He obtained his B.A. (2001) in Journalism at Hunan University after which he moved to Shanghai to undertake history studies. He was awarded an M.A. (2006) and Ph.D. (2009) from the History Department of East China Normal University. During his Ph.D. study, he spent one year conducting research at the University of British Columbia.Now he is a visiting scholar of Harvard-Yenching Institute from 2017-2018.