Prof. Beibei Tang is Dean of School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of China Studies at XJTLU. She is also an Honorary Professor of China Studies Centre, University of Sydney. Before joining XJTLU in 2015, she studied and worked in China, UK and Australia. She obtained her PhD in Sociology from The Australian National University (ANU). She then worked at ANU from 2011 to 2015. She has undertaken extensive ethnographic research across different localities in China, with particular focuses on local governance, social stratification and state-society relations in urban China. She has published her research in high-impact journals such as The China Quarterly, The China Journal and Journal of Contemporary China. She is the author of Governing Neighborhoods in Urban China (Cornell University Press 2023) and China’s Housing Middle Class (Routledge 2018), the co-author of Class and the Communist Party of China, 1978-2021 (Routledge 2022), the co-editor of Suzhou in Transition (Routledge 2021), and the winner of the 2015 Gordon White Prize (The China Quarterly). She is a member of the editorial board of The China Journal and The China Quarterly.
Qualifications
PhD in Sociology. The Australian National Univeristy
MPhil in Sociology. University of Oxford
BA in Sociology. Wuhan University
Experience
Professor of China Studies, XJTLU- 2022 to present
Honorary Professor, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney - 2022 to present
Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, XJTLU - 2020 to present
Head, Department of China Studies, XJTLU - 2017 to 2020
Deputy Head, Department of China Studies, XJTLU-2015-2017
Senior Associate Professor, Department of China Studies, XJTLU - 2018 to present
Associate Professor, Department of China Studies, XJTLU - 2016 to 2018
Lecturer, Department of China Studies, XJTLU - 2015 to 2016
Postdoctoral/Research Fellow, Australian National University - 2011 to 2015
Research Assistant, Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University - 2009 to 2010
Research interests
Social class, social stratification and mobility in contemporary China
Neighborhood governance and state-society relations in China
Urbanization in China
Deliberative democracy
Social science research methods
Articles
Tang, Beibei. 2020. “Grid Governance in China’s Urban Middle-Class Neighborhoods.” The China Quarterly, vol.241, pp.43-61.
Tang, Beibei. 2019. 'Intermediary Governance Space in Relocation Neighbourhoods', China Perspectives, 2019/2, pp.57-65.
Tang,Beibei. 2019. 'Espaces de gouvernance intermédiaire dans les quartiers de relogement', Perspectives chinoises, 2019/2, pp.61-69.
Tang, Beibei. 2018. 'Deliberation and Governance in Chinese Middle-Class Neighoburhoods', Japanese Journal of Political Science, vol. 19, pp.663-677.
Tang, Beibei. 2018. 'Neighborhood Aged Care and Local Governance in Urban China', The China Journal, vol. 79, pp. 84-99.
Tang, Beibei. 2015. 'Not Rural but Not Urban: Community Governance in Urbanized Villages', The China Quarterly, vol. 223, pp. 724-744. 2015 Gordon White Prize winner.
Tang, Beibei. 2015. 'The Discursive Turn: Deliberative Governance in China's Urbanized Villages', Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 91, pp. 137-157.
Tang, Beibei. 2015. 'Deliberating Governance in Chinese Urban Communities', The China Journal, vol. 73, pp. 84-107.
Tang, Beibei. 2014. 'Development and Prospects of Deliberative Democracy in China: The Dimensions of Deliberative Capacity Building', Journal of Chinese Political Science, vol. 19, pp. 115-132.
Tang, Beibei & Dryzek, John. 2014. 'The Continuing Search for Deliberation and Participation in China', Journal of Chinese Political Science, vol. 19, pp. 109-114.
Tang, Beibei, Luigi Tomba, and Werner Breitung. 2011. "The work-unit is dead. Long Live the work-unit! Spatial segregation and privilege in a work-unit housing compound in Guangzhou." Geographische Zeitschrift 99:36-49.
Books, monographs, compilations and manuals
Tang, Beibei. 2023. Governing Neighborhoods in Urban China: Changing State-Society Relations. Cornell University Press.
Marc Blecher, David SG Goodman, Yingjie Guo, Jean-Louis Rocca and Beibei Tang. 2022. Class and the Communist Party of China, 1978-2021: Reform and Market Socialism. Routledge.
Tang, Beibei and Paul Cheung ed. 2020. Suzhou in Transition. Routledge.
Tang, Beibei. 2018. China’s Housing Middle Class: Changing Urban Life in Gated Communities. Routledge.
Chapters, cases, readings and supplements
Tang, Beibei. 2023. "Developments in Urban Neighborhood Governance." pp.112-126 in Handbook on Local Governance in China, edited by Ceren Ergenc and David S.G. Goodman. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Tang, Beibei. 2020. “Wujiang in Transition.” Pp. 214-232 in Suzhou in Transition, edited by Beibei Tang and Paul Cheung. Routledge.
