SCCEI Seminar Series (Spring 2025)

Friday, May 2, 2025 | 1:45 pm -3:05 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

Flick, Click, and Sick: Mental Health Risks of Short-Video Platforms

This study examines the causal impact of short-video platforms like Douyin on mental health in China since 2016. Using city-level data on platform adoption and 4G expansion, combined with individual panel data from the China Family Panel Studies, we identify causal effects by focusing on pre-2016 mobile internet users in high-4 G-penetration cities. Our findings reveal significant mental health deterioration among affected individuals, with stronger depressive symptoms emerging over time. Effects are most pronounced among vulnerable populations: rural residents, youth, the elderly, and those without college degrees, with rural left-behind youths and the elderly showing the most severe outcomes. We identify four key impact channels: (1) heightened social comparison and inequality perception, with affected users reporting lower perceived income and greater awareness of societal inequality; (2) altered time use, including reduced work hours, sleep, and exercise; (3) declining non-cognitive abilities and physical health, evidenced by lower self-reported health status and increased doctor visits; and (4) weakened interpersonal relationships, demonstrated by decreased time and attention affected adults devote to parents and/or children. These findings highlight the unintended consequences of digital innovation on mental health, particularly for vulnerable demographics, and offer important insights for policymakers balancing technological advancement with public health considerations.

Please register for the event to receive email updates and add it to your calendar. Light refreshments will be provided.

About the Speaker 
 

Ting Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Accountancy, Economics and Finance (AEF) at Hong Kong Baptist University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Social Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015. Her research specializes in political economy, economic history, and long-term development economics, with a focus on assessing the effectiveness and economic impact of China’s historical and current policies. Her works have been published in Economic Journal and Quarterly Journal of Economics. She serves as the associate director of the Centre for Business Analytics and the Digital Economy (CBADE)  in the School of Business. She is the associate editor of Pacific Economic Review and Regional Science and Urban Economics.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

SCCEI Seminar Series (Spring 2025)

Friday, May 16, 2025 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

Renegotiating Patriarchy: Property, Lineage, and Gender Inequality in Contemporary China

Gender wealth gaps persist across societies, often attributed to individual factors such as education, work experience, and lifetime earnings. However, structural inequalities rooted in traditional patriarchal kinship systems—characterized by patrilocal marriages and patrilineal inheritance—systematically exclude women from inheriting family wealth. To examine how women and their families navigate these institutional barriers in wealth and inheritance, I conduct original surveys and field research in China, where rapid economic and demographic transformations coexist with enduring patriarchal norms. Specifically, I demonstrate that in the Chinese context, where surname inheritance is closely tied to wealth inheritance, declining fertility rates, coupled with economic and cultural shifts, have spurred growing public support for assigning maternal surnames to children. I further show that this renegotiation of patrilineal practices surrounding surnames and lineage enables Chinese women to maintain a closer bond and secure greater support from their natal families. These findings shed light on the mechanisms through which social change unfolds within patriarchal systems and reveal key conditions for women’s empowerment in the private domain.

Please register for the event to receive email updates and add it to your calendar. Lunch will be provided.

About the Speaker 
 

Fangqi Wen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the Ohio State University. Before joining OSU, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University and a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Sociology at ​Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. She received her PhD in Sociology from New York University.

Fangqi’s research centers on the relationships among social institutions, demography, and gender inequality. Specifically, she examines the sources of inequality and how women and their families renegotiate patriarchal social norms. Additionally, she studies social stratification and mobility in historical settings and investigates the misperceptions of inequality and social mobility in the contemporary world. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as Demography, Social Science Research, Population and Development Review, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and has been featured in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and South China Morning Post.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

This talk will be in Chinese (Mandarin).

In this talk, Professor Ge Zhaoguang (葛兆光) will take on fundamental questions on the evolution of “China” as a historical entity (“何谓中国”). His talk will problematize the concept of “China”, discuss issues related to Chinese identity and the “inner” and “outer” historical changes over time. These issues are examined in the context of China’s distinct transformation from a traditional dynasty into a modern state. Professor Ge will provide his reflections of understanding China from a comparative perspective.

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here.

About the Speaker
 

Professor Ge Zhaoguang is a University Distinguished Professor of Fudan University in Shanghai, China. An eminent historian and public intellectual, he has published influential works in the areas of social thoughts, intellectual history, global history, and histography of China and Asia Studies. Many of His works are translated into English, including What Is China?: Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History (Harvard University Press, 2018); An Intellectual History of China (two volumes) (Brill, 2014, 2018). He is the recipient of many honors, including first “Princeton Global Scholar (2009), “Asia and Pacific Award” (2014) in Japan, “Paju Book Award” (2014) in South Korea, and HongKong Book Award (2015).

This talk is co-sponsored by Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), the Department of East Asian Language and Civilization (EALC) and Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI).