Academic Staff

SSCI-listed Journal Articles

• Yang, Kai. (online first). "State governance and protest fragmentation: A critical inquiry into veterans’ activism in China." Critical Asian Studies. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14672715.2026.2629857.   
• Yang, Kai. “From parochial activism to national collective action: The changing landscape of minban teachers’ activism in China.” Modern China 51, no. 5 (2025): 512-540. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00977004251340281.
• Steinhardt, H. Christoph, and Kai Yang (*corresponding author). “Value-driven contention in China: Forms, tactics and state responses.” The China Quarterly 261 (2025): 39–56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741024001085.  
• Yang, Kai. "Accommodating veterans in China: Resettlement, resistance, and the rise of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs." The China Review 25, no. 1 (2025): 107-139. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/250/article/955348.
• Yang, Kai. "Demobilizing veterans: Campaign-style stability maintenance in China." Modern China 50, no. 4 (2024): 469-497. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00977004231209992.
• Chen, Xi, and Kai Yang. "The puzzle of cross-provincial activism in China: From relational dynamics to state strategies." Comparative Politics 55, no. 4 (2023): 597-615.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5129/001041523X16776927248933. 
• Yang, Kai. "Beyond parochial activism: Cross-regional protests and the changing landscape of popular contention in China." Journal of Contemporary China 32, no. 140 (2023): 280-295. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10670564.2022.2071907.
• Yang, Kai. "Mobilizing without solidarity: Sustained activism among Chinese veterans." The China Journal 87, no. 1 (2022): 1-19. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/717067.
• Yang, Kai, and Stephan Ortmann. "From Sweden to Singapore: The relevance of foreign models for China's rise." The China Quarterly 236 (2018): 946-967. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741018000486.   .

Book Chapters  

• Yang, Kai. 2024. "Disturbing but not politically threatening: Veterans' activism in the Xi Era," in Annie Luman Ren and Ben Hillman, eds, China Story Yearbook 2023: China's New Era, pp. 91-102. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
• Yang, Kai, and Stephan Ortmann. 2020. “The origins of the Singapore fever in China: 1978-1992,” in Stephan Ortmann and Mark R. Thompson, eds., China’s “Singapore Model” and Authoritarian Learning. London and New York: Routledge.
• Thompson, Mark R., Stephan Ortmann and Kai Yang. 2020. “Conclusion: The fall of the Singapore model.” in Stephan Ortmann and Mark R. Thompson, eds., China’s “Singapore model” and Authoritarian Learning. London and New York: Routledge.
• Yang, Kai. 2017. “Chinese mayors’ class in Singapore,” (in Chinese) in Yuanli Lyu, Wankun Zhang and Jiaxi Chen, eds., The Singapore Studies (2016 Volume), pp. 478-492. Beijing: Social Science Academic Press.

Other outputs

• Yang, Kai. 2023. "Disturbing but not politically threatening: Veterans' activism in the Xi era." The China Story, July 3, Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW), Australian National University (ANU). link: https://www.thechinastory.org/disturbing-but-not-politically-threatening-veterans-activism-in-the-xi-era/.

External Research Grants

• 2026-2028, Principal Investigator

Project Title: “Cross-Regional Collective Resistance in China: A Protest Event Analysis (2008-2024)”

Funding Source: General Research Fund (GRF), Hong Kong Research Grants Council; 36 months; HK$660,000 (additionally, Research & KT Excellence Award, HK$40,000)

• 2025-2027, Principal Investigator

Project Title: “How State Concessions Impact the Dynamics of Contention? Institutional Accommodation and the Changing Landscape of Veterans’ Activism in China”

Funding Source: General Research Fund (GRF), Hong Kong Research Grants Council; 36 months; HK$833,800 (additionally, Research & KT Excellence Award, HK$30,000)

Co-investigators: Xi Chen (CUHK), H. Christoph Steinhardt (University of Vienna), Ruoting Zheng (Xiamen University)

• 2022-2023, Principal Investigator

Project Activity: Conducting fieldwork in Mainland China

Funding Source: APSA Asia Workshops Alumni Grant, American Political Science Association (APSA), US$1,000

• 2021-2022, Principal Investigator

Project Title: “How Unorganized Interest Groups Organize Contention in China?”

Research Activity: Visiting Researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley (*Host Supervisor: Kevin J. O’Brien)

Funding Source: China-U.S. Scholars Program (CUSP) Fellowship (co-funded by the Ford Foundation, Harvard-Yenching Institute, among others; 12 recipients in the Greater China; 8 months; US$22,280)

• 2020-2021, Principal Investigator

Project Title: “Protest Event Analysis in Chinese Contentious Politics”

Research Activity: Visiting Researcher at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna (*Host Supervisor: H. Christoph Steinhardt)

Funding Source: Eurasia-Pacific Uninet Ernst Mach Grant, Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research, Austria (8 recipients in the Greater China; 9 months; EUR 9,500)

Internal Research Grants

• 2025-present, Principal Investigator

Funding Source: Presidential Early Career Scholar (PECS) Start-up Grant, Lingnan University, HK$50,000/year

• 2024-2025, Principal Investigator

Project Title: “The Origins and Evolution of Veteran's Activism in China”

Funding Source: Faculty Research Grant (FRG), Faculty of Social Sciences, Lingnan University, 19 months, HK$50,000

• 2023-2024, Principal Investigator

Funding Source: RAE Pilot Study Fund, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lingnan University, 12 months, HK$50,000

• 2023-2024, Principal Investigator

Funding Source: Research Seed Fund, LU Research Committee, Lingnan University, 18 months, HK$40,000

Academic Year:  2025-2026