A/Prof Xiaoyuan Shang

Overview

Xiaoyuan Shang research interests are in the areas of social welfare and child protection in China. Her recent research has focused on issues associated with the alleviation of poverty, social services for vulnerable groups including the elderly, disabled people and vulnerable children in China.

In 2001 and 2005 Dr Shang played a central role in leading a research team to conduct two important large-scale investigations on Children in Institutions and Other Forms of Alternative Care in China, and The Needs of HIV/AIDS Affected Children in China, for UNICEF and the MCA. In 2005 to 2009, Dr Shang organized the first national investigation of orphaned children in China. Dr Shang is a co-author of In Search of Civil Society: Market Reform and Social Change in Contemporary China (Oxford University Press). In 2003 Dr Shang was awarded the Alice Tay Human Rights Award by the Australia-China Council for her significant contribution to improving the understanding of child rights in China. Her work has attracted a great deal of attention to the situation of orphaned children in China, and directly led to two important policy changes: (1) a policy change from institutional care to foster care for orphaned children in state children’s welfare institutions, and (2) the establishment of a new social assistance system for orphans in rural China.

Research Summary

Current research projects

Publications

Recent Books
Shang, X., et al (2008a) A Study of the condition of Orphans in China. China Social Sciences Academic Press.

Shang, X. (2008b),The System of Social Protection for Vulnerable Children in China. China Social Sciences Academic Press.

Shang, X. (2007), The Reforms of China’s Social Protection System. Beijing, China’s Labour and Social Security Press.

Shang, X., (2006) Impacts and Transition: The Development of China’s Civil Society Organizations. China Social Science Press.

Journal Articles
Shang, X., Fisher, K.R., and Xie, J. (2009), 'Discrimination against children with disability in China', International Journal of Social Welfare, accepted February 26, 2009.

Shang, X. (2009), 'Supporting HIV/AIDS affected families and children: the case of four Chinese counties', International Journal of Social Welfare, 18 (2), 201-212.

Shang, X. and Chuanjin, T. (2008), ‘The Premise of China’s Children Welfare System and its Problems’，“中国儿童福利制度的权利基础及其限度”，Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Science), Vol.2009 No. 2, 143-150.

Shang, X. (2008), 'The Role of extended families in child care and protection: the case of rural China', International Journal of Social Welfare, 17 (3), 204-215.

Shang, X. (2007), ‘Social welfare and social security', in Xu Y., Theory and Practice in Social Policy, Beijing, China Labour and Social Security Press, 3－24.

Shang, X. (2007), ‘Safety net in china today and social policies', in Xu Y., Theory and Practice in Social Policy, Beijing, China Labour and Social Security Press, 172-192.

Shang, X. (2007), ‘The changing practice and policies of caring for orphaned and disabled children in China’, in Cook, S., Need and Entitlement: New Approaches to Social Policy in China’s Transition, Beijing, China Labour and Social Security Press, 154-181.

Recent Conference Presentations
Shang, X. (2009), ‘Rights of children and kinship foster care in China’, paper presented at, An Inclusive Society, Practicalities and Possibilities, the 11th Australian Social Policy Conference, Sydney, 10 July.

Shang, X., Fisher, K.R. and Zhengang, L., ‘The absent role of the state: analysis of social support to older people with disability in rural China’, invited paper, Workshop on Social Security and Social Policies for Older People in China and Australia, Chinese Research Centre for Aging, Beijing, 24 October.

Shang, X., Fisher, K.R. and Xie, J., (2008), ‘Discrimination against Children with Disability in China: A case study in Jiangxi Province’, paper presented in the conference: UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: a Call for Action on Poverty, Lack of Access and Discrimination,19–22 May 2008, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia., by United Nationals Economic Commission for Africa, and Leonard Cheshire Disability

Shang, X., ‘Protecting HIV/AIDs affected Children’, keynote address at the International Forum on Social Assistance and Arrangements for HIV/AIDS Infected and Affected Children, by UNICEF, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China, People's Government, Henan, held in Zhengzhou city, Henan province, China, 5-8 September.

Other Information

Visiting Research Fellow, by Invitation from the Institute of Chinese Studies, Oxford University, from May to June 2007