Gang-Hua Fan is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Soochow University. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin. As a social demographer, his research interests include religious belief and life well-being, the measurement and social determinants of happiness, the developmental process of self-concept, and the relationship between social stratification and mental and physical health. In recent years, his research has shifted from broadly examining social class disparities in individuals' physical and mental health development to focusing on the patterns of religious practice among Taiwanese people and how religious participation affects individual well-being. He seeks to understand what structural positions and life course experiences lead people in Taiwan to adopt particular modes of religious participation, and how specific forms of religious practice influence their mental and physical well-being.