Professor Xu was born in China and taught both in Asia and the USA before joined the University of Hong Kong’s History Department. He writes widely on varies of topics in both Chinese and English. He is author of the following recent books: Chinese and Americans: a shared history (Harvard University Press, 2014), Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese workers and the Great War (Harvard University Press, 2011), China and the Great War (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008 (Harvard University Press, 2008). He has just finished a new book Asia and the Great War: a shared history (under contract for Oxford University Press). Professor Xu is currently working on two new books: Ideas of China: a shared and imagined history, Chinese and Japanese: a shared history.