Feng Wang

Picture of Feng Wang
Professor, Sociology
School of Social Sciences
Ph.D., University of Michigan, Sociology
Phone: (949) 824-1417
Fax: (949)824-4717
Email: fwang@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
4285 Social Sciences Plaza B
Mail Code: 5100
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Politics and public policy, global demographic, economic, and social processes, social inequality, contemporary Chinese society
Academic Distinctions
Member, Sociological Research Association (elected), 2012.
Best Book Award, Japanese Population Association, 2012.
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
Appointments
Invited Professor, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University, China, 2011 --2022.
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
Politics and public policy. A project to examine the political process and dynamics of public policy making, focusing on China's three-and-half decades long one-child policy.

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.

Social Inequality. Research in this area focuses on the trends, causes, and implications of changing economic and social inequality, especially in China. It includes rising income inequality, poverty, social policies, and public perception of distributive justice.
Awards and Honors
Foreign Member, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (elected), 2022
Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award, Lauds and Laurels, UCI Alumni Association, 2022
Distinguished Assistant Professor for Research, University of California, Irvine, 1999
Distinguished Service Award, the East-West Center, 1990
Publications
China's Age of Abundance: Origins, Ascendance, and Aftermath. Cambridge University Press. 2024
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 the Study of Democracy
Long US-China Institute
Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy
Last updated
11/06/2023