Impact
Listed among the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists, 2022–2026.
View the 2026 database ↗Research
I study how gender, family, work, and demographic processes shape inequality and well-being, particularly in East Asia and North America. My research examines these dynamics amid digital transformations, the COVID-19 pandemic, and women's rising educational attainment.
Research highlights
Recognition
Alexis Walker Award (2019), National Council on Family Relations
Read the award announcement ↗Assortative mating
Educational assortative mating and income dynamics in couples: A longitudinal dyadic perspective
Journal of Marriage and Family · 2018
Read the paper ↗Digitalization
The digitalization of family life: A multilevel conceptual framework
Journal of Marriage and Family · 2024
Read the paper ↗Work-family
The under-utilization of women’s talent: Academic achievement and future leadership positions
Social Forces · 2021
Read the paper ↗Well-being
Did the COVID-19 pandemic make it worse? Working from home and affective well-being at the intersections of parental status and occupation
ILR Review · 2026
Read the paper ↗Research themes
Publications are listed newest first within each theme. Each work appears once, under its primary research question.
Patterns and consequences of assortative mating
Who marries whom and why we should care.
Publications (26)
What makes a desirable spouse in China? New evidence from a national survey experiment
Journal of Marriage and Family
突破婚姻中心主义：非婚姻关系的国际趋势及其对中国的启示
Beyond a marriage-centered framework: Non-marital relationships in international contexts and their implications for Chinese families
人口研究
Whose parents matter? Intergenerational transmission of earnings arrangements in different-sex couples: A research note
Demography
Concentration and dispersion: School-to-work linkages and their impact on occupational assortative mating
The Social Science Journal
Gender, education expansion and intergenerational educational mobility around the world
Nature Human Behaviour
Differences in occupational homogamy by race, ethnicity, and national origin
Demographic Research
The rise of the childless single in South Korea
Journal of Family Theory & Review
Assortative mating among college graduates: Heterogeneity across fields of study
Marriage & Family Review
Child marriage in mainland China
Studies in Family Planning
Migration policies on migrant–native marriage: A multilevel analysis of 43 Chinese cities
Population, Space and Place
Generation, education, and intermarriage of Asian Americans
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Hukou, marriage, and access to wealth in Shanghai
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Premarital pregnancy in China: Cohort trends and educational gradients
Studies in Family Planning
Rising educational gradients in mortality among US whites: What are the roles of marital status and educational homogamy?
Social Science & Medicine
Educational and age assortative mating in China: The importance of marriage order
Demographic Research
Educational assortative mating and income dynamics in couples: A longitudinal dyadic perspective
Journal of Marriage and Family
Hukou locality and intermarriages in two Chinese cities: Shanghai and Shenzhen
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
The impact of educational pairing and urban residency on household financial investments in urban China
Journal of Family and Economic Issues
Women’s fertility autonomy in urban China: The role of couple dynamics under the universal two-child policy
Chinese Sociological Review
Assortative mating by education and hukou in Shanghai
Chinese Sociological Review
Gender asymmetry in educational and income assortative marriage
Journal of Marriage and Family
家庭经济地位与生育行为: 宏观环境的调节效应
人口与发展
The gender divide in urban China: Singlehood and assortative mating by age and education
Demographic Research
Chapters & other scholarly work
How do mothers matter for intergenerational mobility globally?
Nature Human Behaviour
Research briefing
女性教育崛起背景下的性别关系动态
妇女研究论丛
Commentary
Educational assortative mating and female breadwinning trajectories: A group-based trajectory analysis
Intimate Relationships and Social Change
Book chapter
Digitalization & family change
How digital transformations reshape family life and gender relations.
Publications (12)
Empowerment and individualization: Online banking and household financial organization
European Sociological Review
Who is concerned about digitalization? The role of digital literacy and exposure across 30 countries
Information, Communication & Society
How couples meet and assortative mating in Canada
Journal of Marriage and Family
The efficiency paradox: A temporal lens into online dating among Chinese immigrants in Canada
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
How to find Mr/Miss right? The mechanism of search among online daters in Shanghai
Journal of Family Issues
Gendering digital labor: Work and family digital communication across 29 countries
Community, Work & Family
The digitalization of family life: A multilevel conceptual framework
Journal of Marriage and Family
Digital ethnic enclaves: Mate preferences and platform choices among Chinese immigrant online daters in Vancouver
Canadian Review of Sociology
Disruption or reproduction? Nativity, gender and online dating in Canada
Internet Research
Gendered age preferences for potential partners: A mixed-methods study among online daters in Shanghai
Chinese Sociological Review
COVID-19, inter-household contact and mental well-being among older adults in the US and the UK
Frontiers in Sociology
Mate selection among online daters in Shanghai: Why does education matter?
