Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
I study the intersections of technology, law, society, and political economy. My research examines how state power, market forces, and technological change interact to reshape work, governance, and public life—from China's digital economy to the global politics of critical industries.
I am a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University and a Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. I am also affiliated with several centers at Harvard, including the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies—where I am one of the co-leaders of the Taiwan Studies initiative—the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Asia Center.
I was born and raised in Taiwan. My academic background bridges law and sociology—I hold an LLM and a JSD from Yale Law School, as well as a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Following my graduation from Michigan in 2013, I served as a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 2013 to 2016. In academic year 2018–2019, I was a visiting professor at Sciences Po in France.
My research spans political economy, political sociology, economic sociology, the sociology of work and labor, science and technology studies, law and society, the sociology of media and information technologies, development, and China studies, with a primary emphasis on qualitative and comparative methods.
My research has received numerous awards and honors from multiple sections of the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, the Law and Society Association, the Paris Institute for Advanced Study, the American Academy in Berlin, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and Harvard University, among other organizations.
Princeton University Press, 2023
Princeton University Press, 2018
The semiconductor shortage, the U.S.–China rivalry, and growing fears about dependence on overseas supply chains have triggered one of the most ambitious industrial-policy projects in decades: the effort to rebuild advanced manufacturing in the United States. At the center of that effort stands Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s most important chipmaker, whose expansion from Taiwan to Arizona has become a test case for the future of industrial policy in the twenty-first century.
Based on years of fieldwork in the United States and Taiwan, The Great Chip Migration offers an unprecedented inside account of what it actually takes to rebuild a strategically important industry under conditions of geopolitical competition.
The book argues that productive capabilities are not simply technologies or assets that can be relocated through investment. As governments seek to rebuild strategically important industries in response to geopolitical rivalry, they discover that productive capabilities cannot simply be relocated. Instead, such capabilities must be reconstructed through organizations, institutions, infrastructure, workers, families, and communities.
The book follows policymakers, executives, engineers, workers, and families as they confront the challenges of industrial reconstruction. Community colleges absorb the costs of training a workforce that industrial policy depends upon but only partially funds. Taiwanese spouses absorb the household burdens of a labor regime that no policy acknowledges. Political coalitions that celebrate industrial-policy victories later weaken the very institutions that made those victories possible.
Where earlier accounts have focused on the geopolitical stakes of the semiconductor race, The Great Chip Migration asks what that race actually requires on the ground. It shows that rebuilding industry is not simply a matter of subsidies, factories, or technology. It is a process of reconstructing the social foundations of production.
Supported by the American Academy in Berlin (Berlin Prize Fellowship) and the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (FIAS Fellowship).
Journal articles and book chapters
Since 2016, I have had the privilege of advising and mentoring approximately thirty individuals from diverse backgrounds, including PhD students in the Department of Sociology, LLM and SJD students at Harvard Law School, Masters students in the Regional Studies East Asia Program, undergraduates, and postdoctoral fellows at the Fairbank Center.
I am passionate about working with students interested in exploring the intersection between technology, law, society, economy, and politics.
I welcome inquiries about research collaborations, speaking invitations, and prospective student advising. Feel free to reach out.