Lihong Lei, Assistant Professor

Dr. Lihong Lei currently serves as an Assistant Research Professor at the Fudan Development Institute. He pursued his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees at the Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University, earning his Ph.D. in Anthropology in 2018 and was named “Tsinghua University Outstanding Doctoral Graduate.” After graduation, he conducted postdoctoral research at Minzu University of China before joining Fudan University in 2021. He also holds positions as an executive director and deputy secretary-general of the Developmental Anthropology Committee of the China Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and is a committee member of the Fudan University Ethnic Minorities Union.

His research interests primarily focus on religious and cultural changes, historical anthropology, and the construction of modern nation-states. He has conducted extensive fieldwork among the mountainous ethnic groups along the China-Myanmar border, the Hakka people in northern Guangdong, and the She people in eastern Fujian, integrating historical archives into his studies comprehensively. His doctoral thesis was awarded the “Tsinghua University Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation” and was nominated for the “6th Yu Tianxiu Sociology Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.”

His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Leisure Studies, Beijing Social Sciences, Folklore Studies, and Tsinghua Sociological Review, with two articles reprinted by China Social Science Excellence. He has participated in several major national social science projects and led a National Social Science Fund - Youth Project “The Documentation Collation and Research on the Multi-religion of Cross-border Ethnic Groups in Southwest China”.

Representative works include:

1.     Lei, Lihong. (2024). Exodus and return: State-building, local responses, and identity negotiation in China’s Burma borderlands, 1949-66. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 55(1).

2.     Lei, Lihong, & Siu, Weng-Hong. (2023). Tracing Ice tracks: Ice sports and socio-cultural transformations in modern China (1883-1945). Leisure Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2023.2293011

3.     Lei, Lihong. (2021). From private development to shared development: The cultural logic of the development practice of a Yunnan ethnic village. Tsinghua Sociological Review, 16. (Reprinted in Ethnic Studies, 2022(3) by China Social Science Excellence).(In Chinese)

4.     Lei, Lihong, & Chen, Xinxiang. (2021). Towards a human-centered sociology: Implications of Fei Xiaotong’s Reflection on the development of his sociological thoughts in his later years. Journal of Nanjing Normal University (Social Science Edition), (4). (Reprinted in Sociology, 2021(12) by China Social Science Excellence).(In Chinese)

5.     Lei, Lihong. (2020). Research on Lahu Na’s small family institution and its mechanism. Beijing Social Sciences, (9).(In Chinese)

6.     Zhang, Xiaojun, & Lei, Lihong. (2018). The Chinese experience of autonomous community development in rural areas: Towards community-based rural autonomy. Jiangsu Social Sciences, (3). (In Chinese)

7.     Zhang, Xiaojun, & Lei, Lihong. (2018). “Ghost sovereign” and sacred sovereignty regime: A research on the governing culture in southwest China. Folklore Studies, (3).(In Chinese)

8.     Lei, Lihong. (2016). What is margin? A study of the She people with Han surnames in eastern Fujian. In Zhuang Kongshao & Zhou Hong (Eds.), Anthropological Studies in China (Volume 8). Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press.(In Chinese)

Email: leilihong@fudan.edu.cn