Center for the Study of Contemporary China

Shanghai Custom House, 2008, Courtesy of Avery Goldstein

798 District courtesy of Avery Goldstein

Flood season Yangtze, Courtesy of Anonymous

Children on train, Courtesy of Anonymous

Peking University Weiming Lake 2014, Courtesy of Neysun Mahboubi

Tiananmen Square 2014, Courtesy of Neysun Mahboubi

Zhongnanhai 2014, Courtesy of Yuanyuan Zeng

Diaoyutai Beijing 2014, Courtesy of Yuanyuan Zeng

Beijing 2014, Courtesy of Avery Goldstein

Our Message

Welcome to the CSCC

This is our new website.

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CSCC Spotlight

Neysun A. Mahboubi is a Research Scholar of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a Lecturer in Law at Penn Law School. He also hosts the CSCC's new podcast. His current research and writing focuses on the development of modern Chinese administrative law.

Professor Avery Goldstein is the director of Center for the Study of Contemporary China. He is the David M. Knott Professor of Global Politics and International Relations in the Political Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Jacques deLisle is the deputy director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China. He is the Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Xinyin Chen is Professor of Psychology at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the President-Elect of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD).

As Executive Director for Penn Global, Dr. Amy Gadsden works with Penn’s schools and centers to develop and implement strategies to increase Penn’s global engagement both on campus and overseas.

Dr. Emily Hannum is Associate Professor of Sociology and Education, as well as Chair of the Graduate Group in Sociology at Penn.

Marshall W. Meyer is the Tsai Wan-Tsai Professor in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also Professor of Management, Professor of Sociology, and Associate Member of the Center for East Asian Studies.

Guobin Yang is an Associate Professor of Communication and Sociology in the Annenberg School for Communication and Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Minyuan Zhao is an Associate Professor of Management at Wharton. Minyuan's research examines the interactions between firm strategy and external environment in a global context: How emerging market institutions affect firms’ global strategies, and how firms’ strategic organization across borders shapes the global economic landscape.

Yue Hou is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in political science from MIT in September 2015. Her substantive interests include authoritarian institutions, ethnic politics, and business-state relations.

Wendy Leutert received her Ph.D. in government from Cornell University in 2017. Her research focuses on Chinese political economy, specifically the reform and globalization of China's state-owned enterprises.

Denise van der Kamp received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. Her research focuses on comparative political economy, with an emphasis on environmental politics, regulation, and market governance in China.

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Announcements

New CSCC podcast episode on "China & North Korea Relations", featuring the Harvard Kennedy School's John Park, now available on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Political Science Professor Yue Hou's research on government responsiveness in China has been cited in a 02/28/2018 New York Times article on Xi: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/world/asia/xi-jinping-china.html

Postdoctoral Fellow Wendy Leutert publishes an article in The China Quarterly on political mobility and China's state sector http://www.wendyleutert.com/research/

Political Science Professor Yue Hou publishes an op-ed on discrimination in the Chinese academia: http://dajia.qq.com/original/owl/hy20171229.html

Professor Hanming Fang has announced the official launch of VoxChina.org, an independent, non-partisan and nonprofit platform on economic issues between China and the rest of the world.

CSCC Blog

Elite Education and Its Impacts on Social Mobility in China

by Jamie Seah on October 19, 2017

Access to elite education (i.e. acquiring a degree from a prestigious university) has long been believed to be important for elite formation and reproduction. Although there is increasing literature on the returns to elite education, there has been mixed findings in the US context (which can partly be attributed to the typical challenges of selection and data availability) with little discussion on social mobility.

China’s Creativity Classes: Lessons in Artistic Self-Discovery and Personality

by Jamie Seah on October 19, 2017

To the casual observer, the gaokao ( 高考)—China’s infamously stressful college entrance examination—is perhaps the most salient feature of the Chinese education system. But what of “art test fever”, the phenomenon of high school students enrolling en masse in art test prep schools in the hopes of acquiring the necessary gaokao scores for studying art?

Events

China and the Environment: Challenges at Home and Agendas Abroad

FPRI Panel Discussion

Monday, June 11, 2018

11:30 am to 12:45 pm

FPRI Library, 1528 Walnut Street, Ste. 610, Philadelphia, PA, 19102

Barriers to Entry and Regional Economic Growth in China

Judith and Marshall Meyer Lectures on China’s Economy

Loren Brandt, Professor of Economics, University of Toronto

Thursday, September 27, 2018

4:30PM

Manipulating Globalization: The Influence of Bureaucrats on Business in China

Ling Chen, Assistant Professor, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Thursday, October 25, 2018

4:30PM

Bureaucracy and Political Responsiveness in Contemporary China

Greg Distelhorst, Mitsubishi Career Development Professor in International Management, MIT

Thursday, November 1, 2018

4:30PM

Contested Cyberspace in Contemporary China

Rongbin Han, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, University of Georgia

Friday, November 16, 2018

12PM

China’s Automobile Industry

Judith and Marshall Meyer Lectures on China’s Economy

Jie Bai, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Thursday, November 29, 2018

4:30PM

TBD

Ann Harrison, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

Thursday, December 6, 2018

4:30PM