He received his PhD from the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. His research covers historical memory, reservoir resettlement, environmental protest movements, child nutrition and care, suicide, and HIV/AIDS, and currently focuses on social and policy issues in the field of public health.

Since 1982, he worked as a reporter in the Domestic News Department, an editor in the Commentary Department, and Deputy Director of the Domestic News Department at China Daily. In 1988, he served as an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Socio-Economic Development, Peking University. In 1994, he went to teach at the City College of New York, City University of New York, where he successively held positions as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor with tenure. In 2002, he returned to China to join the Department of Sociology at Tsinghua University.

His major honours and awards include selection for the Huaxia Talent Foundation Publication Support Programme in 2003; recognition as an Advanced Individual in Foreign Affairs Work for Population and Family Planning in 2007; the State Council Special Allowance in 2014; and, in 2016, a First Prize for Teaching Achievement at Tsinghua University (as part of a team) for a global health teaching programme.