About Alvin Yang
The Short Version:
I conduct research on global economy, international relations and global migration. I am trained in economics, political science, music and arts. In the past decade, I studied in six countries across three continents and travelled to almost 30 countries. Music, arts and architecture are crucial to me as they reflect the soul and spirit of a place, a person, or a people. I play drumset, guitar and bass at the professional level. I am a vegetarian and I see myself as a world citizen. I speak English, French, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and German.
The Long Version:
Different people have known me in different ways during different periods of my life. Some people know Xiao Alvin Yang as a scholar of international relations and the global economy who thinks clearly and makes rational and persuasive arguments and conducts both theoretical and empirical works.
Some know the younger Alvin as the musician, the artist, the romantic. He was a professional musician before he became an academic. He composes and plays the drumset, guitar and bass and is versatile in diverse musical styles, including pop, jazz, funk, blues and classical music.
Some know Alvin as a global trotter, a world citizen and a vegetarian. Some know me as an entrepreneur. In the past decade, he has been to almost 30 countries in mostly Europe, East Asia and North America. He plans to explore more places beyond these three regions in the near future.
Some remember him as a comedian who makes good jokes.
Some know Alvin as a polyglot. He speaks English, French, German and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese). He writes mostly in English but reads and occasionally writes in Chinese, French and German. In addition, he has some knowledge of Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Japanese and Danish. He believes learning, thinking and speaking in a new language helps one to enter a whole new world.
Although he may be known in multiple ways, they are all him. This is the complexity of being a human.
Academically, Xiao Alvin Yang is currently a doctoral candidate in political and economic science at Universität Kassel, Germany. He is finishing writing up his dissertation. Hopefully, he will be able to submit it this fall. Wish him luck! Afterwards, he will see where life and opportunities lead him.
In short, his PhD dissertation examines innovation, production and diffusion of knowledge of international relations. He especially focuses on the emerging Chinese international relations (IR) theories in the global competition of knowledge in social sciences. He aims to develop a new theory to shed light on the current (changing?) global order where there are ongoing tensions among globalization, regional integration and the resurgence of nationalism.