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The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) is delighted to share that Stanford Sociologist Gi-Wook Shin, the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea, director of APARC, and founding director of the Korea Program at APARC, is the recipient of the Korean American Achievement Award for his contributions to promoting Korean Studies, strengthening U.S.-Korea relations, and fostering transnational collaboration. The award was presented at the 122nd anniversary celebration of Korean American Day in San Francisco on January 11, 2025.

The Korean American Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Korean American community’s academic, cultural, and civic development. Shin, a historical-comparative and political sociologist who is also a senior fellow at the Freeman Spoglli Institute for International Studies, has dedicated himself to addressing Korea’s contemporary challenges and bridging the United States and Korea. His work combines rigorous research with actionable policy insights, focusing on democracy, nationalism, societal development in Korea, migration, and international relations. He is also a sought-after media commentator on Korean affairs and U.S.-Korea ties.

Shin is the author and editor of 25 books and numerous articles. His most recent book is Korean Democracy in Crisis: The Threat of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (Shorenstein APARC, 2022). Stanford University Press will publish his next book, The Four Talent Giants: National Strategies for Human Resource Development Across Japan, Australia, China, and India, in July 2025.

Under Shin’s leadership as its founding director, the Korea Program has become a renowned Stanford hub for interdisciplinary research and dialogue on contemporary Korea. The program celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022, marking two decades of promoting education and exchange on Korea’s political, economic, and social evolution. Beyond academia, the program is a platform for fostering the next generation of leaders dedicated to advancing Korea’s future and strengthening Korea-U.S. ties.

Shin also spearheads the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), an initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia through interdisciplinary, policy-relevant, and comparative studies and publications.

The Korean American Day commemorates the arrival of the first Korean immigrants in the United States on January 13, 1903. The 122nd anniversary of Korean American Day was co-hosted by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco, the San Francisco & Bay Area Korea Center, and Korean organizations in Northern California. The event was held at the San Francisco & Bay Area Korea Center.

Congratulations to Professor Shin on this well-deserved honor! It is a testament to his leadership and contributions that enrich the Korea Program and APARC’s mission to deepen the understanding of Asia and strengthen U.S.-Asia relations.

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Korea’s Bumpy Road Toward Democracy

The historical and sociopolitical contexts of President Yoon’s declaration of martial law and its aftermath
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Gi-Wook Shin, Evan Medeiros, and Xinru Ma in conversation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab Engages Washington Stakeholders with Policy-Relevant Research on US-China Relations and Regional Issues in Asia

Lab members recently shared data-driven insights into U.S.-China tensions, public attitudes toward China, and racial dynamics in Asia, urging policy and academic communities in Washington, D.C. to rethink the Cold War analogy applied to China and views of race and racism in Asian nations.
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Dafna Zur
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Dafna Zur Awarded South Korea’s Order of Culture Merit

The award, the highest recognition bestowed by the government of the Republic of Korea, honors Zur for her contributions to promoting the Korean writing system, Hangeul.
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The award recognizes Shin’s contributions to advancing Korean studies and strengthening U.S.-Korea relations through scholarship and bridge-building.

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Portrait of Dahjin Kim on a flyer for her seminar, "Online Ingroup Bias Helps Correct Misinformation"

Online misinformation poses serious risks to politics and society, prompting researchers and policymakers to explore effective intervention strategies. While approaches like enhancing digital literacy, expert fact-checking, and regulation have shown limited success, a more collective strategy—user correction—offers promise. However, its effectiveness often relies on social factors, such as demographic information and interpersonal relationships, which are frequently absent in online interactions.

Kim will argue that shared membership in online communities serves as a critical yet underexplored social cue that enhances the persuasiveness of corrections. Drawing on two original studies conducted in South Korea—a highly connected but understudied region in misinformation research— Kim finds evidence of ingroup bias that is closely associated with participation in online communities. Furthermore, corrections from members of the same online community can effectively counter misinformation, even in anonymous settings. This research, funded by an APSA grant, offers actionable insights into leveraging online group dynamics to combat misinformation more effectively.

This event is part of APARC's Contemporary Asia Seminar Series.

 

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Dahjin Kim is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. She studies online political communication and misinformation, with a particular interest in South Korea. Her research has been supported by the APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant and has been published in the American Journal of Political Science,  International Organization, Political Science Research and Methods, Journal of Theoretical Politics, and Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. She received her M.A. in Political Science and her B.A. in Political Science from Seoul National University.

