Who Am I
I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at Tsinghua University with academic training from Stanford University and the University of Oxford. Currently, I am also a Radcliffe-Harvard Yenching Institute Fellow at The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and The Harvard-Yenching Institute at Harvard University. Previously, I was an APARC Postdoctoral Fellow at The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University from 2014 to 2015 and a Research Associate in the Department of Applied Social Studies at the City University of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2008. My research interests include political sociology, historical sociology, contentious politics, and Chinese societies.
My current book project Factions in Formation: Grassroots Conflict and Collaboration in China’s Cultural Revolution explores factional politics and contentious violence during the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1968. By utilizing the more abundant sources available today, this book aims to demonstrate that rival factions were constituted through a dynamic and contingent process as different groups confronted local political issues and urgent strategic demands. This book offers not only a new perspective on a revolutionary historical event but also a nuanced understanding of broader sociological and political processes of conflict, collaboration, and group identity formation.
My other ongoing research projects include:
Negotiating History: Cultural Production of Chinese Local Gazetteers (research team: Tongtiao Xiao, University of Washington; Peiran Wang, Tsinghua University/Harvard University)
Mass Factionalism and Intergroup Violence in China's Cultural Revolution (research team: Jessica Wang, Harvard College; Cindy Zhang, Harvard College) (The Radcliffe Research Partnership program)
Cultural Revolution in the Judicial Documents (research team: Peirang Wang, Tsinghua University/Harvard University; Cindy Zhang, Harvard College)
Cultural Revolution in the Eyes of the Second-Generation Chinese Americans (Research team: Haoyang Fu, Harvard College; Lai Dai, Harvard College; Shuying Huo, Harvard College)
Visual Grammar and Media Politics (research team: Mingyu Gao, Watkinson School)
Trans-local Framing and Cultural Resistance in the Soundscape of DIY Music (research team: Yubai Li, The University of Edinburgh)
A City of Rootless (research team: Elina Li, Columbia University; Meggie Qu, The University of Edinburgh; Jing Ge, Harvard College; Siyi Huang, Tsinghua University/Harvard University)