In my research, I focus on the historical study of late nineteenth and early twentieth century China, covering various disciplines including military history, language policies and sociolinguistics, as well as social and fiscal studies. My main interest concerns the question of how societies open up to or resist social change, and why regimes crumble or maintain stability. In an age of frequent externally or internally induced regime change, this is an important question with far-reaching implications for our modern day. In my book on language policies, I tried to abandon the usual narrative of language reform as the inevitable path towards progress, and explored resistance to language reform that could have led to alternative paths of development. My current project has led me to explore how the legal sale of public office by the state contributed to the restoration and maintenance of regime stability after the Taiping Rebellion, but at the same time helped to prevent thorough fiscal reforms.