Hong-Zen Wang, Distinguished Professor

Profile

Research Interests: Indigenous Studies, Studies of Cross-Border Investment, Vietnam Studies, Economic Sociology, Gender Studies
E-mail：hongzen@g-mail.nsysu.edu.tw
Extension：5655
Office：Room SS4012
ResearchGate Profile：https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hong_Zen_Wang

Education

Ph.D. in Sociology, Centre for Contemporary China Studies, School of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Australian National University

Current Positions

• Distinguished Professor, Department of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University (2023–Present)

Professional Experience

• Dean, Si Wan College, National Sun Yat-sen University (2021–Present)
• Professor, Department of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University (2007–2023)
• President, Taiwanese Sociological Association (2014–2015) (2014 ~ 2015)
• Chair, Department of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University (2007–2012; 2018–2019)
• Associate Professor and Professor, Graduate Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, National Chi Nan University (2004–2007)
• Assistant Professor and Associate Professor, Department of Marketing, National Chung Hsing University (2002–2004)
• Center for Futures Studies, Tamkang University (2000–2002)
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Southeast Asia Research Program, Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, Academia Sinica (1999–2000)
• Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs (1996–1999)

Research Statement

My master's and doctoral research focused primarily on political economy and economic sociology, examining social change from the perspective of business enterprises. After completing my Ph.D., I extended my research on Taiwanese firms to Taiwanese-invested enterprises in Vietnam, seeking to understand what happens when capital from Taiwan's semiperipheral economy expands overseas. My 2019 book, Under Global Production Pressure: Taiwan Capital, Vietnamese Workers and the State (National Taiwan University Press), examines the business practices of Taiwanese investors to illuminate global capitalism, Vietnamese society, and questions of identity in Taiwan.

As my research on Vietnam developed, I encountered the rapidly expanding phenomenon of cross-border marriages between Taiwan and Vietnam and began studying this issue. When Vietnamese migrant workers subsequently began coming to Taiwan, my research naturally expanded into migration studies. The cross-border mobility of women is an important subject of scholarly inquiry. My work has examined both the common patterns shared across East Asian societies and the distinctive characteristics of individual countries.

More recently, I have sought to bring research on gender and intimate relationships into economic sociology, particularly through the study of family businesses. Intimate relationships within families are not the same as social relationships within economic organizations. Earlier approaches in economic sociology, including the tradition of structural embeddedness associated with Polanyi and the relational embeddedness developed by Granovetter, have emphasized institutions, organizations, and networks among firms. Yet family businesses are found across societies, and relatively little attention has been paid to how intimate relationships shape their operations. This is the principal direction I hope to pursue in my future research.