Toronto Population Network Speaker Series: Zhenchao Qian

POP in for an excellent presentation! The Toronto Population Network Speaker Series brings together leading scholars working at the cutting edge of population research. From mortality and health to migration, fertility, and inequality, our speakers showcase innovative methods and substantive findings shaping contemporary population research. Open to students, faculty, and anyone with an interest in data and population dynamics, this series is a space to learn, ask questions, and connect across disciplines.

A Hierarchy of Boundaries: Interethnic and Interracial Marriage in Asian America

Who do Asian Americans marry? Nearly 24 million people in the U.S identified as Asian alone or in combination in 2020, representing extraordinary diversity in ethnic origin, nativity, education, and immigration history, yet sharing common experiences of racialization and discrimination. Using the American Community Survey (2008-2023), we examine ethnic and racial assortative mating among six major groups - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Southeast Asian, and South Asian Americans - applying log-linear and conditional logit models that account for ethnic origin, multiracial identification, education, nativity, and marriage and cohabiting histories. We find that marriage across Asian ethnic lines is considerably more common than marriage across racial boundaries, revealing a clear hierarchy of boundaries: ethnic boundaries that are often treated as impermeable within Asian societies prove more crossable in the U.S than the racial boundary separating Asians from other groups. Education drives boundary crossing for East Asians but reinforces endogamy among South Asians, while South Asian endogamy collapses in cohabitation, revealing institutional enforcement rather than preference alone. These patterns illuminate how intimate partnerships both reflect and reproduce the social hierarchies of Asian America.

Zhenchao Qian

Zhenchao Qian is professor of sociology and research associate of Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University. His research examines patterns and trends in assortative mating: how partner selection is shaped by preferences, marriage market opportunities, and racial, ethnic, and other social boundaries, and how union formation and history affect individual wellbeing. His work also explores racial identification among children of interracial couples, immigration in the United States, and family change in China.

Upcoming events

• April 7: Zhenchao Qian – UT Austin
• April 21: Student Symposium
• May 5: Jenna Nobles – UC Berkeley