LI, Yao Tai

Research Interests:
Race and ethnicity; International migration; Culture and identity; Group dynamics; Social network; Research methods

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Research Projects

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Assistant Professor
LI, Yao Tai (李耀泰)
Ph.D. (University of California, San Diego)
yaotaili@hkbu.edu.hk

The main line of my research is at the intersection of race and ethnic relations, migration, social networks, and social media. My Ph.D. dissertation investigates identity politics overseas, social interactions between Chinese migrants and non-Asian Australians, contested Chinese culture across borders, and the integration experiences of both long-term and temporary Chinese migrants in Australia. In a secondary line of the research, currently I am undertaking a two-year funded project, titled: Shaping Discrimination? Tracking Print Media and Social Media Portrayal of Mainlanders in Hong Kong since 1997. My other funded and collaborative projects include a project which received a Faculty Research Grant II (titled: New Forms of Discrimination? Re-examining the Online Discourses of Discrimination on Airbnb) and an audit study funded by Start-up Grant (Tier II) on hiring practices and discrimination in finance-related industries in Hong Kong.

2020-23 Early Career Scheme (ECS), Research Grants Council (RGC). Project Title: "Examining the Everyday Interaction and Boundary Making/Unmaking between Mainland Skilled Professionals and Locals in Hong Kong."
2019–21 Initiation Grant for Faculty Niche Research Areas (FNRA-IG), Hong Kong Baptist University. Project Title: "Shaping Discrimination? Tracking Print Media and Social Media Portrayal of Mainlanders in Hong Kong since 1997."
2019 Start-up Grant (Tier-2), Hong Kong Baptist University. Project Title: "Hierarchical Hiring Practices: The Coexistence of Ethnic Preference and Ethnic Discrimination in Hong Kong's Financial Job Market."
2018–19 Faculty Research Grant II, Hong Kong Baptist University. Project Title: "New Forms of Discrimination? Re-examining the Online Discourses of Discrimination on Airbnb."
2017 Start-up Grant, Hong Kong Baptist University
2014 Next Generation Sociologists Grant, ISA World Congress of Sociology
2011–13 Fulbright Graduate Study Grants
(For complete list of publications, please view Staff CV.)

Publications

Forthcoming Li, Yao-Tai and Jenna Ng. "'Moral Dilemma of Striking': A Medical Worker's Response to Job Duty, Public Health Protection, and the Politicization of Strikes." Work, Employment and Society
2021 Li, Yao-Tai and John Chung-En Liu. "'Hong Kong, Add Oil!': Examining Post-it Notes on the Lennon Walls in the 2019 Hong Kong Anti-extradition Bill." Contexts
2021 Ho, Jing-Mao, Yao-Tai Li, and Katherine Whitworth. 2021. "Unequal Discourses: Problems of the Current Model of World Health Development." World Development 137: 105176.
2020 Li, Yao-Tai. "'I Was Discriminated against Because I Was Seen as PRC-Chinese': The Negotiation between Ethnicity and Nationalism among Taiwanese Migrants in Australia." British Journal of Sociology (Online first)
2020 Li, Yao-Tai and John Chung-En Liu. "Auditing Ethnic Preference in Hong Kong's Financial Job Market: The Mediation of White Privilege and Hong Kong Localism." International Sociology
2020 Li, Yao-Tai. "One Person, Three Identities? Examining Re-politicization of Ethnic, National, and Australian Identities among 1.5-generation Taiwanese Immigrants in Australia." Journal of Sociology (Forthcoming)
2020 Li, Yao-Tai and Yunya Song. "Taiwan as Ghost Island? Ambivalent Articulation of Marginalized Identities in Computer-mediated Discourses." Discourse & Society 31(3): 285–306.
2020 Li, Yao-Tai. "Disharmonious Chinese Ethnic Business: Intergroup Stereotypes among Chinese Migrant Employees in Australia." Ethnic and Racial Studies 43(4): 732–750.
2020 Li, Yao-Tai. "Maintaining Transnational Ties and the Convertibility of Working Holiday Makers' Experiences in Australia." Current Sociology 68(3): 316–332. 
2019 Li, Yao-Tai. "'It's Not Discrimination': Chinese Migrant Workers' Perceptions of and Reactions to Racial Microaggressions in Australia." Sociological Perspectives 62(4): 554–571.
2017 Li, Yao-Tai. "Constituting Co-Ethnic Exploitation: The Economic and Cultural Meanings of Cash-In-Hand Jobs for Ethnic Chinese Migrants in Australia." Critical Sociology 43(6): 919–932.
2016 Li, Yao-Tai and Katherine Whitworth. "When the State Becomes Part of the Exploitation: Migrants’ Agency within the Institutional Constraints in Australia." International Migration 54(6): 138–150.
2016 Li, Yao-Tai. "'Playing' at the Ethnic Boundary: The Boundary Making/Unmaking among Ethnic Chinese Groups in Australia." Ethnic and Racial Studies 39(4): 671–689.
2015 Li, Yao-Tai. "Shaping A Stranger: City Culture and Its Effects on Taiwanese Sojourners in China." City, Culture, and Architecture 1(1): 51–62.
2015 Li, Yao-Tai. "Regulating the Market Risks: The Coalitions between Occupational Unions and CSOs in Taiwan." Development and Society 44(2): 295–317.