Before retiring and becoming professor emeritus in 2024, he held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at York University in Toronto from 2005.

In June 2024 he was honored with a Festschrift, presented to him at Heidelberg University, to which twenty-seven colleagues, former students, and friends contributed.

He received his undergraduate education in Chinese history (under the guidance of Philip Kuhn) at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1972 with honors.

Theodore de Bary; during this period, he also did research at Kyoto University for eighteen months (December 1976-May 1978) where he studied with Takeuchi Minoru.

He was a visiting scholar at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris (June 2024).