School of Social and Political Science

Background

I am a Lecturer in Sociology at the School of Social and Political Science. My research interests include migration, work, emotions, intimacy and personal life, ethnicity and gender, rural-urban inequality, labour and welfare. My monograph, entitled Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration (with Bristol University Press), focuses on rural-urban migrants in a small city in Southwest China who work as ethnic performers and who are mostly from ethnic minority backgrounds. It explores the intimate consequences of inequalities and how intimacy, in turn, offers a fresh set of insights into the multi-layered, intersecting inequalities of the rural-urban divide, ethnicity, and gender in contemporary China. 

Before joining Edinburgh, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sociology at Bielefeld University in Germany, working for the ERC-funded project WelfareStruggles, which comparatively explores the logic of welfare provisions for migrant workers in global factories in China and Vietnam.  I was a visiting fellow for the Joint Project 'Worldmaking from a Global Perspective--a Dialogue with China', through which I visited the Sinology Department at Würzburg University in 2021.

Qualifications

• PhD in Sociology - University of Edinburgh (2020)
• MA in Sociology - Warwick University (2014)
• BA in Sociology and BA in Journalism -- Xiamen University (2013)

Teaching

Sociology of Emotions: Course Convenor (PG)

Sociology 1B: The Sociological Imagination: Private Troubles, Public Problems (UG)

Sociology Postgraduate Research Seminar: Course Co-convenor (PhD) (2023-2024)

Publications

Books

Mao, J. (2024). Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration—Experiences of Ethnic Performers in Southwest China, Bristol University Press.

Nguyen, M.T. and Mao, J. eds., (Forthcoming). The Contradictions of Market Socialism: Labour, Capital and Welfare in Privatising China and Vietnam. Policy Press.

Lin, J., Nguyen, M. and Mao, J., (Forthcoming). Migrant Labour in Global Factory: Care, Welfare and Government under Market Socialism in China and Vietnam. UCL Press.

Special Issues

Mao, J., Nguyen, M.T.N., & Wilcox, P. (Eds) (2025). Special Issue: Rural Futures in Late Socialist Asia: the Countryside in a Globalising World. Journal of Political Sociology.

Nguyen, M. T. N., Mao, J., & Rydström, H. (Eds.) (2024). Special Issue: Reconfiguring Labour and Welfare in the Global South: Market Participation as the Social Question. Global Social Policy.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Li, X., & Mao, J. (2026). Unpacking ‘Workplace Gaslighting’ as Labour Control in China’s White-Collar Workplace. European Journal of East Asian Studies. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-tat00007.

Mao, J., Nguyen, M. T., & Wilcox, P. (2025). Rural Futures in Late Socialist Asia: The Countryside in a Globalising World. Journal of Political Sociology, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.54195/jps.18021

Mao, J., & Zhu, Y. (2024). ‘Friends are those who can help you out’: unpacking the understanding and experiences of friendship among young migrant workers in China. Families, Relationships and Societies, 13(1), 17-33. https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321X16770752617895

Nguyen, M. T., Rydstrom, H., & Mao, J. (2024). Reconfiguring labour and welfare in the Global South: How the social question is framed as market participation. Global Social Policy, 24(2), 149-165. https://doi.org/10.1177/14680181241246767

Mao J. (2023) Doing Ethnicity: Multi-layered Ethnic Scripts in Contemporary China. The China Quarterly. 256:977-991. doi:10.1017/S0305741023000681

Mao, J. (2023) Bringing emotional reflexivity and emotional regime to understanding ‘the hukou puzzle’ in contemporary China. Emotions and Society, available from: https://doi.org/10.1332/263169021X16731871958851 (published online ahead of print 2023).

Lin, J. & Mao, J. (2023) More equitable fiscal systems are needed to improve welfare provision for migrant workers in China and Vietnam. Melbourne Asia Review. Edition 14. https://doi.org/10.37839/MAR2652-550X14.13 

Lin, Q. & Mao, J. (2022) A New Job after Retirement?: Negotiating Grandparenting and Intergenerational Relationships in Urban China, China Perspectives, 2022/1: 47-56. https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.13520 

Mao, J. (2021) Bordering work and personal life—Using ‘the multiplication of labour’ to understand ethnic performers’ work in Southwest China, China Perspectives, 2021/1: 9-17. https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.11283

Book Chapter

Mao, J.& Tian, Y. (Forthcoming). Producing the flexible working subject: seasonal bonus, the hyper-flexibilisation of labour and welfare arrangements of migrant factory workers in China. In Nguyen and Mao (eds) The Contradictions of Market Socialism: Labour, Capital and Welfare in Privatising China and Vietnam. Policy Press.

Book Reviews

Mao, J. (2025). The invention of tradition in China: story of a village and a nation remade (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan), by Suvi Rautio, Asian Ethnicity, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2025.2570377

Mao, J. (2022) Dystopian Emotions: Emotional landscapes and dark futures (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2022), edited by Jordan McKenzie and Roger Patulny, Emotions and Society, https://doi.org/10.1332/263169021X16508730025166

Mao, J. (2018). Masculine Compromise: Migration, Family, and Gender in China (California: University of California Press), by Susanne Yuk-Ping Choi and Yinni Peng,  Sociological Research Online, 23(3), 705–706. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780418784608

Mao, J. (2016). Development Interventions, Gender and Social Change in Rural China—A Case Study of Three Villages in Shaanxi (Moldova: Lambert Academic Publishing), by Lichao Yang, Women and Gender in Chinese Studies Review, vol.11. http://www.wagnet.ox.ac.uk/wagrev/journals/issue11.html

Other publication

Wang, H. & Mao, J. (2026) Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration: A Conversation with Jingyu Mao, Made in China Journal. https://madeinchinajournal.com/2026/02/05/intimacy-as-a-lens-on-work-an…

Lin, J. & Mao, J. (2022) Policy Brief: Changing Household Registration Systems and Worker Welfare in China and Vietnam, Bielefeld University:  https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/soziologie/forschung/projekte/…

Lin, J. & Mao, J. (2022) Policy Brief: Changing Labour Laws and Worker Welfare in Vietnam and China, Bielefeld University: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/soziologie/forschung/projekte/…

Lin, J. & Mao, J. (2022) Policy Brief: Taxation and Welfare Provision in China and Vietnam, Bielefeld University: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/soziologie/forschung/projekte/…

Topics interested in supervising

Migration, work and labour, emotions, intimacy and personal life, gender, rural-urban inequality

Administration

I am the Subject Area Research Ethics Lead (SAREL) for Sociology. Contact email: ethics-sociology@ed.ac.uk