Feng Wang

Research Interests

• Comparative demographic, economic, and social processes, social inequality in state socialisms, contemporary Chinese society

Academic Distinctions

• Book Award. Asia and Asian American Section. American Sociological Association. 2009.
• Allan Sharlin Memorial Award for Best Book in Social Science History. Social Science History Association. 2000.
• Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Social Demography. Sociology of Population Section, American Sociological Association, 2000.
• Distinguished Assistant Professor for Research, University of California, Irvine, 1999
• Distinguished Service Award, the East-West Center, 1990

Appointments

• Invited Professor, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University, China, 2006 --
• Professor, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, China, 2011-2013
• Senior Fellow and Director, Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, Brookings Institution, 2010-2013
• Chair, Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, 2007-2010
• Assistant to Full Professor, Sociology, University of California, Irvine, 1996 --
• Assistant to Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Hawaii, 1992 -1996
• Fellow, the East-West Center, 1989 - 1996
• Visiting Assistant Professor, California Institute of Technology, 1990, 1992, 1996
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, the East-West Center, 1988 - 1989
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1987 - 1988

Research Abstract

Social Inequality in Post-Socialist Societies. Research in this area focuses on the trends, causes, and implications of changing economic and social inequality in formerly socialist societies, especially in China. It includes rising income inequality, poverty, social policies, and public perception of distributive justice.

Global Demographic Change and Consequences. Research in this area includes understanding of causes and implications of fertility decline in much of the world to below the replacement level, especially the interlinks between demographic and economic changes. A special focus is on demographic change in China, where a three-decade long One-Child Policy has affected Chinese families and the society.

Migration and Social Reintegration in China. This is an ongoing project involving collecting and analyzing data of internal migrants, especially those who migrated from rural to urban areas of China. Central research questions include patterns of migration and urbanization, patterns of social inequality between migrants and non-migrants, and the reintegration of rural migrants into urban societies.

Publications

• Convergence to Very Low Fertility in East Asia: Processes, Causes, and Implications. (Noriko O. Tsuya, Minja K. Choe, and Wang Feng). Springer. 2019.

• Prudence and Pressure: Reproduction and Human Agency in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900 (Noriko O. Tsuya, Wang Feng, George Alter, James Z. Lee et al.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 2010.

• Creating Wealth and Poverty in Post-Socialist China. (Deborah Davis and Wang Feng, editors). Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2009.

• Boundaries and Categories: Rising Inequality in Post-Socialist Urban China. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2008.

• Asian Population History. (Liu T’sui-jung, James Lee, David Reher, Osamu Saito, and Wang Feng, editors). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2001.

• One Quarter of Humanity, Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Realities 1700-2000. (James Lee and Wang Feng). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1999.

Grants

• Pacific Rim Research Program, University of California, 2001, 2003
• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 2006, 2008
• The Ford Foundation, 1998, 2001, 2003
• American Council of Learned Societies, 1999

Other Experience

• Senior Fellow and Director
• Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy 2010—2013

Research Centers

• Center for Asian Studies
• Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy
• Center for Demographic and Social Analysis
• Center for the Study of Democracy