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Dr Xiaorong Gu

Lecturer in Childhood

Email
x.gu@uos.ac.uk
School/Directorate
School of Business, Arts, Social Sciences and Technology
Xiaorong Gu ORCID
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Xiaorong Gu staff profile photo

Dr. Gu is a senior researcher and lecturer in Childhood and Education Studies at the University of Suffolk. In the 2025-26 academic year, she sits in the BASST School Executive Committee as an academic representative. In the 2026-27 academic year, she has been awarded a Senior International Fellowship at the University Alliance Ruhr (Germany) to develop an international collaborative project – “Unpacking Asian-European Childhoods: Myths, Multiplicity and Momentum”. Prior to Suffolk, she held several research positions with Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore, NUS) and on the ‘Doing Intimacy’ Project at SOAS, University of London, after obtaining a PhD in sociology at NUS in 2017.

As a sociologist of children and youths, she writes extensively about their migration and mobilities, education, socio-emotions, relations, disabilities and wellbeing, as well as their social positioning vis-à-vis family, educational institutions, and the nation-state. Her area focus is on contemporary China, from a comparative-Asia perspective. She is a practitioner of methodological pluralism, unravelling the multiplicity and richness of human life and society in social science perspectives.

She guest-edited the special issue on The Value of Children and Social Transformations in Asia with Child Indicators Research (2021) and the special monograph on The Value of Children in The Global South: A Critical Engagement with Current Sociology (2022). She is also a co-editor of the Emerald Handbook of Childhood and Youth in Asian Societies (2023). Her research article— ‘“Save the children!”: Governing Left-behind Children through Family in China’s Great Migration’—was shortlisted for the Annual SAGE Current Sociology Best Paper Prize in 2023. She was featured as Sociologist of the Month in April 2023 by International Sociological Association.

Dr. Gu is an experienced, passionate and award-winning educator, with 4 years of full-time lectureship in English Language and Literature at Sun Yat-Sen University in China (2008-2012) and 4 years of teaching assistantship in sociology at National University of Singapore (2012-2016). She is twice a recipient of Faculty Teaching Award at Sun Yat-sen University (2011;2012) and once a recipient of Graduate Teaching Award at NUS (2016).

At the University of Suffolk, she leads a host of childhood modules, including Child Development in Context, Imagining Childhoods, Children's Ecologies, Theories in Childhood and Education.

She has also delivered multiple guest lectures in universities across Asia, Germany and the UK.

Selected Publications (see ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5479-9669 for full listing)

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Gu, X.R. (2026) “Of flexibility, futurality and fracture: A Temporal Perspective into Migrant Parenting in China.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2594861 

Hu, S. & Gu, X.R. (2025) “Between Autonomy and Interdependence: The Changing Parental Role in Adult Children’s Family Formation in China”. Social Science Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103279

Gu, X.R. (2025). “Rural Migrant Children and Education in Urban China.” In R. Sidhu, J. Waters and Cheng Y.E. (Eds.). The Elgar International Encyclopaedia of Sociology of Education (pp. 269–274). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035315673.00074

Jones, G.W. & Gu, X. R. (2024). "Men’s Marriage Trends in Asia: Changes and Continuities." Journal of Family Issues, 45(5), 1279-1304

Bühler-Niederberger, D., Gu, X., Schwittek, J. and Kim, E. (2023). "Introduction", Bühler-Niederberger, D., Gu, X., Schwittek, J. and Kim, E. (Ed.) The Emerald  Handbook of Childhood and Youth in Asian Societies, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-283-920231001

Gu, X.R. (2023). "Section One: Introduction Childhood on a Modern Drive: Growing up in East Asia", Bühler-Niederberger, D., Gu, X., Schwittek, J. and Kim, E. (Ed.) The Emerald Handbook of Childhood and Youth in Asian Societies, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-283-920231002

Gu, X.R. (2023). "Can Subaltern Children Speak? What China’s Children of Migrants Say About Mobility, Inequality and Agency", Bühler-Niederberger, D., Gu, X., Schwittek, J. and Kim, E. (Ed.) The Emerald Handbook of Childhood and Youth in Asian Societies, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 25-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-283-920231003

Gu, X.R. (2022). "The Case for a Value Turn in Childhood Sociology." Current Sociology, 70(4), 478–495.

Gu, X.R. (2022). "‘Save the children!’: Governing Left-behind Children through  Family in China’s Great Migration. " Current Sociology, 70(4), 513–538  (Shortlisted for Annual SAGE Current Sociology Best Paper Prize in 2023)

Gu, X.R. (2022). "Afterword: The Value of Children in the Global South: Current Contributions and Future Directions. " Current Sociology,70(4), 634-643.

