He received a PhD in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BArch and an MArch from Tongji University in Shanghai, China. His research focuses on modern architectural avant-garde movements, theories of urban design, and contemporary urbanism in East Asia. He is the author of Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan (Routledge, 2010), for which he received a Graham Foundation grant, and Urban Design in the Global Perspective (China Architectural & Building Press, 2006). He also published a number of articles in leading periodicals of architecture and planning. His research and publications have been funded by Japan Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences, the Asian Cultural Council, and the Association of Asian Studies, among other institutes.