering education, and the long tradition of indigenous technology in spinning, weaving, and metalwork.
The Making and Knowing Project allowed me insight into the nature of “traditional” artisanal work,
which, I would argue, continued to exist in the “modern” factory system.