Who Am I

I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at Tsinghua University and an Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. My research interests include political sociology, historical sociology, contentious politics, mobility and social inequality, and Chinese societies. I received academic training from Stanford University and the University of Oxford and held fellowships from Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and Stanford Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. I have received grants and awards from institutions like the Association for Asian Studies, the Institute for Humane Studies, Royal Historical Society, China and Asia-Pacific Research Society, and Cyrus Tang Foundation.

My current book project focuses on mass factionalism and collective violence during the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1968. In the conventional social structural model, mass actors’ decisions are affected by functionally differentiated interests inherent in their pre-existing social positions. However, during times of radical instability, political ambiguity and contingency are likely to upset static models of mobilization. Through analyzing popular rebellion and factional contention in communist China during this period, I identify two key mechanisms—contextual ambiguity and adaptive choice—that mediate political alignment in moments of radical change. I argue that the choices of mass actors are highly circumscribed by their entrenched local political context, and when confronted with rapidly changing and ambiguous political situations, mass actors in structurally similar positions make varied political choices with fluid interests and flowing identities.

My other ongoing research projects include:

Please check my Google Scholar Profile, and Publons.