Prof Xiaoli Tian
Associate Professor
3917 5695
9.22, 9/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus
Xiaoli Tian is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at The University of Hong Kong. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Her research interests span social interaction, digital media, medical sociology, and cultural sociology, with current projects examining online interaction dynamics and Traditional Chinese Medicine in contemporary China.
Professor Tian serves as Associate Editor for two premier journals—Social Science & Medicine and Symbolic Interaction.
Professor Tian has received several prestigious recognitions, including the Early-in-Career Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI), the Outstanding Paper Award (2022–23) from the Academy of Hong Kong Studies, an Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence, and a Student Paper Award from the American Sociological Association (CITAMS).
Her research appears in leading journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, Social Science & Medicine, Sociological Forum, Qualitative Sociology, Information, Communication & Society, Modern China, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and Symbolic Interaction, among others.
PhD, Sociology
University of ChicagoMPhil, Sociology
Chinese University of Hong KongBA Sociology and Economics
Peking UniversityNew media
Social interaction
Social studies of science and technology
Medical sociology
Comparative and historical sociology
Information and communication technology
Cultural sociology
Traditional Chinese Medicine in contemporary society
The Use of E-work apps and workplace social interaction in China
Popularity of Online fictions in Contemporary China
Online interaction and social relationships in China
2022-23 Outstanding Paper Award, The Academy of Hong Kong Studies.
2018 Early-in-Career Award, Society for the Studies of Symbolic Interaction
2017 Outstanding Author Contribution, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence
2016 The Huntington Library Fellowship, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, California, USA.
2009 Student Paper Award, the American Sociological Association, Communication and Information Technologies Section
2008 Social Science Research Paper Competition, the University of Chicago
2008 Honorable Mention for the Graduate Student Paper Award Competition, American Sociological Association, Social Psychology Section
2005 Carl Couch Internet Research Award.
Journal articles:
Tian, Xiaoli and Yui Fung Yip. 2026 Accepted and forthcoming. “Passivity as Posture in Social Interaction.” Symbolic Interaction.
Tian, Xiaoli, Youxiao Wang and Jiangnan Zhu. 2026. “Lived Efficacy and Chinese Medicine: Post-COVID-19 Self-Health Management in Chinese Mainland.” Social Constellations. 1(2):32-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66630/sc.2026.0010
Tian, Xiaoli, Sining Wang and Longwen Fu. 2025. “Exclusive versus Integrative Professional Norms: A Comparative Study of Biomedical Attitudes Toward Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland” Social Science and Medicine. Volume 400, July 2026, 119201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119201
Tian, Xiaoli. 2025. “Through the Double Lens of the “Marginal Man” and Biography: Intellectual Diversity Among Chinese Students at Chicago.” American Sociologist. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-025-09660-8
Tian, Xiaoli and Sai Zhang. 2024. “Legitimacy and Professional Boundaries: An Institutional Analysis of Chinese Medicine in Mainland China and Hong Kong.” Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593241303612
Liu, Dan and Xiaoli Tian. 2024. “Repairing with a Warm Heart: How Medical Practitioners Cultivate Affective Relationships with Clients.” Social Science & Medicine. Vol. 362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117449
Tian, Xiaoli and Qian Li. 2023. “Seeking Certainty in an Asymmetric Relationship: Livestream Shopping in China.” Qualitative Sociology. Online first: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-023-09549-3
Zhang, Long and Xiaoli Tian. 2024. “Defending the Hospital or Supporting the Complainant: Morality in Medical Disputes.” Chinese Sociological Review 56(1): 63–91.
Tian, Xiaoli, Dan Liu and Xiaoyan Han. 2023. “Living in the Shadow of Market Competition: Career Commitment and Orders of Worth of Social Workers in Shanghai”. American Journal of Cultural Sociology. Online first: https://rdcu.be/dnoyE
Miao, Weishan and Xiaoli Tian. 2022. Accepted and forthcoming. “Persona: How professional women in China negotiate gender performance online.” Social Media and Society.
Tian, Xiaoli and Sai Zhang. 2022. “Expert or experiential knowledge? How knowledge informs situated action in childcare practices.” Social Science & Medicine. Online first: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115195
Deng Yunxue and Xiaoli Tian. 2021. “Triadic Interaction and Collective Bargaining of Autoworkers in South China” Journal of Contemporary China. 31(135): 459-473.
Tian, Xiaoli and Yanan Guo. 2021. “An Online Acquaintance Community: The Emergence of Chinese Virtual Civility.” Symbolic Interaction. 44 (4): 771–797.
A video abstract is available at https://youtu.be/2tG40y8J11ETian, Xiaoli. 2021. “An Interactional Space of Permanent Observability: WeChat and Reinforcing the Power Hierarchy in Chinese Workplaces.” Sociological Forum. 36 (1): 51-69.