Chinese Journal of Sociology
Work-family & gender inequality
How work and family arrangements shape gender inequality.
Publications (21)
Workplace productivity: Gender, parenthood, and career consequences in the United States
Gender, Work & Organization
Stressful life events and depressive symptoms during COVID‐19: A gender comparison
The British Journal of Sociology
COVID‐19 job loss and re‐employment among partnered parents: Gender and educational variations
Journal of Marriage and Family
Separate spheres: The gender division of labor in the financial elite
Social Forces
Constellations of gender ideology, earnings arrangements, and marital satisfaction: A comparison across four East Asian societies
Asian Population Studies
Gender and educational variation in how temporal dimensions of paid work affect parental child care time
Socius
Gender, parenthood, and employment during COVID-19: An immigrant-native born comparison in Canada
Canadian Ethnic Studies
Parenthood, gender, and the risks and consequences of job loss
Social Forces
Couples' changing work patterns in the United Kingdom and the United States during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Gender, Work & Organization
COVID-19 and the gender gap in employment among parents of young children in Canada
Gender & Society
The gendered pandemic: The implications of COVID‐19 for work and family
Sociology Compass
The under-utilization of women’s talent: Academic achievement and future leadership positions
Social Forces
COVID-19 and the gender employment gap among parents of young children
Canadian Public Policy
Gender in the one percent
Contexts
Separating spheres: Cohort differences in gender attitudes about work and family in China
China Review
Men and women at work: Occupational gender composition and affective well-being in the United States
Journal of Happiness Studies
Women in the one percent: Gender dynamics in top income positions
American Sociological Review
Division of labor, gender ideology, and marital satisfaction in East Asia
Journal of Marriage and Family
Man up, man down: Race–ethnicity and the hierarchy of men in female-dominated work
The Sociological Quarterly
Work, family, and gendered happiness among married people in urban China
Social Indicators Research
Chapters & other scholarly work
Gender dynamics within and beyond families in China: Marriage, parenthood and economic affairs
Chinese Journal of Sociology
Editorial
Demographic processes & well-being
How demographic processes, family dynamics, and the pandemic shape health and well-being.
Publications (29)
The resurgence of state-sector employment? The COVID-19 pandemic and Chinese workers’ shifting job satisfaction
Work and Occupations
Did the COVID-19 pandemic make it worse? Working from home and affective well-being at the intersections of parental status and occupation
ILR Review
Economic risks and mental health during China's 2020 COVID-19 outbreak: A mixed-methods approach
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
Navigating Canadian permanent residency, citizenship, or returning home: Sources and strategies of social protection among Chinese international students amid (geo-) political and economic risks
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Straight jacket: The implications of multidimensional sexuality for relationship quality and stability
Sociological Science
How did COVID-19 containment policies influence depressive symptoms? Longitudinal evidence from China
Social Indicators Research
How have Asians experienced discrimination differently during COVID-19? The role of nativity
Migration, Mobility, & Displacement
Comfortably" Western": How Chinese international students imagine Canada
Canadian Ethnic Studies
Declining Chinese attitudes toward the United States amid COVID-19
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
State contexts, job insecurity, and subjective well-being in the time of COVID-19
Journal of Happiness Studies
Student loans, mental health, and substance use: A gender comparison among US young adults
Journal of American College Health
The early 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in China and subsequent flourishing: Medium-term effects and intervening mechanisms
Society and Mental Health
Belief in science and beliefs about COVID-19: Educational gradients
Sociology
Coethnic concentration and Asians’ perceived discrimination across US counties during COVID-19
Socius
Pregnant under quarantine: Women's agency and access to medical care under Wuhan's COVID-19 lockdown
SSM-Qualitative Research in Health
Reflecting on earlier affected areas that shaped COVID-19 mental health efforts
Discover Mental Health
The gender peak effect: Women are most vulnerable to infections during COVID-19 peaks
Frontiers in Public Health
Anti-Asian discrimination and the Asian-white mental health gap during COVID-19
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Belief in science and attitudes toward COVID-19: A demographic standardization approach to China–US comparison, 2020
China CDC Weekly
COVID-19 and adolescent mental health in the United Kingdom
Journal of Adolescent Health
How did Wuhan residents cope with a 76-day lockdown?
