I. Introduction

The School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SSBS) of Nanjing University comprises the Department of Sociology, the Department of Psychology, the Department of Social Work and Social Policy, and the Institute of Social Anthropology. Its sociology major is among the best in China.

The SSBS has 53 faculty members, including 30 of them are full professors; 22 earned their doctorates from international universities in the USA, the UK, Germany, Japan and so on; 5 have been awarded the prestigious title of "Changjiang Scholars" by the Ministry of Education, China. The faculty members specialize in the broad areas of: social theory, social stratification, education, demographics, international migration, family and gender, health and aging, urban development, and so on.

"Sociology: Chinese Society in Transition" is a 2-year master’s program tailored for international students. The SSBS offers a number of high-quality, fully English-taught courses for the program, and these courses are also open to Chinese graduate students, which will bring a more dynamic and diverse atmosphere to the classroom. After the completion of all course credits, students will conduct their thesis research relevant to Chinese society under the guidance of the supervisor. When graduating from NJU, students will receive a graduate diploma in sociology and be conferred a master's degree in law. The goal of the program is to help students secure promising career development in the fields of politics, economy, culture, education, and some may even become future leaders in these fields.

II. Objectives of the Program

1. Deepen students' critical understanding of the changing Chinese society;

2. Help students learn to conduct research on Chinese society;

3. Prepare students to become experts in Chinese affairs in related fields.

III. Requirements

1. Admission:

(1) Applicants should be non-Chinese citizens in good health.

(2) Applicants should have a bachelor’s degree or above and with an interest in the systematic and in-depth study of the Chinese society.

(3) Applicants whose native language is not English should submit TOFEL, IETLS or Duolingo scores (minimal requirement: TOEFL 85; IELTS 6.0; Duolingo English Test: 100).

(4) Applicants should be willing to learn Chinese and reach HSK 3  Level proficiency (Elementary Chinese) before graduation.

2. Medium of Instruction: English

3. Study Duration: The program takes 2 years of full-time study, including classroom instruction, practicum and thesis writing.

IV. Tuition & Scholarships

Tuition: RMB 35,000 (about $5,000) per academic year

Scholarships: The CSC Scholarship & The Nanjing Municipal Scholarship

V. Core Curriculum and Faculty

1. General Courses: Overview of China, Chinese Language

2. Curriculum Introduction

Introduction of Contemporary Chinese Society (当代中国社会导论)

Instructor：Wu Yuxiao, Yang Derui, Lyu Zhaojing, etc（吴愈晓、杨德睿、吕钊进等）

Brief：The course introduces a series of important issues in Chinese society in the form of special topics, including social stratification, ethnicity and religion, gender, family, education, social organizations and social work. Students can quickly increase their overall understanding of Chinese society. The course is co-taught by a number of professors from the SSBS who have research insights in these fields.

Cultural Anthropology of China (中国的文化人类学)

Instructor：Yang Derui, Qiu Yue, Ran Guangpei, Yangyang, etc （杨德睿、邱月、冉光沛、杨旸等）

Brief：This course reviews and discusses some basic anthropological explorations into economic and development issues, especially those concerning relationships between material items and human organizations and the ways to deal with them, including food foraging, farming, production, circulation, consumption, technology, innovation, gender and class differentiation, with consideration of people’s cognition(s), understanding(s), feeling(s) about and attachments to material items. It is aimed at helping students develop a new and different view on economy and development with a focus on people’s livelihood. The course is co-taught by a number of anthropologists from the SSBS.

Global Migration and China: Current Transitions and Future Challenges（全球流动和中国：当下的变迁和未来的挑战）

Instructor：Aeneas Zi Wang （王梓）

Brief: This course begins with an orientation to the field of migration studies in sociology, where students will be familiarised with key concepts, the interdisciplinary nature of the field, as well as its broad spectrum of research methods and approaches. This course is then split into two sections. In the first section, emphasis will be on the socio-economic causes and consequences of contemporary Chinese migration to important host regions in the world. Within this context, we analyse issues of inclusion, diversity, and citizenship in different host country settings, as well as outline the contours of transnational ties of Chinese communities worldwide. The second section is devoted to studying China’s potential as an emerging destination against the backdrop of regional demographic change and competition for talents and skilled labour.