Li, Xu-Hong, Tian-Ming Zhang, Yuen Yum Yau, Yi-Zhou Wang, Yin-Ling Irene Wong, Lawrence Yang, Xiao-li Tian Cecilia Lai-Wan Chan and Mao-Sheng Ran. 2020. “Peer-to-peer contact, social support and self-stigma among people with severe mental illness in Hong Kong”. International Journal of Social Psychiatry.
Cheris Shun-ching Chan, Paul Joosse, Sylvia J. Martin, and Xiaoli Tian. 2020. “Ethnography in Calamitous Times.” Special Issue on “Ethnography in the age of Covid-19”, Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa (Italian Journal of Ethnography and Qualitative Research). 2020(2): 175-184.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2019. “The Allure of Being Modern: Personal Quality as Status Symbol Among Migrant Families in Shanghai” Chinese Sociological Review. 51(3): 311-335.
Tian, Xiaoli. (2019) “Space and Personal Contacts: Cross-Group Interaction between Mainland and Local University Students in Hong Kong”. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships vol. 36(1) 63–82.
Lin, Tony Zhiyang and Xiaoli Tian. 2018. “Audience Design and Context Discrepancy: How Online Debates Lead to Opinion Polarization.” Symbolic Interaction. 42(1): 70-97. A video abstract is available at https://youtu.be/U5qdm6eiQ1M.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2018. “Escaping the interpersonal power game: Online shopping in China.” Qualitative Sociology. 41(4), 545-568.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2017. “Immediate Context, Life Experiences, and Perception: How Do Rural Migrants in Urban China Perceive an Unfair Policy?” Chinese Sociological Review. 49 (2): 138-161.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2017. “Embodied versus disembodied information: How online artifacts influence offline interpersonal interaction.” Symbolic Interaction. 40 (2): 190-211.
Tian, Xiaoli and Yunxue Deng. 2017. “Organizational Hierarchy, Deprived Masculinity, and Confrontational Practices: Men Doing Women’s Jobs in a Global Factory.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 46 (4): 464-489.
Tian, Xiaoli and Michael Adorjan. 2016. “Fandom and Coercive Empowerment: The commissioned production of Chinese online literature.” Media, Culture & Society. 38 (6): 881-900.
Tian, Xiaoli , Daniel A. Menchik. 2016. “On Violating One’s Own Privacy: N-adic Utterances and Inadvertent Disclosures in Online Venues.” Studies in Media and Communications, 11: pp. 3 – 30.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2016. “Network Domains in Social Networking Sites: Expectations, Meanings, and Social Capital”. Information, Communication & Society. 19 (2): 188-202.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2015. “Rumor and Secret Space: Organ-Snatching Tales and Medical Missions in Nineteenth-Century China.” Modern China. 41 (2): 197-236.
Menchik, Daniel and Xiaoli Tian. 2008. “Putting Social Context into Text: The Semiotics of Email Interaction.” American Journal of Sociology. 114: 332-70.
田晓丽，叶芮丰。2025。“隐忍:中国人际互动的特征”，《北大社会学刊》2025 第5辑。北京：商务印书馆。Pp.145-169.
(Tian, Xiaoli and YipYui Fung. 2025. “Passivity: The Characteristic of Interpersonal Interactions in China.” PKU Journal of Sociology. 5(2):145-169. Beijing: Commercial Press.)
田晓丽。2026. 从“边缘人”到“旅居者”：芝加哥大学社会学系的早期中国学生及其华人移民调查，收编于《逆旅行人：芝加哥大学社会科学传统》王利平主编。 北京：北京大学出版社.
(Tian, Xiaoli. 2026. "From 'Marginal Man' to 'Sojourner': Early Chinese Students in Chicago Sociology and Their Chinese Immigrant Studies." In The Chicago Tradition of Social Sciences, edited by Wang Liping. Beijing: Peking University Press.)
Book chapter:
Li, Qian and Xiaoli Tian. 2022. “The Presence, Performance, and Publics of Online Interactions.” Oxford Handbook of Symbolic Interaction, edited by Wayne Brekhus, Thomas DeGloma and William Force. Oxford University Press.
Tian, Xiaoli and Yui Fung Yip. 2021. “Physical Co-presence and Distinctive Features of Online Interactions.” in The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism, edited by Dirk vom Lehn, Natalia Ruiz-Junco, and Will Gibson. London, Routledge.
Tian, Xiaoli and Qian Li. 2021. “Facework on Chinese Social Media.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Digital Media. Edited by Sarah Sobieraj and Deana Rohlinger. Oxford University Press.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2019. “Fantasy is More Believable: The Shadow Civil Sphere in Chinese Online Fiction.” Pp. 167-187 in The Civil Sphere in East Asia. Edited by Jeffrey Alexander, David Palmer, Sunwoong Park and Agnes Shuk-mei Ku. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tian, Xiaoli. 2017. “Face-work on Social Media: The Presentation of Self on Renren and Facebook.” Chinese Social Media Today: Social, Cultural, and Political Implications. Edited by Mike Kent, Katie Ellis and Jian Xu. London: Routledge.