Lai Wei is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University. His research interests include social stratification, political sociology and public opinion particularly in the context of China. He is broadly interested in the causes and consequences of inequality in China. One of his research projects analyzes the roles of macro structural changes, like educational expansion and private sector expansion, in the changing mobility pattern in China in the recent decades. Another project analyzes how the changing mobility pattern translates into public opinion using a novel methodology, with a focus on reference group and relative deprivation. He is also studying how public opinion in contemporary China is shaped by propaganda, political events and historical memory.