Chinese young people are undergoing a reflexive movement, rethinking their relationships with family, school, work, and society. How can we study this process of critical consciousness formation in a way that will contribute to the further development of critical consciousness? In this lecture Prof. Xiang will reflect on his experience of engaging in public conversations as a method of research and of public intervention.

Xiang Biao studied sociology at Beijing University and received his PhD in social anthropology from the University of Oxford. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford until 2021, when he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology where he now serves as Director of the Department of Anthropology of Economic Experimentation. His research addresses various types of migration and mobility in China, India and other parts of Asia. Through the lens of migration, he has examined a wide range of political economy issues, including state-society relations, labour, social reproduction, and mobility governance. One of the most celebrated anthropologists on contemporary China, Prof. Xiang’s ideas are widely discussed both in China and abroad, and his publications have been translated into French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, and Spanish. He is the winner of numerous prices including the 2008 Anthony Leeds Prize and the 2012 William L. Holland Prize. His newest book Self as Method (co-authored with Wu Qi) sold over 150,000 copies in China.

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DATE: Thursday, January 9, 2025
TIME: 16:45 – 18:15
LOCATION: SIN 1, at the Department for East Asian Studies/Chinese Studies, Altes AKH, Campus, Spitalgasse 2, Yard 2, Entrance 2.3