Kwai H Ng
Biographic Data
| ID | 254133 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kwai H Ng |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kwai H |
| FAMILY NAME | Ng |
| SIGNATURE | NG K H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California San Diego |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4078-923X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 125 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption
This volume renews the study of corruption as 'embedded' in ongoing social relations. Instead of treating corruption as a universal phenomenon, A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption shows how corruption is often morally ambiguous and deeply intertwined with the social, political and economic struggles of particular groups in specific times and places. Ranging from Early Modernity to the present day, and spanning across the globe, the b…
Performing the meanings of money in the trials of war orphans against Japan
Utilitarian accounts of monetary disputes hinge on too limited an understanding of the nature of money. This limitation is particularly salient when it is applied to studying the disputes regarding compensation in historical grievance litigations. This article, based on in-depth interviews with 40 “war orphans,” Japanese citizens who were left behind in China after Japan’s surrender in 1945, shows how parties primarily disagree on the question of…
The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China
Georg Simmel and the Disciplinary Imaginary
Law at Work: Studies in Legal Ethnomethods
"It Must Be Rock Strong!" Guanxi's Impact on Judicial Decision Making in China
Drawing upon data interviews with Chinese judges who were involved in the decision-making process, we develop two variables for analyzing the influence of social ties, or guanxi, in the judicial setting. The first differentiates the strength of guanxi-whether it is strong or weak. The second distinguishes whether the guanxi source is from a supervisor who has a role in affecting the benefit or the career development of the target judge. We argue …
The Institutional and Cultural Logics of Legal Commensuration: Blood Money and Negotiated Justice in China
© 2017 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Legal commensuration is a complex mechanism of valuation. It entails social exchanges among parties in the litigational context. The way the law evaluates the unevaluable is guided by many specific facts about the parties and is influenced by its own institutional priorities. The criminal reconciliation process in China is used as a real-world empirical illustration. Drawing mainly on data…
That British Sound”: Talk of Nationalness in Global Capitalism
This article proposes the concept of “nationalness” to account for the persistent circulation of national labels as a tool of distinction. We argue that the concept expands on the traditional conception of nation as country of origin to include cultural notions of sensuous and aesthetic qualities that are semiotically tied to national “essence.” Nationalness connects products to nations not only through indexicality but also iconicity. It is made…
Internal Contradictions of Judicial Mediation in China
Judicial mediation in China represents an extreme case of integration between adjudication and mediation. Based on ethnographic work and extensive interviews, this article studies how judicial mediation actually works in China. It finds that the incorporation of mediation as part of the official trial process creates a set of internal contradictions. In addition to the role conflict inherent in a judge's acting also as a mediator, adjudication an…
Inquisitorial Adjudication and Institutional Constraints in Chinese Civil Justice
Based on participatory observations of trials and extensive interviews with judges, this article examines the operation patterns of the civil justice process in China and explores the underlying reasons behind. It finds that, despite the reform efforts placing more responsibility on the litigants, the Chinese civil proceeding remains largely inquisitorial. The decline of out‐court investigation is evident, yet judges rely on a limited form of cro…
In the Name of Harmony: The Erasure of Domestic Violence in China's Judicial Mediation
Based on observations of court trials and extensive interviews with judges, this article explores how judicial mediation in China undermines the rights of the battered women in divorce cases. We find that even if the judges are able to establish that domestic violence is committed, it is often erased in the stage of judicial mediation. This is because judicial mediation inevitably focuses on settlement arrangements. Lingering reference to domesti…
Pragmatic Discourse and Gender Inequality in China
Using courtroom dialogs from actual court trials in China as data, this article analyzes an emerging "pragmatic discourse," deployed by judges to assist, but at the same time to constrain divorcing women. Through questions, statements, rebuttals, and other interactional devices, Chinese judges define the premises that underpin the law's understanding of gender equality and women's welfare. By looking at how discourses are deployed by judges and l…
Toward a Theory of Emotive Performance: With Lessons from How Politicians Do Anger
