Research Philosophy and Projects
Interdisciplinary research on human interactions and development is always my passion. What is development? What drives development? When and how to develop (sustainable and inclusive development under uncertainty and inequality)? Who's waiting for development? (Development of what, by what, at what time, in what way, for whom). These are the questions I intend to answer for the rest of my life.
I've been working on the following three lines of research: (1) state mobilization, participatory development, and local governance in China; (2) collaborative governance, digital self-governance, crisis management, and public service resilience in various contexts; and (3) decentralization and governance reform in Global South countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal.
Publications
Working Papers
Interacting for Development: How the State Engages with Society in Chinese Villages
Accepted for the 2021 American Political Science Association (APSA) Conference, Sep.2021, presented at Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Conference, Apr.2022, and APSA Asia Politics Conference, Jul.2022.
Public Service Resilience on the Cloud: State Mobilization and Digital Self-governance in China's COVID-19 Response, revise & resubmit, Public Administration Review, won the 1st EASP (East Asian Social Policy) Paper Prize.
Presented at the conference "The Great Mediation: Perspectives on Politics and New Media" at the University of Chicago, May.2021, American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Annual Conference, Mar.2022, and 2022 MPSA Conference, Apr.2022.
Demobilizing to Social Trust: The Lasting Impacts of Sent-Down Youths (1968-1977) on Chinese Rural Citizens
Presented at 2021 MPSA Conference, Apr.2021, 2022 Conference on Rural Society and Politics in China (University of Pittsburgh), Apr. 2022.
Making Donations Work in Crisis Management: A Contingent Governance Transition in Wuhan's Philanthropy? (corresponding author, with Edward Gu and Zhenyu Wang), revised & resubmitted, International Journal of Public Administration.
The Local Governance of COVID-19: Lessons learned and Ways Forward in Rural Bangladesh
(with Edris Alam et al.), under review.
Work in Progress
Interactive Development: State Mobilization, Social Embeddedness, and State-Society Engagement in China (Book Manuscript)
Elites' Informal Connections and Selective Policy Implementation: The Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation in Rural China (2000-2015) (with Qing Chang), presented at the 2021 MPSA Conference, Apr.2021.
Soft Power is Not Soft Anymore: China's Global Engagement and Public Opinion on the US-China Rivalry (with Jungmin Han and Shuli Zhang), presented at 2022 UCSD Young Scholars Conference, Jul.2022.
Services in Need are Services Indeed: The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Chinese Welfare Policy Preferences (with Hang Qi), presented at 2022 UCSD Young Scholars Conference, Jul.2022.
The Reflective Party-State: A Historical Perspective of State-Society Engagement in China
Bring the People Back In: The Politics beyond Democracy and Autocracy
Colloquialism as Statecraft: Strongman Rule and Policy Diffusion in Mass Mobilization
Digital Education under Emergency: The Impact of COVID-19 on English Language Teaching in Chinese Higher Education System
Inequality within Poverty: Why Can Some People Escape Poverty While Others Remain Poor?
Limitations of Politics: The Power of Memory, Culture, and Religion
How History Rhymes with Itself: The Affective Politics of (Anti-)Globalization
The Distorted Political Economy
How Can We Escape the "The China Trap"?