Chinese Sociological Review
Reprinted in Routledge International Handbook of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China ↗
Stigma, perceived discrimination, and mental health during China’s COVID-19 outbreak: A mixed-methods investigation
Journal of Health and Social Behavior
Reprinted in Routledge International Handbook of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China ↗
Who loses income during the COVID-19 outbreak? Evidence from China
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
Reprinted in Routledge International Handbook of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China ↗
Acute discrimination and East Asian-white mental health gap during COVID-19 in Canada
Canadian Diversity
Gender differences in educational adaptation of immigrant-origin youth in the United States
Demographic Research
Native-immigrant occupational segregation and worker health in the United States, 2004–2014
Social Science & Medicine
Long-term health and socioeconomic consequences of early-life exposure to the 1959–1961 Chinese famine
Social Science Research
Parental status and subjective well-being among currently married individuals in China
Journal of Family Issues
Chapters & other scholarly work
Protecting older adults’ mental health in the pandemic
BMJ
Opinion
Data
Data sources used in my research.
U.S. data
The U.S. Censuses & The American Community Surveys from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)
- Assortative mating among college graduates: Heterogeneity across fields of study
- Concentration and dispersion: School-to-work linkages and their impact on occupational assortative mating
- Did the COVID-19 pandemic make it worse? Working from home and affective well-being at the intersections of parental status and occupation
- Differences in occupational homogamy by race, ethnicity, and national origin: A social mobility strategy for Asian Americans
- Gender asymmetry in educational and income assortative marriage
- Man up, man down: Race–ethnicity and the hierarchy of men in female-dominated work
- Native-immigrant occupational segregation and worker health in the United States, 2004–2014
American Time Use Survey
- Did the COVID-19 pandemic make it worse? Working from home and affective well-being at the intersections of parental status and occupation
- Gender and educational variation in how temporal dimensions of paid work affect parental child care time
- Men and women at work: Occupational gender composition and affective well-being in the United States
Current Population Survey
- Couples' changing work patterns in the United Kingdom and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 job loss and re-employment among partnered parents: Gender and educational variations
- Did the COVID-19 pandemic make it worse? Working from home and affective well-being at the intersections of parental status and occupation
- Generation, education, and intermarriage of Asian Americans
- Men and women at work: Occupational gender composition and affective well-being in the United States
Data on income, jobs, and wages from the Economic Policy Institute
China data
Chinese General Social Surveys
- Educational and age assortative mating in China: The importance of marriage order
- Long-term health and socioeconomic consequences of early-life exposure to the 1959–1961 Chinese Famine
- Parental status and subjective well-being among currently married individuals in China
- Separating spheres: Cohort differences in gender attitudes about work and family in China
- The gender divide in urban China: Singlehood and assortative mating by age and education
- What makes a desirable spouse in China? New evidence from a national survey experiment
- Work, family, and gendered happiness among married people in urban China
Fudan Yangtze River Delta Social Transformation Survey (复旦大学长三角地区社会变迁调查)
China Family Panel Studies
- Beyond a marriage-centered framework: Non-marital relationships in international contexts and their implications for Chinese families
- Educational and age assortative mating in China: The importance of marriage order
- The resurgence of state-sector employment? The COVID-19 pandemic and Chinese workers’ shifting job satisfaction
Statistical databases from the National Bureau of Statistics of China
Aggregate data from the China Data Center at the University of Michigan
Canadian data
Cross-national data
East Asian Social Survey: A biennial social survey project that collects comparative, nationally representative data in four East Asian societies (Mainland China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan)
European Social Survey
- Beyond a marriage-centered framework: Non-marital relationships in international contexts and their implications for Chinese families
- Gendering digital labor: Work and family digital communication across 29 countries
- Who is concerned about digitalization? The role of digital literacy and exposure across 30 countries
Data about development in countries around the globe from the World Bank
Population datasets from the United Nations Population Division, in particular World Marriage Data and World Fertility Data
Global data on internet access and digital development from the International Telecommunication Union