Professor LAI Yuen Shan, Ruby
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Assistant Professor
Contact
Tel: (852) 2616 7229
Fax: (852) 2456 0737
Email: [email protected]
Office
WYL228, Dorothy Y L Wong Building
Department of Sociology and Social Policy
Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong
Ruby Y.S. Lai is a sociologist and an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. She specializes in gender, family, reproductive politics, informal housing, feminist movements, sexual violence, and qualitative methodology. Her research examines the intersection of multiple inequalities and the agency of disadvantaged groups and minorities.
Her monograph, Premarital Abortion in China: Intimacy, Family, and Reproduction (Routledge, 2023), explores the impact of socioeconomic transformation on the reproductive experiences of young adult women in contemporary China. Her current research investigates the gendered effects of housing precarity, with a focus on individuals and families living in subdivided units in Hong Kong. Another ongoing project examines sexual harassment in public spaces and the intersection of gender and spatial injustice in urban environments.
Lai was a Fulbright Junior Scholar (2018–2019) and will be a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute (2025–2026). She is a recipient of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship (2014–2019), the Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020–2021), and the Research Grants Council Early Career Award (2022–2023). Her publications appear in the Sociology, The Sociological Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, China Quarterly, Signs, Politics & Gender, Current Sociology and Contraception, among others.
- Gender and Family
- Reproductive Politics
- Informal Housing
- Sexual Violence
- Ethnic Minorities
- Qualitative Methods
BA (CUHK); M.Phil. (CUHK); PhD (CUHK)
Book Monograph
Lai, R. Y. S. 2023. Premarital Abortion in China: Intimacy, Family and Reproduction. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
Journal Articles
Lai, R. Y. S. 2026. Repairing Home, Rebuilding Mental Well-Being: Mitigating Housing Precarity Through Community Materialities of Care. Health & Social Care in the Community, 2573798. https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/2573798
Lai, R. Y. S. 2026. From liberal to state feminism? Exploring gender politics amid political transition in Hong Kong. Globalizations, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2026.2634520
Lai, R. Y. S. 2026. Abortion caringscapes: female homosociality and reproductive healthcare in post-one-child China. Journal of Gender Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2025.2607614
Chiu T. Y., and Lai, R. Y. S. 2025. Understanding Migrant Familyhood through a Relational Spatio-Temporal Framework: Cross-Border Families Navigating Im/Mobilities before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385251350089
Lai, R. Y. S., Au-Yeung, T. C., & Shu, C. 2025. One country, two governances: A comparative study on policy intervention of informal housing in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/ics.2025.21
Philipson Garcia, D., … Lai, R. Y. S., et al. 2025. Is Scholar-Activism an Oxymoron? Reflecting on the Challenges and Opportunities for Scholarly Activism or Activist Scholarship in the Politics and Gender Field. Politics & Gender, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X25000194
Chan, CY*, Lai, R. Y. S.*, et al. 2024. The effect of dwelling size on the mental health and quality of life of female caregivers living in informal tiny homes in Hong Kong. BMC Public Health, 24(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19915-7 (*Co-first author)
Lai, R. Y. S. 2024. Political polarization and intimate distance: Negotiating family conflicts during a high-risk protest movement. Current Sociology, 00113921241232409. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921241232409
Lai, R. Y. S. 2023. Home as a Site of Resistance/Repression? The Intersection of Family, Politics, and the Hong Kong 2019 Protest Movement. The Sociological Review, 72(2), 412-431. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231175226
Lai, R. Y. S. 2022. “Every Medicine Is Somewhat Poisonous”: Understanding the reluctance to use oral contraceptives among unmarried women seeking abortion in China. Contraception, 119, 109917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2022.11.008
Lai, R. Y. S. 2021. From# MeToo to# ProtestToo: How a Feminist Movement Converged with a Pro-democracy Protest in Hong Kong. Politics & Gender, 17(3), 500-507. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X21000246
Choi, S. Y. P. and Lai, R. Y. S. 2021. Sex Work and Stigma Management: The Role of State Policy and NGO Advocacy. China Quarterly, 247, 855-874. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741021000035
Choi, S. Y. P. and Lai, R. Y. S. 2020. Birth Tourism and Migrant Children’s Agency: The ‘Double Not’ in Post-Handover Hong Kong, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(5), 1193-1209. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1839397
Choi, S. Y. P., Lai, R. Y. S. and Pang, C. L. 2020. ‘Gender Irrelevance’: How Women and Men Rationalise Their Support for the Right. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 45(2), 473-496. https://doi.org/10.1086/705006
Lai, R. Y. S. and Choi, S. Y. P. 2019. Premarital Sexuality, Abortion, and Intergenerational Dynamics in China. Modern China, 47(3), 239-265. https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700419880524
Book Chapter
Lai, R. Y. S. 2025. Towards a Self-Limiting Movement? Feminist advocacy in times of political uncertainty. In Tanya Jakimow, Margaret Jolly, Sonia Palmieri, and Ramona Vijeyarasa (Eds.), Gender and Politics Reimagined: Centring Oceanic and Asian Lenses (pp. 325-349). Australian National University Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/GPR.2025
Lai, R. Y. S. 2023. The Transformation of Abortion Law in China. Research Handbook on International Abortion Law, edited by Mary Ziegler. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
RESEARCH GRANTS
2026-28
Project Title: Can Care Infrastructures Alleviate Housing Precarity? A Comparative Case Study of Three Community Living Rooms in Hong Kong – GRF, Research Grant Council (Principal Investigator; 24 months; HK$680,000)
2025-28
Project Title: Jockey Club Life Skill Program for at-risk Young Women in the Sex Industry: Landscape Research and MEL Study – Teen’s Key, supported by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust (Principal Investigator; 36 months; HK$1,550,982)
2025-27
Project Title: Cultivating Sexual Agency Through Comprehensive Sexuality Education: The Case of Ethnic Minorities Youth in Hong Kong - Lingnan University Direct Grant (Principal Investigator; 24 months; HK$99,056)
2024-25
Project Title: Street Harassment and Gendered Spatial Injustice: An Explorative Study of Public Ejaculation and Emission - Lingnan University Faculty Research Grant (Principal Investigator; 15 months; HK$39,940)
2023-25
Project Title: Gendering Informal Housing: Intersectional Inequalities and the Resilience of Families Living in Subdivided Units in Hong Kong – ECS, Research Grant Council, No. ECS/LU23607522 (Principal Investigator; 24 months; HK $431,160)
2021-23
Project Title: The Compressed Family and Cubicle Living: Housing and Family in Postcolonial Hong Kong - Lingnan University Direct Grant (Principal Investigator; 24 months; HK$79,840)
2019/-22
Project Title: Sex and Sensitivity: Understanding the Needs for Culturally Sensitive Sexuality Education in Hong Kong - Lingnan University Faculty Research Grant (Principal Investigator; 24 months; HK $30,000)
2019-21
Project Title: Harmony No Longer? Hong Kong Families Under the Anti-Extradition Law Movement - Lingnan University Faculty Research Grant (Principal Investigator; 18 months; HK$49,875)
TEACHING GRANTS
2023-24
Project Title: Blended learning and revisioning: An e-revisioning approach, Lingnan University Teaching Development Grant (Principal project supervisor; 12 months; HK$180,000)
2021-22
Project Title: The Making of Hong Kong: A Blended Learning Approach, Lingnan University Teaching Development Grant (Co-supervisor; 12 months; HK$200,000)
1st Term
- CLE9016: Sexuality and Society
- SOC3002: Family and Society
2nd Term
- CLE9040: Care and Society