Contact Details
- Phone
- +64 3 471 6129
- jing-bao.nie@otago.ac.nz
University Links
- Position
- Professor
- Department
- Bioethics Centre
- Qualifications
- BMed MMed(Hunan TCM) MA(Queen’s) PhD(UTMB)
- Research summary
- Transcultural and Global Bioethics, Bioethics in China and Asia, Confucianism, Social Sciences and Bioethics, Medical Humanities
- Teaching
- Memberships
- Member, WHO Working Group for WHO Guidance on Clinical Ethics (2023-25); Co-chair, The 6th International Congress of Feminist Bioethics (2008); Member, Board of Directors, the International Association of Bioethics (2005-09)
- Member of the Editorial/Advisory Boards of journals including Bioethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics J, Asian Bioethics Review, Asian J Medical Humanities, Indian J Medical Ethics, Chinese J Medical Ethics, Medicine and Society, and Medicine and Philosophy, as well as Otago University Press Co-Editor J Bioethical Inquiry (2004-06)
- University of Otago Early Career Award for Distinction in Research (2005); Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics (1998-99)
- Furong Visiting Professor, Hunan Normal University (2009-12); Adjunct Professor, Peking University Health Science Center (2009-18) and Wuhan University (2003-)
- Visiting Professor/Scholar, Yale University Center for Bioethics and Yale School of Medicine Program for Biomedical Ethics (2018); Harvard University Department of Anthropology (2018); Free University Berlin Institute for Philosophy (2014); National University of Singapore Centre for Biomedical Ethics (2008); Bonn University Center for European Integration Studies (2003); Hong Kong Baptist University Centre for Applied Ethics (2001)
- Associate, Harvard University Asia Center (2015-17)
- Fellow, The Hastings Center, USA (2011-present)
- Fellow, Durham University Institute of Advanced Study (2019-20)
- Barbro Klein Fellow, The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (2025)
Research
After growing up in a remote village in southern China, Professor Jing-Bao Nie was initially trained as a physician in Chinese medicine. He then studied sociology in Canada and the medical humanities and bioethics in the USA. His pioneering research on a range of bioethical issues in China and East Asia has resulted in not only original findings on those topics but also a distinctive theoretical and methodological approach called 'ethical transculturalism.' His current research explores Confucianism on aging and eldercare, and classical Confucianism for humane biopolitics and global health.
Among his over 160 peer-reviewed publications are the authored books Medical Ethics in China (Routledge) and Behind the Silence: Chinese Voices on Abortion (Rowman & Littlefield). He co-edited Japan's Wartime Medical Atrocities (Routledge) and Thematic Issues for Bioethics, Developing World Bioethics, and Kennedy Institute Ethics J. He contributed to such reference books as Global Health: Ethical Challenges, Routledge Handbook of Feminist Bioethics, Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics, and Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics (three chapters). The articles he authored and co-authored appeared in journals including American J Bioethics, Hastings Center Report, Cambridge Quarterly Healthcare Ethics, Nursing Ethics, J Clinical Ethics, Asian Bioethics Review, The Lancet, and Nature.
Professor Nie’s research received grants from the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of NZ (twice) and the Harvard China Fund. He has been an advisor and collaborator for one UK Wellcome Trust and two US National Institute of Health research projects.
Professor Nie has delivered over 100 keynote and other invited addresses at international conferences such as those organised by the International Association of Bioethics and the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law, as well as universities in Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North America. His books have been positively reviewed by dozens of scholars in various countries and several academic disciplines as “a landmark contribution” (The Lancet), “truly pioneering” and “no less than astounding” (China Review Intl), with “relevance far beyond its specific subject” (China Journal), “essential reading” (Asian Bioethics Review), and “embodying a style of bioethics radically different from [the mainstream]” (American J Bioethics).
Professor Nie has been cited or featured in media outlets, which include Nanfang Zhoumo (China), South China Morning Post (HK), Weekendvisen (Denmark), Artze Zeitung (Germany), Radio France, Stuff (NZ), NZ Herald, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian National Radio, The Guardian, Stat, CNN Health, Nature News, Science News, Foreign Policy, and The New York Times.
Additional details
Jing-Bao welcomes proposals from prospective postgraduate students from NZ, the Asia-Pacific region, and beyond for research projects, especially PhD projects, within his area of expertise.
Jing-Bao’s hobbies include, in recent years, running weekly cross-country half-marathons in the awe-inspiring landscapes of Aotearoa NZ and elsewhere. .