Gender, Family and Social Changes in China (中国的性别、家庭和社会变迁)

Instructor：Zhou Peiqin （周培勤）

Brief：This course is an introduction to the study of gender and family in contemporary China. Topics include kinship, masculinity and femininity, marriage and divorce, family-planning polices, childrearing, work-family conflicts, the decline of patriarchy, the rise of neo-familism, the crisis of elderly care, and other important nodes in the intersection of gender and family. The main objective of the course is to help students gain an in-depth understanding of contemporary Chinese society through the two important social institutions, gender and family. The course emphasizes and provides opportunities for students to participate, while also encouraging cross-country comparisons around relevant topics.

Research on Health and Health Inequalities (健康和健康不平等研究)

Instructor：Chai Xiangnan（柴向南）

Brief：This course delves into the prevalent issues of health disparities and their root causes, with a particular emphasis on the situation in China and globally. It encompasses an exploration of several mid-level theories in the sociology of health, along with a review of seminal and contemporary empirical research in this field. The course also provides an overview of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies for conducting sociological research in this domain. Furthermore, the course includes an in-depth study of two specific subjects: mental health in present-day China and caregiving in the era of population aging.

Community and Cultural Identity (社区和文化身份)

Instructor：Qiu Yue（邱月）

Brief：This course aims to explore the concepts and theories related to community and cultural identity from an interdisciplinary perspective. As a reflection of various forms of collective living, communities serve as the foundation for people's cultural identity, sense of security, and belonging. Particularly in the context of individualization, globalization, and even anti-globalization trends, studying different forms of communities allows for a deeper understanding of our society and world. Through a series of case studies, the course examines the characteristics of some domestic and foreign communities and their interwoven relationship with cultural identity. In addition, the course leads students to conduct small-scale ethnographic research to get some first-hand experience while gaining some research training.

Urban Development in East Asia（东亚社会的都市发展）

Instructor：Jin Yi（金毅）

Brief：This course focuses on various aspects of urban development in Mainland China and some other East Asian (including Southeast Asian) countries and regions, such as South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR, etc. It will explore urban issues like land politics, housing provision, urban regeneration, the regulation of informality, and people’s everyday life. This course aims at helping students catch a glimpse of the urban development in different countries and regions in East Asia, one of the fastest urbanising regions in the past several decades, as well as understand the key theories, concepts and topics in urban sociology and urban studies.

China and the World (1793-1949) (中国和世界1793-1949)

Instructor：Kent Wan（温伯坚）

Brief：As China reemerges as a global power and assumes its rightful place as the centrifugal force in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, students would benefit from a look at the rearview mirror to examine how China fell from the pinnacle of geopolitical power during the Qing dynasty, became a semi-decolonialized nation-state in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as fought and won a war of annihilation against the fascistic powers in the 1930s and 1940s. China’s precipitous decline in previous eras made its revitalization the central objective of statesmen such as Sun Yat-sen, a goal that has only been recently accomplished. By studying China’s past, students could gain a better appreciation of the hopes, aspirations, and fears of current Chinese citizens as well as leaders.

Economic Anthropology (经济人类学)

Instructor：Chu Jianfang (褚建芳)

Brief：This course reviews and discusses some basic anthropological explorations into economic and development issues, especially those concerning relationships between material items and human organizations and the ways to deal with them, including food foraging, farming, production, circulation, consumption, technology, innovation, gender and class differentiation, with consideration of people’s cognition(s), understanding(s), feeling(s) about and attachments to material items. It is aimed at helping students develop a new and different view on economy and development with a focus on people’s livelihood.

Independent Study (独立研究)

Brief：This course is designed to help students begin their thesis research. Under the guidance of his/her supervisor, each student will complete a thesis proposal that includes a literature review, research questions, an explanation of the research methods he/she will employ to collect data, a preliminary plan for analyzing the data and references.

3. Faculty Profiles

Professor Wu Yuxiao studied at the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University in the U.S. and obtained a doctorate in philosophy. His research interest lies in social stratification and mobility, educational sociology, occupation and labor market and quantitative research methods. He has published many papers in Chinese Social Sciences, Sociological Studies, Society and Sociological Perspectives.

Professor Yang Derui received his doctorate in anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology, the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on anthropology of religion, anthropology of cultural transmission, Daoism and Chinese folk religions.

