PhD student Anson Au was nominated and elected as a Full Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Founded in 1823, the Royal Asiatic Society recognizes distinguished scholars in the fields of history, languages, cultures and religions of Asia. Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society gain access to the society's resources and facilities such as their library of books, journals, manuscripts, paintings, photographs, and archives on a variety of subjects concerning Asia. They are also offered opportunities to meet fellow Asian Studies scholars, attend lectures and cultural events, and receive the triannual Royal Asiatic Society Journal.
Read more about the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain.
Anson Au is enrolled in his fourth year in the Ph.D. at the Department of Sociology. Anson was recently awarded with a 2020 SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship for his dissertation research. Anson earned a M.Sc. in Social Research Methodology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was also a research officer in social policy, and a B.A. in Sociology and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Toronto. He has previously held visiting fellowships and professorships at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan, Seoul National University and Yonsei University in South Korea, the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, among others.
Anson’s dissertation examines the social order instituted in Chinese guanxi networks on social networking sites through new networking behaviors and network structures. With a regional focus on East Asia, his research more broadly examines social and economic networks, professions and organizations, social scientific research methodology, and social theory.
Anson's current work examines global flows of capital and knowledge among and to firms in legal and financial markets in Hong Kong, as well as the culture and patterns of digital social networking site use in China.
His latest publications include:
Liu, Sida, and Anson Au. 2020. “The Gateway to Global China: Hong Kong and the Future of Chinese Law Firms.” Wisconsin International Law Journal 39(2): 308-349.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Japanese Sociology in a Global Network: Internationalization, Disciplinary Development, and Minority Integration in the Road Ahead.” International Journal of Japanese Sociology. Published Online Ahead of Print.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Guanxi 2.0: The Exchange of Likes in Social Networking Sites.” Information, Communication, & Society (Online First): 1-16.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Reconceptualizing the Generation in a Digital(izing) Modernity: Digitalization, Social Networking Sites, and the Flattening of Generations.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 50(2): 163-183.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Feminist Methods in a “Post-Truth” Political Climate: Objectives, Strategies, and Divisions.” Sociological Spectrum 40(2): 99-115.