Dr. Kaxton Siu researches comparative labor studies, migration studies, urban sociology, and youth studies. He also specializes in Chinese society, Hong Kong society, Vietnamese society, Japanese society, and Cambodian society. He has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals, such as Critical Sociology, Politics and Society, Journal of Social Issues, The China Journal, Critical Asian Studies, Youth and Society, Journal of Youth Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and British Journal of Social Work. Dr. Siu’s book, Chinese Migrant Workers and Employer Domination: Comparisons with Hong Kong and Vietnam, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. His latest book written in collaboration with Prof. Stephen WK Chiu, Hong Kong Society: High-Definition Stories beyond the Spectacle of East-Meets-West, has been published in 2022 in Palgrave Macmillan’s Hong Kong Studies Series. He is currently working as principal investigator on two research projects that investigates Chinese investors in Vietnam and Cambodia and their impact on industrial relations systems and labor standards, and Chinese and Vietnamese industrial trainees in Japan. Since 2022, Dr. Siu is serving as one of the associate director of David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies (LEWI), Hong Kong Baptist University. Dr. Siu received his PhD from the Australia National University. He obtained his MPhil and BSc from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Research Project: 

• PI, Industrial Trainees from China and Vietnam in Japan: An Entry Point into the Key Issues of International Labour Migration and Skill Transfer, Not started. 

• CoPI, Urbanization, Migration and Welfare in China: A Comparative Study of Migrant Families, Social Service Provisions and Welfare Policies in Greater Bay Area and Yangtze River Delta, 15 February 2022 – 14 February 2024. 

• PI, Chinese Investors in Vietnam and Cambodia and their Impact on Industrial Relations Systems and Labour Standards, 01 January 2022 – 31 December 2024. 

• CoPI, Ethnic Variation in Educational Attainment of Young Adults in Vietnam, 01 January 2021 – 31 December 2024. 

Book: 

• Chiu, S. W. K., & Siu, K. (2022). Hong Kong Society: High-definition stories beyond the spectacle of East-meets-West. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 978-981-165-706-1 

• Siu, K. (2020). Chinese migrant workers and employer domination: Comparisons with Hong Kong and Vietnam. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9123-2 

Book Chapter: 

• Siu, K. (2016). Continuity and change of the everyday lives of migrant factory workers. In M. Dillon (Ed.), Key papers on Chinese economic history since 1949 (Vol. 4), Dillon, M. ed. Leiden/Boston: Brill: 1030-1053. 

• Chan, A., & Siu, K. (2015). “Strikes and Living Standards in Vietnam: The Impact of Global Supply Chain and Macroeconomic Policy.” In Labour Market and Industrial Relations in Vietnam, edited by Ingrid Artus, Uwe Blien, Judith Holland & Phan thi Hong Van. Munich: Nomos Bloomsbury.  

• Siu, K. (2015). “China and Vietnam: The Working and Living Conditions of Garment Workers in Comparison.” In Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective, edited by Anita Chan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 10531.  

• Chan, A., & Siu, K. (2012). “Chinese Migrant Workers: Factors Constraining the Emergence of Class Consciousness.” In China’s Peasants and Workers: Changing Class Identities, edited by Beatriz Carrillo and David S.G. Goodman. London: Edward Elgar Publishing.  

• Chan, A., & Siu, K. (2011). “Made in China: Work and Wages in Walmart Supplier Factories.” In Walmart in China, edited by Anita Chan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 71-94.  

• Siu, K. (2006). “The New Labour Protest Movement in Hong Kong: the Experience of the Student-Worker Mutual Aid Campaign.” In Globalization and After, edited by Samir Dasgupta and Ray Kiely. London: Sage, 2006, pp. 392-409. 

Journal Article: 

• Lai, T. C., & Siu, K. (2026). Cambodian Garment Migrant Workers: Precarity and Protest. Global Dialogue, 16(1). https://globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/articles/cambodian-garment-migrant-workers-precarity-and-protest 

• Siu, K. (2026). Global Hong Kong: Post-2019 Migration and the New Hong Kong Diaspora, Yuk Wah Chan and Yvette to (eds) (2025). Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1386/tjtm_00095_5 

• Pang, J., & Siu, K. (2023). Keeping A Distance: Changing Everyday Lives of Married Migrant Gay Men in China’s State-owned Enterprises. Critical Asian Studies, 55(4), 538–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2023.2265944 

• Pun, N., Siu, K., & Gottfried, H. (2022). Global Capitalism and Labour in the Age of Monopoly: Hong Kong and Mainland China. Critical Sociology, 48(7–8), 1115–1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221118948 

• Siu, K., & Jin, S. (2022). Hong Kong’s Precarious Young Workers and Contradictions of Capital. Critical Sociology, 48(7–8), 1123–1139. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221097907 

• Siu, K., & Koo, A. (2022). Temporary labor migration and skill transfer in Japan: Migration experiences and outcomes of technical intern trainees from Vietnam and China. Journal of Social Issues, 78(3), 606–626. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12468 

• Siu, K., & Unger, J. (2020). Work and Family Life among Migrant Factory Workers in China and Vietnam. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 50(3), 341–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1673465 

• Unger, J., & Siu, K. (2019). Chinese migrant factory workers across four decades: shifts in work conditions, urbanization, and family strategies. Labor History, 60(6), 765–778. https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2019.1645313 

• Siu, K. (2017). Labor and Domination: Worker Control in a Chinese Factory. Politics & Society, 45(4), 533–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329217714784 

• Siu, K., & Chan, A. (2015). Strike Wave in Vietnam, 2006–2011. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 45(1), 71–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2014.903290