This article treats the public display of emotion as social performance. The concept of 'emotive performance' is developed to highlight the overlooked quality of performativity in the social use of emotion. We argue that emotive performance is reflexive, cultural, and communicative. As an active social act, emotive performance draws from the cultural repertoire of interpretative frameworks and dominant narratives. We illustrate the utility of the…
If I lie, I tell you, may heaven and earth destroy me.” Language and Legal Consciousness in Hong Kong Bilingual Common Law
Based on an ethnographic study of courtroom interactions in the bilingual (Chinese/English) common law system in Hong Kong, this article investigates how language plays a constitutive role in shaping the ways people use, argue, and think about law. While the use of English in Hong Kong prescribes by default the supposedly universal speech act of statement-making, the presence of Cantonese allows local speech acts to be brought into the courtrooms…
Introduction: The Diversity of Culture
By AMY BINDER, MARY BLAIR-LOY, JOHN EVANS, KWAI NG, and MICHAEL SCHUDSON 2008, the much publicized in sociology is old news.1 How far are we from the point where we made our initial turn toward culture? Some say we are in the midst of it (Friedland and Mohr 2004), while others believe we are in fact moving beyond it (Bonnell and Hunt 1999). Rather than debate this question, our goal in this special volume of The Annals is to add substance to the …
Population-Based Study of Chlamydial Infection in China: A Hidden Epidemic
CONTEXT: Sexually transmitted diseases are increasing rapidly in China. Surveillance data imperfectly indicate current prevalence and risk factors. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of genital chlamydial and gonococcal infections and to describe patterns of infection by subgroup and behavioral patterns. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A national stratified probability sample of 3426 Chinese individuals (1738 women and 1688 men) aged 20 to…
Seeking the Christian Tutelage: Agency and Culture in Chinese Immigrants' Conversion to Christianity
Journal Article Seeking the Christian Tutelage: Agency and Culture in Chinese Immigrants' Conversion to Christianity Get access Kwai Hang Ng Kwai Hang Ng * University of Chicago * Direct correspondence to Kwai Hang Ng, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: ([email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 63, I…
In the Name of Harmony: The Erasure of Domestic Violence in China's Judicial Mediation
Based on observations of court trials and extensive interviews with judges, this article explores how judicial mediation in China undermines the rights of the battered women in divorce cases. We find that even if the judges are able to establish that domestic violence is committed, it is often erased in the stage of judicial mediation. This is because judicial mediation inevitably focuses on settlement arrangements. Lingering reference to domesti…
Seeking the Christian Tutelage: Agency and Culture in Chinese Immigrants' Conversion to Christianity
Journal Article Seeking the Christian Tutelage: Agency and Culture in Chinese Immigrants' Conversion to Christianity Get access Kwai Hang Ng Kwai Hang Ng * University of Chicago * Direct correspondence to Kwai Hang Ng, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: ([email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 63, I…
Internal Contradictions of Judicial Mediation in China
Judicial mediation in China represents an extreme case of integration between adjudication and mediation. Based on ethnographic work and extensive interviews, this article studies how judicial mediation actually works in China. It finds that the incorporation of mediation as part of the official trial process creates a set of internal contradictions. In addition to the role conflict inherent in a judge's acting also as a mediator, adjudication an…
Toward a Theory of Emotive Performance: With Lessons from How Politicians Do Anger
This article treats the public display of emotion as social performance. The concept of 'emotive performance' is developed to highlight the overlooked quality of performativity in the social use of emotion. We argue that emotive performance is reflexive, cultural, and communicative. As an active social act, emotive performance draws from the cultural repertoire of interpretative frameworks and dominant narratives. We illustrate the utility of the…
"It Must Be Rock Strong!" Guanxi's Impact on Judicial Decision Making in China
Drawing upon data interviews with Chinese judges who were involved in the decision-making process, we develop two variables for analyzing the influence of social ties, or guanxi, in the judicial setting. The first differentiates the strength of guanxi-whether it is strong or weak. The second distinguishes whether the guanxi source is from a supervisor who has a role in affecting the benefit or the career development of the target judge. We argue …
Pragmatic Discourse and Gender Inequality in China
Using courtroom dialogs from actual court trials in China as data, this article analyzes an emerging "pragmatic discourse," deployed by judges to assist, but at the same time to constrain divorcing women. Through questions, statements, rebuttals, and other interactional devices, Chinese judges define the premises that underpin the law's understanding of gender equality and women's welfare. By looking at how discourses are deployed by judges and l…
Law at Work: Studies in Legal Ethnomethods
