Liping Wang
B.A. Peking University
M.A. Peking University
Ph.D. The University of Chicago
Area of Expertise
Political Sociology; Social Theory; Comparative Historical Sociology; Ethnic Studies;
Sociology of Knowledge and Culture; Modern and Contemporary China
Biography
Liping Wang is assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She
earned a Ph.D. degree in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Her
dissertation, Ethnicizing the Frontier: Imperial Transformation and Ethnic Confrontations in
China-Inner Mongolia, 1890s-1930s, was completed in 2013. It is now turning into a book
manuscript. It examines forms and causes of Mongol-Han confrontation in Inner Mongolia
during the Chinese imperial transition. In it she questions general theories of empire to
nation transition in an historical examination of the Chinese case. Her alternative approach
focuses on the maintenance and dissolution of the relations that sustained crosscutting
identities on the frontier. In addition to that, she has been working on transnational
movement of knowledge in modern academic disciplines, the indigenization of that
knowledge, and, most especially on the creation of a knowledge regime dealing with
ethnicity in Republican China (1912- 1949). She is now embarking on a project that
compares patterns of luxury trade binding various frontiers to the Chinese imperial center in
the 17thcentury. Her future research includes a comparative study of how elites mediated
minority politics under the Qing and how they do so in contemporary China. These studies
uncover path dependence that links contemporary Chinese society to its imperial legacies
and the dramatic transformations it underwent throughout the long twentieth century. Her
research has been published in The American Journal of Sociology, Comparative Studies in
Society and History, and The Annals: The American Academy of Political and Social
Sciences. Before joining the University of Hong Kong she was Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the
Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago. She was visiting assistant professor at
Haverford College in 2013-2014.
Publications
2015
“From Masterly Brokers to Compliant Protégées: The Frontier Governance System
and the Rise of Ethnic Confrontation in China-Inner Mongolia, 1900-1930.”
The American Journal of Sociology 120 (6),1641-1689.
2014
“’State, Relational Governance and Nomads’ Sedentarization: Land Reform in
Inner Mongolia, 1900-1911.” Comparative Studies in Society and History
56(3): 714-744.
2011
“Interlocking Patrimonialisms and State Formation in Qing China and Early
Modern Europe.” The Annals: The American Academy of Political and
Social Sciences 636:164-181. (First author, written with Julia Adams.)
2011
“Bridging the Gap Between China and Europe.”(Podcast, with Julia Adams)
http://aapss.org/the-annals/recent-volumes/2011/08/11/julia-adams-andliping-wang-bridging-the-gap-between-china-and-europe
2015
Review of Qinghai Across Frontier: State- and Nation-Building under the Ma
Family, 1911-1949, by William Brent Haas. Tibetan and Himalayan
Dissertation Reviews (online), forthcoming.
In Chinese:
2006
“From Trauerspiel to Asceticism: a Comparison of Walter Benjamin’s Theory of
German Tragedy and Max Weber’s Theory of Science.” Society and
Thought, Vol.6, 308-382.
2004
“The Sacredness of Society: an Interpretation of Emile Durkheim’s The
Elementary Forms of Religious Life.” Society and Thought, Vol.4, 517-535.
2002
“The ‘Stranger’ in Georg Simmel’s Texts.” Society and Thought, Vol. 2, 398-424.
Translation
2002
Weber, Mariane. Max Weber: A Biography. (Chapters 14-16). Nanjing: Jiangsu
renmin chubanshe.
Manuscripts in Progress
“Disunifying the Nation: Modern Disciplines and Knowledge
Transplantation in China, 1912-1949.”
“Sovereignty of Boundaries in European and Chinese/Mongolian Empires.”
(with Julia Adams)
“Legal Pluralism or Crossing Jurisdictions? Legal Practices in China-Inner
Mongolia and its Modern Transformation.”
Teaching
SOCI 12001 History of Social Thought
SOCI 12052 Traditional Chinese Society
SOCI 13024 Modern Social Theory