Welcome to
Prof. Tang Wenfang WEBSITE
Professor TANG Wenfang is the Presidential Chair Professor, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.
Receiving his BA in Law from Peking University and PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago, Professor TANG served as the former Head and Chair Professor of the Division of Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2019-2022), C. Maxwell and Elisabeth M. Stanley and Hua-Hsia Chair Professor of Chinese Culture and Institutions, and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Iowa (2009 – 2019), Assistant, Associate and Full Professor of Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh (1990 – 2009). He was a Visiting Professor to Peking University, Tsinghua University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Visiting Research Professor at East Asian Institute, National Singapore University, and National Fellow at Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Professor Tang’s research focuses on public opinion, political culture and mass politics. He has authored and co-authored several books published by academic presses, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Stanford University Press, and University of Pittsburgh Press. He also published many articles in academic journals, including American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, Political Communication, Journal of Public Policy, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, among others. His book Populist Authoritarianism: Chinese Political Culture and Regime Sustainability (Oxford University Press, 2016) won the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award.
Professor Tang played a leading role in the 6th and 7th World Values Surveys. He also served as an Academic Advisory Committee member of Chinese Family Panel Survey (CFPS) at Peking University, Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) at Renmin University, and Chinese Labor Dynamics Survey (CLDS) at Sun Yat-Sen University.
He is currently the Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Political Science (since June 2025) and the Specialty Chief Editor for Comparative Governance at Frontiers in Political Science (since June 2021). He also serves as an editorial board member of Political Psychology and Advances in Political Psychology, and as an Executive Committee member of RC17 – Comparative Public Opinion, International Political Science Association (2016–2025).
Books and monographs
Tang, Wenfang and Xia, Ying. 2026. Proud and Angry: Political Culture in Post-British Hong Kong. Oxford University Press.
Tang, Wenfang. 2016. Populist Authoritarianism: Chinese Political Culture and Regime Sustainability. New York: Oxford University Press (winner of CHOICE Best Academic Title Award).
◆ Russian Edition: Тан Вэньфан. 2022. Популистский авторитаризм. Китайская политическая культура и устойчивость режима. New York: Academic Studies Press.
Tang, Wenfang and He, Gaochao. 2010. Separate but Loyal: Ethnicity and Nationalism in China, Honolulu: East-West Center.
Edited books
Articles
He, Danna., & Tang, Wenfang. 2024. Constructed Community: Rise and Engines of Chinese Nationalism Under Xi Jinping. Journal of Contemporary China, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2024.2339303.
Wenfang TANG. 2024. Democratic Authoritarianism: A Study of Chinese Political Orientations, in Yang Zhong and Ronald Inglehart, eds., China as Number 1? Merging Values of a Rising Power, University of Michigan Press, pp. 28-52. See a video presentation here.
Wenfang TANG and Yang ZHANG. 2023. Revolution Derailed: The Struggle for Internet Control and Media Freedom in China, Asian Politics and Policy, Volume 15, Issue 4, pages 563-584 (https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12721, Oct. 13).
Wenfang TANG and Yue HU. 2023. Detecting Grassroots Bribery in an Authoritarian Society: A Survey Experimental Approach, Journal of Contemporary China. VOL. 32, NO. 140, 207–224. DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2022.2071883.
Tang Wenfang, Hung JSY and Ho BYY (2022). Indigenization of Political Identity in Postcolonial Hong Kong. Frontiers in Political Science 4:837992. DOI: 10.3389/fpos.2022.837992. PDF
Wenfang TANG. 2022. Propatainment: Party History Education in China, in Anna Scott Bell ed., Party Watch Annual Report 2021, Center for Advanced China Research (CACR), Washington DC. Full text
张扬，唐文方（通讯作者）. 2022. “中国青年眼中的中国共产党：文化与制度的两重逻辑”, 《经济社会体制比较》.
ZHANG Yang and TANG Wenfang (corresponding author). Sources of Popular Political Trust of the Chinese Communist Party. No. 1: 158-170.
Elise Pizzi and Wenfang TANG (corresponding author). 2021. “Managed Mobilization: Ethnic Identity and Political Participation in China,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 27, Issue 4, 456-477. Abstract. Full text.
Wenfang Tang. 2020. “Publishing High Quality Quantitative Social Science Research Papers:A Reviewer’s Reflections” (in Chinese, 定量政治学论文审稿笔记)，《中国政治学》，2020.10, pp. 86-99. Reposted at 《政文观止》Poliview，Nov. 11, 2020.
Wenfang Tang and Jingjing Lin. 2020. “The CPC as a Populist Authoritarian Party: An Impressionable Years Analysis”, China: An International Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1 (February): 26-46.
