BA, Davidson College.
MA in Anthropology, CUHK, 2004.
MPhil in Anthropology, CUHK, 2006. 
Home town: Boston, USA 

I graduated from the MA program at CUHK in 2004 and, after two years in the anthropology department’s MPhil program, I went to Columbia University in New York studying for a PhD (in anthropology as well). The MA program was a great opportunity for me because it offered a chance to learn about Chinese language and cultures both in school and through its larger setting in Hong Kong’s New Territories. It is rare to find an anthropology department with so many professors who all study the same region (East Asia); the program is unique in the multi-faceted perspective it provides. In addition to professors, I benefited enormously from the discussions I had with other students (in my year we had people from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, New Zealand, and the USA (me)) who brought their wide variety of working and studying experiences to our class making the discussions that much richer. I believe that my time at CUHK prepared me well (both in readings and in research experience in the MPhil program) for PhD work and a future career in teaching the anthropology of Chinese cultures.

Matthew West married Lucia Huwy-min Liu 劉慧敏 from Taiwan in 2008. They were both MA and MPhil students in the CUHK Anthropology Department from 2003 to 2006.