Inquisitorial Adjudication and Institutional Constraints in Chinese Civil Justice
Based on participatory observations of trials and extensive interviews with judges, this article examines the operation patterns of the civil justice process in China and explores the underlying reasons behind. It finds that, despite the reform efforts placing more responsibility on the litigants, the Chinese civil proceeding remains largely inquisitorial. The decline of out‐court investigation is evident, yet judges rely on a limited form of cro…
If I lie, I tell you, may heaven and earth destroy me.” Language and Legal Consciousness in Hong Kong Bilingual Common Law
Based on an ethnographic study of courtroom interactions in the bilingual (Chinese/English) common law system in Hong Kong, this article investigates how language plays a constitutive role in shaping the ways people use, argue, and think about law. While the use of English in Hong Kong prescribes by default the supposedly universal speech act of statement-making, the presence of Cantonese allows local speech acts to be brought into the courtrooms…
Introduction: The Diversity of Culture
By AMY BINDER, MARY BLAIR-LOY, JOHN EVANS, KWAI NG, and MICHAEL SCHUDSON 2008, the much publicized in sociology is old news.1 How far are we from the point where we made our initial turn toward culture? Some say we are in the midst of it (Friedland and Mohr 2004), while others believe we are in fact moving beyond it (Bonnell and Hunt 1999). Rather than debate this question, our goal in this special volume of The Annals is to add substance to the …
Georg Simmel and the Disciplinary Imaginary
The Institutional and Cultural Logics of Legal Commensuration: Blood Money and Negotiated Justice in China
© 2017 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Legal commensuration is a complex mechanism of valuation. It entails social exchanges among parties in the litigational context. The way the law evaluates the unevaluable is guided by many specific facts about the parties and is influenced by its own institutional priorities. The criminal reconciliation process in China is used as a real-world empirical illustration. Drawing mainly on data…
Performing the meanings of money in the trials of war orphans against Japan
Utilitarian accounts of monetary disputes hinge on too limited an understanding of the nature of money. This limitation is particularly salient when it is applied to studying the disputes regarding compensation in historical grievance litigations. This article, based on in-depth interviews with 40 “war orphans,” Japanese citizens who were left behind in China after Japan’s surrender in 1945, shows how parties primarily disagree on the question of…
The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China
That British Sound”: Talk of Nationalness in Global Capitalism
This article proposes the concept of “nationalness” to account for the persistent circulation of national labels as a tool of distinction. We argue that the concept expands on the traditional conception of nation as country of origin to include cultural notions of sensuous and aesthetic qualities that are semiotically tied to national “essence.” Nationalness connects products to nations not only through indexicality but also iconicity. It is made…
Seeking the Christian Tutelage: Agency and Culture in Chinese Immigrants' Conversion to Christianity
Journal Article Seeking the Christian Tutelage: Agency and Culture in Chinese Immigrants' Conversion to Christianity Get access Kwai Hang Ng Kwai Hang Ng * University of Chicago * Direct correspondence to Kwai Hang Ng, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: ([email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 63, I…
Population-Based Study of Chlamydial Infection in China: A Hidden Epidemic
CONTEXT: Sexually transmitted diseases are increasing rapidly in China. Surveillance data imperfectly indicate current prevalence and risk factors. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of genital chlamydial and gonococcal infections and to describe patterns of infection by subgroup and behavioral patterns. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A national stratified probability sample of 3426 Chinese individuals (1738 women and 1688 men) aged 20 to…
Introduction: The Diversity of Culture
By AMY BINDER, MARY BLAIR-LOY, JOHN EVANS, KWAI NG, and MICHAEL SCHUDSON 2008, the much publicized in sociology is old news.1 How far are we from the point where we made our initial turn toward culture? Some say we are in the midst of it (Friedland and Mohr 2004), while others believe we are in fact moving beyond it (Bonnell and Hunt 1999). Rather than debate this question, our goal in this special volume of The Annals is to add substance to the …
If I lie, I tell you, may heaven and earth destroy me.” Language and Legal Consciousness in Hong Kong Bilingual Common Law
Based on an ethnographic study of courtroom interactions in the bilingual (Chinese/English) common law system in Hong Kong, this article investigates how language plays a constitutive role in shaping the ways people use, argue, and think about law. While the use of English in Hong Kong prescribes by default the supposedly universal speech act of statement-making, the presence of Cantonese allows local speech acts to be brought into the courtrooms…
Toward a Theory of Emotive Performance: With Lessons from How Politicians Do Anger
