Liang Xu is Assistant Professor in the School of International Studies at Peking University (beginning November 2017). He has a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University, with a focus on modern African history, as well as a doctorate in International Relations from Peking University. His previous dissertation examined the Japan-South African relations in the post-apartheid era. His history dissertation, “On the Edge of Capitalism: African Local States, Chinese Family Firms, and the Transformation of Industrial Labor,” explores the history of labor-intensive industrialization in South Africa’s former decentralized areas, with a particular focus on Chinese garment factories and Zulu women workers. His research has been funded by Harvard University grants, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Government of Ghana, the Japan Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and the South African Millennium Trust.