Tang, Beibei and Paul Cheung. 2020. “Suzhou in Transition: An Introduction.” Pp. 1-12 in Suzhou in Transition, edited by Beibei Tang and Paul Cheung. Routledge.
Tang, Beibei, Testuki Tamura, and Baogang He. 2018. “Deliberative Democracy in East Asia.” Chapter 50, pp.791-804 in The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy, edited by Andre Bachtiger, John Dryzek, Jane Mansbridge and Mark Warren. Oxford University Press.
Tang, Beibei and John S Dryzek ed. 2014. “Special Issue: Deliberation and Participation in China.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 19.
Tang, Beibei. 2013. "China’s Urban Housing Status Groups: Consumption, Lifestyles and Identity." Pp. 54-74 in Middle Class China, edited by D. S. G. Goodman and M. Chen. London: Edward Elgar.
Tang, Beibei and Jonathan Unger. 2013. "The Socio-economic Status, Cooptation and Political Conservatism of China’s Educated Middle Class: a case study of university teachers." Pp. 90-109 in Middle Class China, edited by D. S. G. Goodman and M. Chen. London: Edward Elgar.
Tang, Beibei and Luigi Tomba. 2012. "The Great Divide: Institutionalized Inequality in Market Socialism." Pp. 91-110 in Unequal China, edited by Wanning Sun and Yingjie Guo: Routledge.
Tang, Beibei. 2012. "Social Housing Landlords: China’s Institutional Model." Pp. 432-437 in International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, vol. 6, edited by S. J. Smith, M. Elsinga, L. F. O'Mahony, O. S. Eng, and S. Wachter. Oxford: Elsevier: Elsevier.
Tang, Beibei. 2011. "Change and Continuity of China's Urban Workforce: Recent trends." Pp. 71-92 in China's Changing Workplace: Dynamism, diversity and disparity, edited by P. Sheldon, S. Kim, Y. Li, and M. Warner: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.
Tomba, Luigi and Beibei Tang. 2008. "The Forest City: homeownership and new wealth in Shenyang." Pp. 171- 186 in The New Rich in China: future rulers, present lives, edited by D. S. G. Goodman: Routledge.
Conference presentations
Urbanization and New Urban Class Formation in China, paper presented at AAS-in-Asia 2019 Conference, Bangkok. July 2019.
Deliberating Governance in Chinese Middle-Class Neighbourhoods, paper presented at International Conference of Public Policy, Singapore. June 2017.
Urbanization and Governance in Relocated Communities, paper presented at AAS-in-Asia 2017 Conference, Seoul. June 2017.
Governance and Labor Conflict Resolutions in China: A Deliberative Perspective, paper presented at Workshop of Social Conflict, University of Vienna, May 2017.
Neighbourhood Aged Care in Urban China, paper presented at Conference for Caring for Elderly in Asia, ARI, NUS, Singapore, March 2016.
Deliberation and Governance in Chinese Urban Communities, paper presented at American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, August 2013.
Village Cooperatives and Community Life in Urbanized Village in China, paper presented at Conference for Urbanization of Rural China, Diqing, China, July 2012.
Deliberative Governance and Citizen Participation in Post-reform China, paper presented at Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Toronto, February 2012
The Paradox of Self-identity and Self-governance among Gated Community Residents in Urban China, paper presented at American Sociological Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, August 2009.
Sponsored Mobility and Education Attainment: An Explanatory Model of Social Mobility, paper presented at The Australian Sociological Association Annual Conference, University of Melbourne, December 2008.
China’s New Housing Class: Emergence and Identity, paper presented at The Fourth Annual Graduate Seminar on China, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, January 2008.
Grants
2019-2021. 2019 Jiangsu Philosophy and Social Science Research Funding Program. Project title: Women's Political Participation in Rural China. Member.
Research Development Fund (RDF 18-01-31), XJTLU, Co-PI (20%). Project Title: Governance in Light of the “New Citizenship” Campaign in China .
Research Development Fund (RDF16-01-58), XJTLU. Co-PI (25%). Project Title: Suzhou’s Tiger Hill Wedding Street: Modernity, Material Culture, and Bridal Fashion.
Research Development Fund (RDF15-01-17), XJTLU. PI (100%). Project Title: Neighbourhood Aged Care, Civil Society and Local Governance in China.
Courses taught
CCS405 Chinese Society
CCS901 Understanding China
CCS104 China: Society and Development
CCS001 Introduction to Social Sciences
Humanities and Social Sciences Learning Practices
Professional memberships
2022-present, Editorial Board Member, The China Quarterly
2021-present, Editorial Board Member, The China Journal
HS374(SIP Campus-Humanities & Social Sciences Building) Suzhou Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District Suzhou Industrial Park Suzhou P.R.China 215123