His research examines the intersection of law, science, and medicine in modern China. His recent book Death in Beijing: Murder and Forensic Science in Republican China (Cambridge University Press, 2016) examines the history of homicide investigation and forensic science in early 20th-century Beijing. His current research on the history of fingerprinting is part of a project, “Fingerprinting in Twentieth Century China from Racial, Political and Scientific Perspectives,” funded by the National Science Foundation.