This article treats the public display of emotion as social performance. The concept of 'emotive performance' is developed to highlight the overlooked quality of performativity in the social use of emotion. We argue that emotive performance is reflexive, cultural, and communicative. As an active social act, emotive performance draws from the cultural repertoire of interpretative frameworks and dominant narratives. We illustrate the utility of the…
Internal Contradictions of Judicial Mediation in China
Judicial mediation in China represents an extreme case of integration between adjudication and mediation. Based on ethnographic work and extensive interviews, this article studies how judicial mediation actually works in China. It finds that the incorporation of mediation as part of the official trial process creates a set of internal contradictions. In addition to the role conflict inherent in a judge's acting also as a mediator, adjudication an…
Inquisitorial Adjudication and Institutional Constraints in Chinese Civil Justice
Based on participatory observations of trials and extensive interviews with judges, this article examines the operation patterns of the civil justice process in China and explores the underlying reasons behind. It finds that, despite the reform efforts placing more responsibility on the litigants, the Chinese civil proceeding remains largely inquisitorial. The decline of out‐court investigation is evident, yet judges rely on a limited form of cro…
In the Name of Harmony: The Erasure of Domestic Violence in China's Judicial Mediation
Based on observations of court trials and extensive interviews with judges, this article explores how judicial mediation in China undermines the rights of the battered women in divorce cases. We find that even if the judges are able to establish that domestic violence is committed, it is often erased in the stage of judicial mediation. This is because judicial mediation inevitably focuses on settlement arrangements. Lingering reference to domesti…
Pragmatic Discourse and Gender Inequality in China
Using courtroom dialogs from actual court trials in China as data, this article analyzes an emerging "pragmatic discourse," deployed by judges to assist, but at the same time to constrain divorcing women. Through questions, statements, rebuttals, and other interactional devices, Chinese judges define the premises that underpin the law's understanding of gender equality and women's welfare. By looking at how discourses are deployed by judges and l…
That British Sound”: Talk of Nationalness in Global Capitalism
This article proposes the concept of “nationalness” to account for the persistent circulation of national labels as a tool of distinction. We argue that the concept expands on the traditional conception of nation as country of origin to include cultural notions of sensuous and aesthetic qualities that are semiotically tied to national “essence.” Nationalness connects products to nations not only through indexicality but also iconicity. It is made…
Law at Work: Studies in Legal Ethnomethods
"It Must Be Rock Strong!" Guanxi's Impact on Judicial Decision Making in China
Drawing upon data interviews with Chinese judges who were involved in the decision-making process, we develop two variables for analyzing the influence of social ties, or guanxi, in the judicial setting. The first differentiates the strength of guanxi-whether it is strong or weak. The second distinguishes whether the guanxi source is from a supervisor who has a role in affecting the benefit or the career development of the target judge. We argue …
The Institutional and Cultural Logics of Legal Commensuration: Blood Money and Negotiated Justice in China
© 2017 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Legal commensuration is a complex mechanism of valuation. It entails social exchanges among parties in the litigational context. The way the law evaluates the unevaluable is guided by many specific facts about the parties and is influenced by its own institutional priorities. The criminal reconciliation process in China is used as a real-world empirical illustration. Drawing mainly on data…
Georg Simmel and the Disciplinary Imaginary
The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China
Performing the meanings of money in the trials of war orphans against Japan
Utilitarian accounts of monetary disputes hinge on too limited an understanding of the nature of money. This limitation is particularly salient when it is applied to studying the disputes regarding compensation in historical grievance litigations. This article, based on in-depth interviews with 40 “war orphans,” Japanese citizens who were left behind in China after Japan’s surrender in 1945, shows how parties primarily disagree on the question of…
A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption
This volume renews the study of corruption as 'embedded' in ongoing social relations. Instead of treating corruption as a universal phenomenon, A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption shows how corruption is often morally ambiguous and deeply intertwined with the social, political and economic struggles of particular groups in specific times and places. Ranging from Early Modernity to the present day, and spanning across the globe, the b…
Sociology (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Law (9 works) · China (6 works) · Judicial and Constitutional Studies (6 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Social science (4 works)