The Tour Lab: Team Members
Xu Simin, April
Sock Keng CHER
Sock Keng or 'Cher' as he is often affectionately called, holds a Masters in Political Economy from S Rajaratnam School of Public Policy at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
An avid researcher, Cher collaborates with the Tour Lab in its series of heritage research in Singapore, most recently on Singapore's first public aquarium, the now defunct Van Kleef Aquarium. He is also developing a longer term project on tourism development in Singapore.
The linguistically gifted Cher speaks basic Japanese, Korean and Hokkein, in addition to writing and speaking English and Mandarin.
WANG Jiao (Jessie)
Another member of the team from Singapore, April Xu Simin is trained in Sociology and Economics and has earned a Second-Upper class Honours degree at the National University of Singapore.
A dedicated researcher with interests in the connections between literature, scenes and tourism, she has published on the deployment of the visual in the engagement of societal ideals in bridal photography. At the Tour Lab, she is working on assemblage theory and China's scenic-spot. The picture shows April touring and experiencing China's Guilin, one of the country's premier scenic-spot.
April speaks basic Japanese on top of writing and speaking English and Mandarin.
Publication:
Chan, S. and Xu, A. S.M. (2007) Wedding Photographs and the Bridal Gaze in Singapore, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 9(2): 87-103.
Raymond He (何睿)
Wang Jiao or Jessie as she likes to be called, is a Research Masters student in the School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-Sen University in China.
Jessie is interested in the travel experiences of elderly travellers in China. She has also made contributions to gastronomic and cultural tourism consulting the Tour Lab has been involved in since 2021.
Xiaopeng (Ruben) Yang
Xiaopeng or Ruben as he likes to be called, is a Research Masters student in the School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-Sen University in China. Ruben has keen interest in topic like heritage tourism, tourist experience and game and destination marketing. He has joined in the Tour Lab since 2022. As a postgraduate, Ruben looks forward to undertaking academic research in his areas of interest. The photo below showed Ruben taking part in the youth forum of the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee as a volunteer.
Han Yingtong, Alice (韩颖童)
Han Yingtong or Alice as she likes to be called, is one of the Chinese members of the team. She is interested in cultural study of tourism and would like to investigate topics such as heritage tourism and film tourism. As a history and humanities lover, Alice pays close attention to the workings of culture in tourism. She has also made good contributions to gastronomic and cultural tourism consulting the team is involved in in Shizhu County, Southwestern China.
Lu Xiaohan, Christina(卢晓涵)
Xiaohan Lu (Christina) is an undergraduate student in Sun Yat-Sen University's School of Tourism Management. She hails from Shantou, a small coastal city of Guangdong famed for fresh seafood and beef hotpot. Influenced by learning experiences in her Hotel Management Major and her passion for traveling, she has broad interest in studying cultural tourism, theme parks and tourism destination image. She likes making friends with people from different cultural backgrounds as it enables her to learn new things from others and become open-minded to different ideas. In her spare time, she likes undertakes sporting activities such as swimming, running and dancing.
Raymond hails from Guangdong Shaoxing. He is well-versed in Chinese culture and history and is keen to investigate a range of topics including cultural tourism, historic hotels, dark tourism and music events and tourism. An accomplished musician and band member, Raymond is familiar with the Chinese music and band scene as well. He has also made contributions to gastronomic and cultural tourism consulting the team is involved in in Shizhu County, Southwestern China.
Jiaohao Zhang
Possessing training in nano-electrical engineering and geology, Jiaohao Zhang has a truly multidisciplinary academic background. Now an undergraduate at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Tourism Management, Jiaohao is keen to apply his scholarship on industrial heritage and tourism, with preliminary ideas of conducting fieldwork at China's beer brewing historical hub, Qingdao. He has a computer science paper forthcoming.
Yiwei (Nicole) Wang
Wang Yiwei, an undergraduate student of Tourism School of Sun Yat-sen University, comes from Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. Yangzhou is the world's food capital and also a scenic tourist city and that shapes her academic love for heritage tourism and homestays. She is passionate volleyball, table tennis, drawing and eating delicious food.
Leong Ka Wai (Kary)
Leong Ka Wai (Kary), a Hong Kong native, is an undergraduate student of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-Sen University in China. She is interested in cultural heritage and theme parks and would like to conduct research into these. She enjoys watching movies, taking photographs, discovering new foods and novelties.
Xiaopeng (Ruben) Yang
Ya-Xuan Zheng, Ruby
Subinur(苏比努尔)
Ya-Xuan Zheng, or Ruby hails from Macau. Influenced by the deep culture and heritage of the historic city she grew up in, Ruby has always been active in cultural and heritage activities in Macao society, including Cantonese language singing contests! She takes pride in organizing projects and events and is an active sportsperson too. She would like to build on such interests to develop a research topic in cultural tourism.
Subinur hails from China's ethnic minority region of Xinjiang. Her familiarity with China's cold Northwest equipped her with good knowledge of snow and ice-based tourism. In addition, she has keen interests in heritage tourism and interactions between tourism, culture and urban governance. Currently an undergraduate student in Sun-Yat-sen University’s School of Tourism, Subinur looks forward to undertaking research in her areas of interest.