Chen, C., Xiao, R. Q., Gu, X.R., & Wu, L.W. (2022). "Left-behind children in children's geography: Literature review and new agendas." Tropical Geography, 42(3), 373-384. (in Chinese) (Rated Top 1% Paper according to Citation Standardized Index in 2021-22 by China National Knowledge Infrastructure)

Gu, X.R. (2022). "Sacrifice and Indebtedness: The Intergenerational Contract in  Chinese Rural Migrant Families. " Journal of Family Issues,43(2), 509-533.

Gu, X.R. & Yeung, W. J. (2021). "Why Chinese Adolescent Girls Outperform Boys in Achievement Tests." Chinese Journal of Sociology, 7(2):109-137.

Gu, X.R. (2021). "Editor’s Introduction: The Value of Children and Social Transformations in Asia." Child Indicators Research,14(2): 477–486. 

Tran T. M. T., Gu X. R. & Nguyen H. D. (2021). "Complex Modernization: The Value of Children and Social Transformation in Contemporary Vietnam." Child Indicators Research, 14(2), 511–536. 

Gu, X.R. (2021). "Parenting for Success: The Value of Children and Intensive Parenting in Post-reform China." Child Indicators Research, 14(2), 555–581.

Gu, X.R. (2021). "‘You’re Not Young Anymore!’: Gender, Age and the Politics of Reproduction in Post-reform China." Asian Bioethics Review, 13, 57–76.

Gu, X.R. & Yeung, W.J. (2020) "Hopes and Hurdles: Rural Migrant Children’s Education in Urban China. Chinese Sociological Review, 52(2),199-237.

Gu, X.R. (2020). "Chapter 9: An intersectional approach to the ‘mobility trap’ that plagues migrant youth in China." In S. Swartz, A. Cooper, R. M. Camarena & C. Batan (eds), Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies. Oxford University Press. 

Gu, X.R. (2018). "Four Decades of Transition to First Marriage in China:  Economic Reform and Persisting Marriage Norms." International Journal of Population Studies, 4(1), 24-38.

Yeung, W. J. & GU, X.R. (2016). "Left Behind by Parents in China: Internal Migration and Adolescents’ Well-being." Marriage and Family Review, 52(1-2):127-161.

Edited Special Issues and Book Volumes

Bühler-Niederberger, D., Gu, X.R., Schwittek, J. & Kim, E. (co-editors) (2023). The Emerald Handbook of Childhood and Youth in Asian Societies. Emerald. 

Gu, X.R. (2022). The Value of Children in The Global South: A Critical Engagement, Special Monograph of Current Sociology, 70(4).

Gu, X.R. (2021). The Value of Children and Social Transformations in Asia. Special issue of Child Indicators Research, 14(2).

Academic Conference/Seminar Organization

Co-organizer of panel session on Asian European Childhoods beyond the ‘Model Minority’ Myth: Perils, Paradoxes and Potentials, the 5th International Sociological Association Forum, Rabat of Morocco, 2025

Organizing Committee of the Children and Childhoods Conference, University of Suffolk, 2024

Asian Graduate Student Fellowships committee, Asian Studies Workshops, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 2020-2021

Convenor of the Changing Family in Asia Reading Group, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 2018-2019

Co-organizer of the Conference on The Value of Children in Asia: Economy, 

Family and Public Policies, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, November 2018. 

Steering committee of the International Sociological Association RC06 & RC41 Joint Conference, Singapore, May 2018. 

Organizer of the Sociology Department Graduate Research Seminar Series, National University of Singapore, 2015-2016

Dr. Gu is also a contributor to popular media in Chinese and English languages targeting at specialist and general readerships on China affairs, including South China Morning Post, Six Tone, The Intellectual, Ms. Muse, The China Story Blog of the Australian National University, The Diplomat.

Dr. Gu is involved in several international projects in different capacities, including

1) Belt and Road Initiative and Student-Mobilities in China-Southeast Asia (co-PIs: Ho Kong Chong and Brenda Yeoh, National University of Singapore),

2) Doing Intimacy: A Multi-sited Ethnography of Modern Chinese Family Life (PI: Jieyu Liu, SOAS University of London)

3) Everyday Life and Local Negotiations of Guangdong Left-behind Children in the Era of Rural-urban Integration (PI: Chen Chun, South China Normal University)

She has also recently held academic visitorships to the University Duisburg-Essen and South China Normal University

  • International Sociological Association
  • British Sociological Association
  • Association for Asian Studies
  • International Chinese Sociological Association
  • Hub on Global Experience of Gender in an Age of Care Crises and Transformation, University of Oxford
  • Center for Family and Population Research, National University of Singapore
  • Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
  • International Researcher Program, University of Duisburg-Essen

 

Child Development in Context