Wu Xiao An, Ph.D at the University of Amsterdam (1999), is currently a Huaqiao University chair professor and a founding dean of the Research Institute of Global Chinese and Area Studies (RIGCAS). Previously, he was an assistant lecturer (1991) and lecturer (1993) at Xiamen University. Before 2022, he had worked at Peking University for twenty years as an associate professor (2002), full professor (2009), and concurrently Director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Overseas (2009-2022). Wu has spent more than six years in Southeast Asia and has held various fellowships at University of Amsterdam, Yale University, National University of Singapore, Kyoto University, University of Malaya, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, ISEAS-YUSOF ISHAK Institute in Singapore, Massey University in New Zealand, the Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden, National Sun Yatsen University in Taiwan and University of Macau. His research interests include Chinese Overseas and Southeast Asian Studies. Among his publications are Chinese Business in the Making of a Malay State, 1882-1941 (Routledge 2003; the National University of Singapore Press 2010), Between Nation-states and Areas (2021 in Chinese), and book chapters published by Brill, Cambridge University Press, Duke University Press, Kyoto University Press, ISEAS Press, Peking University Press and World Scientific Publishing.