Dr Mei Zhang
BA (Peking University), PhD (Cambridge)
School of East Asian Studies
Lecturer in Chinese Studies
Full contact details
School of East Asian Studies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Research interests
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Having worked in a number of multidisciplinary research environments in Beijing, Cambridge, Stuttgart and Sheffield, Dr Zhang’s research interests lie mainly in two themes: globalisation and its impact on rural-urban migration, rural development and urbanisation in China; and cultural, environmental and sustainable development.
Following her PhD work in Cambridge, Dr. Zhang has systematically studied the growth of the post-1978 Chinese economy, especially focusing on rural development in China’s poor regions and the role of rural-urban migration in solving rural poverty during the process of globalization.She has also examined the impacts of economic growth on environmental and cultural reservation, considering different cultural backgrounds.
Through a number of research projects funded by the European Commission and the British Academy, Dr Zhang has studied cross-cultural differences in urban comfort and sustainable development between China and UK, from social, economical and psychological viewpoints.
Based on a series of large scale surveys, quantitative and qualitative analyses have been made, including semantic differential analysis.
- Publications
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Books
- China’s Poor Regions. Rural-Urban Migration, Poverty, Economic Reform and Urbanization. London: Routledge Curzon.
Journal articles
- Sound field of a traditional Chinese Palace courtyard theatre. Building and Environment, 230.
- Religious belief-related factors enhance the impact of soundscapes in Han Chinese Buddhist temples on mental health. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. View this article in WRRO
- Effects of spatial elements and sound sources on sound field in Main Hall of Chinese Buddhist temple. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 147(3), 1516-1530. View this article in WRRO
- Courtyard sound field characteristics by bell sounds in Han Chinese Buddhist temples. Applied Sciences, 10(4). View this article in WRRO
- A Chinese route to sustainability: Postsocialist transitions and the construction of ecological civilization. Sustainable Development, 26(6), 741-748. View this article in WRRO
- Intergenerational Justice and Solidarity on Sustainability in China: A Case Study in Nanjing, Yangtze River Delta. Sustainability, 10(11). View this article in WRRO
- Sounds and sound preferences in Han Buddhist temples. Building and Environment, 142, 58-69. View this article in WRRO
- Urban climate change, livelihood vulnerability and narratives of generational responsibility in Jinja, Uganda. Africa, 88(1), 11-37. View this article in WRRO
- Soundscape evaluation in Han Chinese Buddhist temples. Applied Acoustics, 111, 188-197. View this article in WRRO
- Subjective evaluation of the environmental quality in China's industrial corridors. Journal of Environmental Engineering and Landscape Management, 24(1), 21-36. View this article in WRRO
- Impact of noise on self-rated job satisfaction and health in open-plan offices: a structural equation modelling approach. Ergonomics, 59(2), 916-927. View this article in WRRO
- Comments on 'The Acoustic and Auditory Contexts of Human Behaviour' (by Elizabeth C. Blake and Ian Cross. Current Anthropology, 56, 92-93.
- A social survey on the noise impact in open-plan working environments in China.. Sci Total Environ, 438, 517-526.
- Evaluation of acoustic characteristics of Chinese open-plan office environment. Shengxue Xuebao/Acta Acustica, 35(2), 179-184.
- Acoustic characteristics of open-plan offices in developing China. 39th International Congress on Noise Control Engineering 2010, INTER-NOISE 2010, 2, 1369-1375.
- The impact of rural-urban migration: Case study on the Loess Plateau of central China. China Information, 24(2), 169-189.
- Subjective evaluation of urban environment: a case study in Beijing. INT J ENVIRON POLLUT, 39(1-2), 187-199.
- Towards the evaluation, description and creation of soundscape in urban open spaces. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 34(1), 68-86.
- Towards the evaluation, description, and creation of soundscapes in urban open spaces. ENVIRON PLANN B, 34(1), 68-86.
- Soundscape animation of urban open spaces in an interactive virtual environment. 12th International Congress on Sound and Vibration 2005, ICSV 2005, 1, 129-136.
- Evaluation of urban soundscape by future architects. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 115(5), 2497-2497.
- Acoustic simulation of urban squares. Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress on Sound and Vibration, 1405-1412.
- Semantic differential analysis on the soundscape of urban open public spaces. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 112(5), 2435-2435.
Chapters
- Contrasting Theories of Intergenerational Justice: Just Savings or Capabilities, Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations (pp. 351-369). Springer Singapore
- Contrasting Theories of Intergenerational Justice: Just Savings or Capabilities, Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations (pp. 1-19). Springer Singapore
- Contrasting Theories of Intergenerational Justice: Just Savings or Capabilities, Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations (pp. 1-19). Springer Singapore
Conference proceedings papers
- Effect of noise disturbance on job satisfaction and health symptoms in open-plan offices: A structural equation model exercise. Proceedings of Forum Acusticum, Vol. 2014-January
- Semantic differential analysis of the soundscape in urban open public spaces. BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT, Vol. 45(1) (pp 150-157)
- Research group
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SEAS Research Cluster
Movement(s), Economy and Development in East Asia
Associated research groups, collaborators and projects
INTERSECTION: A cross-national research project about intergenerational justice, consumption and sustainability - Investigator
- Teaching activities
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EAS6271 Chinese Language 1
EAS6272 Chinese Language 2
EAS6273 Chinese Language 3
EAS6274 Chinese Language 4
Mei Zhang also coordinates the China Year Abroad