Associate Professor Chu Jianfang obtained his doctorate in anthropology from Peking University and worked as a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on economic anthropology, ethnic culture research, ritual and symbol research, ethnic research in Southwest China and Southeast Asia, and social and cultural anthropology theory and methods.

Associate Professor Wang Zi Aeneas holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in Sociology and East Asian studies from the University of Duisburg-Essen, an MA from Sciences Po Paris, and a BA from Waseda University. His primary research and pedagogical interests include consequences of demographic change and contingencies of transnational migration within Asia and between Asia and Europe and Latin America. Most of his works are anchored in the sociology of education, culture, and wellbeing contexts and examine effects of the interplay between these factors and the act of migration on individuals, communities, and states. He has published articles in International Migration Review, International Migration, and Migration Studies, and monographs with Routledge and De Gruyter.

Associate Professor Zhou Peiqin received her doctorate in mass communication from the University of Alabama. Her research and teaching focuses on gender studies and media culture studies, and her current research is on the career development of women working in computer science. She has rich experience in international academic exchanges and has been a visiting scholar at universities in the United States, Australia, Germany, France and other countries.

Assistant Professor Chai Xiangnan graduated from the Department of Sociology of the University of Western Ontario with a doctorate degree. His research interests include global health, health and health inequalities, population aging, and the life course. He published papers on public health, sociological, and gerontological journals. Currently, his projects concentrate on health lifestyles, health literacy, and digital health under the context of population aging of China, Canada, and beyond.

Assistant Professor Qiu Yue obtained her doctorate from the Division of Humanities at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include disaster studies, place-making, and immigrant studies. Currently, she is working on a series of papers that focus on the reinvention of social space in Ikebukuro, Japan.

Dr. Jin Yi studied sociology at Peking University and urban studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom. His research interest lies in urban regeneration and redevelopment, sociology of development, social theory on space, and qualitative research methods. He has published papers in journals like the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Housing Studies, and Urban Planning.

Dr. Li Aihong holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, where her research investigates the intricate dynamics of internal migration's impact on family life. Li's academic interests span a wide spectrum, encompassing social stratification and mobility, migration and integration, financialization and financial inclusion, and the interplay of gender, family and work. Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Ageing & Society, among others.

Dr. Lyu Zhaojin holds a PhD in Sociology from UAlbany-SUNY. He specializes in conducting in-depth research on group identity from a cultural sociological perspective. During his graduate study, he examined the changes in the presentations of ethnic and national identity in history textbooks and accumulated extensive experience in qualitative discourse analysis. Recently, he expanded his focus to include areas such as transnational migration and internet media. His work has been published in journals, including Open Times, The China Quarterly, and Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power.

Dr. Ran Guangpei holds a PhD in Asian Studies (Anthropology) at the University of Westminster. His research areas includes audio-visual sensory anthropology, everyday ethics, and cultural heritage. He is now a visiting scholar at University of Freiburg.

Dr. Yang Yang holds a PhD in anthropology from University of St Andrews. Her research combines political economic and psychological perspectives. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the UK and the Pearl River Delta, China. Her work explores how UK-based artists put up with financial and affective struggles and why they struggle. She is also looking at how an international youth leadership organization shapes the working lives of international migrants in China.

VI. Application Method

Self-sponsored program: /English/StudyatNJU/Admissions/MastersPrograms/index.htm

Scholarships:

CSC (Type B) High-Level Postgraduate Program 

/English/StudyatNJU/Scholarships/ChineseGovernmentScholarship/20230414/i242759.html

CSC Youth of Excellence Scheme

/English/StudyatNJU/Scholarships/ChineseGovernmentScholarship/20231225/i256693.html

Nanjing Municipal Scholarship

/English/StudyatNJU/Scholarships/NanjingMunicipalScholarship/index.html

VII. Contact

School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University

Contact Person: Zhou Peiqin

Tel: 86-25-89680951

Email: peiqinzhou@nju.edu.cn

Website: https://sociology.nju.edu.cn/

Institute for International Students

Contact Person: Zhong Qiaorui (Self-sponsored Program), Wang Dongxu(Scholarship)

Tel: 86-25-83594535

Email: zqr@nju.edu.cn, wangdongxu@nju.edu.cn