Yingnan Joseph Zhou, Wenfang Tang and Xuchuan Lei. 2019. “Social Desirability of Dissent: an IAT Experiment with Chinese University Students,” Journal of Chinese Political Science, August 6. 1-26.
Tang, Wenfang. 2018. “The ‘Surprise’ of Authoritarian Resilience in China,”American Affairs, February, February 20: 101-117. Translated in Chinese: 民意调查与中国政权韧性的五大 “意外” 发现，《中国政治学》，2019第三辑，41-56.
Wenfang TANG. 2021. Understanding Authoritarianism: Review Essay, American Affairs, Summer, 2021, 139-153.
Liu, Xiaoyan and Tang, Wenfang (primary author). 2020. Sexism in Taiwan and Mainland China: “A Social Experimental Study”, China: An International Journal, August.
Tang, Wenfang. 2017. 《如何测量中国民主：关于民主与政治幸福感的讨论》 (Measuring Democracy in China: A Discussion on Democracy and Political Happiness), Issue 1, No. 10, National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China.
Tang, Wenfang, Yang Zhang and Martin, Sheri. 2017. “Revolution Postponed: The limitation of the internet in promoting democracy in China,” in Shan Wei and Yang Lijun, eds. The Rising Civil Society and State-Society Relations in China, New Jersey, London and Singapore: World Scientific.
Tang, Wenfang. 2017. “Same Bed, Different Dreams: The Bifurcation of the Chinese Communist Party,” in Shan Wei and Yang Lijun, eds. The Rising Civil Society and State-Society Relations in China, New Jersey, London and Singapore: World Scientific.
Tang, Wenfang, Hu, Yue and Jin, Shuai. 2016. “Affirmative Inaction: Education, Language Proficiency, and Socioeconomic Attainment among China’s Uyghur Minority,” Chinese Sociological Review, Summer, vol. 48 (4):1-22.
Tang, Wenfang. 2015. “Big Data and Small Data”, Journal of Sun Yat-Sen University (Social Science Edition), no. 6, vol. 55, general no. 258, 141-146.
Tang, Wenfang and Dong Erico Yu. 2015. “Public Policy Satisfaction in Urban China,” East Asian Policy, vol. 7, no. 2, 63-77.
Tang, Wenfang. 2014. “The Worshipping Atheist: Institutional and Diffused Religiosities in China,” China: An International Journal, vol. 12, no. 3 (December), pp. 1-26.
Tang, Wenfang, 2014, “Public Policy Satisfaction in Urban China: A Survey Report,” February, Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology.
Lewis-Beck, Michael, Tang, Wenfang, and Martini, Nicholas. 2014. “A Chinese Popularity Function: Sources of Government Support,” Political Research Quarterly, Volume 67, Issue 1, March, pp. 16 - 25.
Tang, Wenfang. 2013. 政治信任度之比较研究 – A Comparative Analysis of Political Trust, 《国外理论动态》- World Theoretical Trends, July, 66-81.
Tang, Wenfang and Benjamin Darr. 2012. “Chinese Nationalism and its Political and Social Origins,” Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 21, No. 77, September, pp. 811-826.
Tang, Wenfang. 2012. “中共党员群体特征及政治态度之分析”- “Chinese Communist Party Members in Transition,” in 《中国治理评论》- China Governance Review, vol. 1, no. 1.
Yang, Qing and Wenfang Tang. 2010. “Exploring the Sources of Institutional Trust in China: Culture, Mobilization, or Performance?” Asian Politics & Policy, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 415-436. Click to read
Tang, Wenfang, 1993. "Workplace Participation in Chinese Local Industrial Enterprises," American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 37, No. 3, August:920-940. Click to read
Tang, Wenfang, 2001. "Religion and Society in Taiwan and China: Evidence from Survey Data," in Shiping Hua, ed., Politics and Political Culture in Contemporary China, M.E. Sharpe. Click to read
Tang, Wenfang. 2009. “Dispute Resolution and Legal Reform in China”, China Review, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring), pp. 73-96. Click to read
Tang, Wenfang and Qing Yang. 2008. “The Chinese Urban Caste System in Transition”, China Quarterly. December. Vol. 196:759-779. Click to read
Tang, Wenfang, 2001. "Political and Social Trends in Post-Deng Urban China: Crisis or Stability?" China Quarterly, December, Vol 168:890-909. Click to read
Tang, Wenfang and William Parish. 1996. "Social Reaction to Urban Reform in China," Problems of Post-Communism, November-December. Click to read
Tang, Wenfang, 1993. "Post-Socialist Transition and the Environment," Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 13, August:89-109. Click to read
