PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – The demographic research focus in China is changing as the country faces new population challenges including aging, low fertility rates, and increased migration. During this year at the PSTC, Yuan Ren, a visiting Fulbright scholar, seeks to understand the future prospects of population studies in China and globally and to expand his research on various aspects of Chinese migration.

Ren, a professor in the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in China and the deputy director of Institute of Population Research (IPR), sees his visit as an opportunity for dialogue and mutual learning, which reflects the educational and cultural exchange goals of the Fulbright program. Rather than simply copying and learning from foreign colleagues, “a successful visit will include dialogue and shaping some common interests,” he said.

Chinese academia has improved significantly since the 1980s, Ren said, and Chinese scholars are now forming their own ideas and contributing to the scholarship in population studies with cutting-edge work on migration and urbanization. His own work has focused on internal migration in China, but his research is expanding to address China’s growing connection to the global society.

“There is some new phenomenon with Chinese migration in the U.S. The new generation of Chinese immigrants is not laborers as before but more white-collar based and educated,” he said. “Chinatown is changing to Chinese suburbs.”

Ren is studying the impacts of these immigrant groups on U.S. society as well as the way they provide capital and knowledge back to China. He sees the new migrants benefiting both countries by bringing circulation between China and the U.S. and promoting mutual development.

Brown’s "great reputation on space, urban, and population studies" as well as potential collaboration with PSTC Associate, Director of Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, and Professor of Sociology John Logan on some of these projects was part of the draw to the PSTC this year. Contact with Logan began early in Ren's career when he received a grant from the Urban China Research Network, which was then directed by Logan.

“He helped me a lot with starting my studies in urban China.” Ren said. “I’ve developed more and more as a scholar, and I now have a small reputation in this area in China.”

Writing projects, including a book on Chinese urbanization that is under contract, and catching up on the state of American academia on population, urban, and China studies will occupy much of Ren’s time this year, in addition to speaking engagements at the University of Washington, Trinity College, and Ohio State University. After many years of teaching and researching, the sabbatical provides Ren with an opportunity to “stay quiet to accomplish a lot of writing, to learn some new things, and to improve myself.”