The Center for Asian Culture and Public Governance (CACPG) was established in the fall of 2010 at the Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU). The original idea of establishing the center was proposed by Dr. Tianjian Shi at Duke University in 2009. Later, Dr. Shi collaborated with the School of Public Administration (SPA) at the SWJTU to establish the center and generously agreed to serve as the founding director. Now, the CACPG is located in the SPA of the SWJTU.

CACPG aims to promote empirical research in China’s social sciences. Our center especially focuses on identifying, testing, and theorizing the practical experiences and models of public governance, crisis management, and social management that are embedded in and have been shaped by Asian and Chinese cultural traditions. Applying cutting-edge quantitative and qualitative methods that have been widely adopted in contemporary social sciences to empirical data, our center tries to develop, test, and establish appropriate theoretical concepts and frameworks with Asian and Chinese characteristics on public governance, crisis management, and social management, thus contributing to social sciences’ development in contemporary China. Meanwhile, relying on systematic and solid empirical data, our center also endeavors to provide data support and policy suggestions for government agencies at various levels on public policies, public governance, crisis management, and social management. Overall, our center hopes to establish itself as a major think tank in Southwest China for both academic and policy research.

CACPG now has more than twenty affiliated researchers. All of them have received systematic training from top-tier Chinese national universities (e.g., Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University, etc.) and have earned their Ph.D.s in political science, economics, sociology, management science, or legal studies. Most of our researchers have had extensive experience overseas and have done empirical research under the supervision of renowned professors at world-class universities in Europe and North America.

CACPG has made significant investments to establish a number of platforms to collect empirical data for empirical research in the social sciences. Up till now, our center has established several research offices and laboratories for different research projects. Our center has (1) one cutting-edge computer-assisted telephone interview system that can accommodate more than 20 interviewers working simultaneously, (2) one online survey platform and database that can support large-scale online surveys with embedded experiments, and (3) one laboratory for experimental studies in the social sciences. Our center also has one research office for face-to-face surveys, which can accommodate both conventional paper-and-pencil based interviews and computer-assisted personal interviews.

CACPG has completed several large- and medium-scale survey projects in collaboration with domestic research institutes and government agencies. Our center has launched several experimental studies in social sciences and is preparing for a large-scale online panel survey. Some of our findings have been presented at top-notch international conferences, like the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, Midwest Political Science Association, and Southern Political Science Association, as well as China’s first international conference on Experimental Studies in Political Science. Some of our researchers’ papers are published by or are under review at top-tier SSCI or CSSCI journals.

CACPG has secured strong cooperative and collaborative relationships with world-class universities and think tanks. Our center has been organizing the “Tianjian Forum” (to commemorate and honor Dr. Tianjian Shi, the founding director) on a regular basis, inviting well-known domestic and foreign scholars who have made significant achievements in empirical research for lectures. Our center has established an international academic committee, which holds regular internal meetings to supervise and assess our performance and research projects. Current members of our academic committee include Dr. John Aldrich (fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, chair professor at Duke University), Dr. Yun-han Chu (fellow of Academia Sinica, professor at National Taiwan University), Dr. Suisheng Zhao (founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China, professor at the University of Denver), Dr. Quansheng Zhao (co-chair of the Global Forum of Chinese Political Scientists, professor at American University), Dr. T. J. Cheng (chair professor at the College of William & Mary), and Dr. Wenfang Tang (chair professor at the University of Iowa).