ABOUT ME

I am a sociolinguist. I completed my PhD in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London in 2022. My main research interests include: gender and language, translanguaging, new media, multimodality, health communication, critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and conversation analysis. Below is a summary of my major projects:

Translanguaging practices of Hong Kong migrants in the UK (2025-)

This research aims to provide the first theoretical account of translanguaging practices and identities construction of Hong Kong migrants in the UK. It problematises the neglection of the nuanced linguistic and semiotic repertories of Hong Kongers and challenges the belief that British English is preferred. To address the complexities of examining translanguaging, this research adopts innovatively the methodology of (digital) ethnography and (digital) diary. Importantly, this research is designed with the participants in mind and will involve co-creation. I will collaborate with local charities and initiatives that take an interest in Hong Kong culture to organise arts-based workshops where participants can share their experiences, and express and perform their identities through language and a range of semiotic resources.

Translanguaging practices of Chinese students in China and the UK (2024-2026)

Co-Investigator: Dr Songyan Du (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University)

This is a two-year project funded by Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University to explore the linguistic repertories and translanguaging practices of Chinese students in China and the UK. Using hybrid ethnography, we examine how students communicate when discussing collaborative tasks in the educational context. The signifiance of this project is twofold: First, it will advance the methods for examining translanguaging and multimodal practices against the backdrop of the increasing emphasis placed on internationalization and English learning in higher education. Second, the project could shed light on the existing pedagogical approaches in relation to English learning/implementation of EMI programmes. It could provide empirical evidence challenging the belief that English is the preferred language (particular in higher education), and demonstrate the linguistic realities in today’s society.

Rural Racism (2023-2024)

Principal Investigator: Professor Neil Chakraborti (University of Leicester)

This project was funded by The Leverhulme Trust, and it was led by Professor Neil Chakraborti. As a research associate working on the project, I was responsible for work package one, which examined online backlash. I adopted corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to analyse media representations and public reactions to notions of “race” within rural environments.

COVID-19 Meme in Chinese online community (2021-2023)

Co-Investigator: Songyan Du (Queen Mary University of London)

In this project, we studied the use of memes about COVID-19 on Zhihu, a socialised question-and-answer website in China that established a space for knowledge sharing. We provided a social semiotic account of how memes communicated attitudinal judgement.

Gender representations of tennis players in the new media (2017-2022)

In my PhD project I examined how female and male tennis players were represented in online news and social media. I adopted a corpus-assisted critical discourse analytical approach, and drew on Kress & van Leeuwen (2006)'s visual grammar and van Leeuwen (2008)'s social actor theory.

Physiotherapist-patient interaction during exercise training in Hong Kong (2015-2018)

Principal Investigator: Dr Veronika Schoeb (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

We adopted conversation analysis and multimodal analysis to examine how physiotherapists instructed exercise and how patients participated in the communicative event.