Philippines Room, Encina Hall (3rd floor), Room C330
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305

 

Dahjin Kim Political Science PhD Candidate Washington University in St. Louis
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​​Noriko Akiyama, Asahi Shimbun
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The Stanford Japan Barometer (henceforth SJB), a public opinion survey on various topics including Japanese society, politics, and economy, is led by Stanford sociologist Kiyoteru Tsutsui, the deputy director of Shorenstein APARC and director of the Center’s Japan Program, and political scientist Charles Crabtree of Dartmouth College. SJB is one of the largest online surveys of its kind in Japan.

In fall 2024, SJB conducted a survey on gender and sexuality, including on the topic of optional separate surnames for married couples, as the LDP presidential election reignited the debate about this issue in Japanese society. SJB previously conducted a similar survey on the topic in 2022. Surname selection has also reemerged as a policy issue due to the growth of the opposition to the ruling LDP in the October 2024 subsequent general election for the Lower House of the National Diet (Japan's Parliament).

Below is an English translation of a recent GLOBE+ feature story on SJB's latest survey that sheds light on Japanese voters' views on this issue. This is the fifth installment in a series GLOBE+, an international news outlet run by the Asahi Shimbun, is publishing jointly with APARc’s Japan Program on SJB's work. You can read an English translation of parts 1-3 and part 4 in the series. The translation was initially generated via DeepL. The following translation was edited for accuracy and style.


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Views on a Dual-Surname Option for Spouses


The issue came into renewed focus when former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, one of the candidates in the LDP presidential election held in September 2024, pledged to implement a selective married couple surname system. SJB therefore conducted another survey from September 25 to October 2, 2024, on the same themes as those used in the November 2022 survey on selective surname system, same-sex marriage, female Diet members, and outside directors. There were 9769 respondents, a little more than 1,000 more than in the previous survey.

The Japanese government has regularly been surveying this issue but as a result of changing the survey questions and the way they were asked between 2017 and 2021, support for the selective surname system dropped from a record high of 42.5% in the 2017 survey to record low of only 28.9% in 2021. For that reason, in SJB’s November 2022 survey and fall 2024 survey, respondents were randomly assigned to either of the two methods of asking questions from the government's 2017 and 2021 surveys.

The results showed that, among respondents assigned to the 2021 method, 26% preferred to “maintain the current system of married couples with the same family name,” 38% preferred to “maintain the current system of married couples with the same family name and establish a legal system for the use of the maiden name as a common name,” and 36% preferred to “introduce an optional system of married couples with different family names.”

On the other hand, among those assigned to the 2017 system, 21% said that “married couples should always take the same surname as long as they are married, and there is no need to change the current law,” 59% said that “if a married couple wishes to take the surname they had before their marriage, it would be acceptable if the law is changed to allow each couple to take the surname they had before their marriage,” and 20% and 20% said "Even if married couples wish to keep their maiden surnames, they should always have the same surname, but I don't mind changing the law to allow people who change their surnames due to marriage to use their maiden surnames as aliases.” In other words, 59% favored optional separate surnames for married couples.

Thus, the 2021 method of asking the question was more likely to result in fewer people supporting selective married couples. This is similar to Japan Barometer's previous 2022 survey, and it can be said that the government's 2021 survey showed less support for selective surnames because of the change in the framing of the survey questions.

As in the 2022 survey, SJB asked about optional separate surnames for married couples under certain assumptions, so as to reveal under what conditions public opinion would be swayed toward selective surnames. In SJB’s 2022 survey, respondents’ opposition was strongest when the precondition suggested separate surnames could weaken family ties or harm children and society. In the latest survey of fall 2024, however, no statistically significant causal relationship was observed, suggesting that public opinion on this issue has matured and no longer changes even when preconditions are added.

Furthermore, the 2024 survey introduced a new question about whether individuals would prefer to retain their maiden name if a dual-surname option for spouses was allowed. Among female respondents, 21.3% said they would “likely choose to do so,” 23.5% were “undecided,” and 55.2% said they “would not likely choose to do so.”

Commenting on these findings, Professor Tsutsui said: “Many older individuals and already-married women are accustomed to the current system, making it unlikely they would opt for separate surnames. The fact that only about 20% of the respondents would choose to change their surname could be a basis for some kind of legislation, since 20% of women feel inconvenienced. Furthermore, since the majority of women do not choose to have separate surnames, it is unlikely that the family system will collapse rapidly, as some conservatives worry. This may be a result that encourages the implementation of legal reform.”

Attitudes Toward Gender Equality


The survey also explored attitudes toward women’s advancement in society. As in the 2022 survey, respondents evaluated hypothetical political candidates for the Diet based on six attributes: age (from 32 to 82 in 10-year increments), gender, marital status, number of children, level of education, and professional background (10 types, including Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs bureaucrats, corporate executives, governors, and local assembly members).

Two “candidate images” were created by randomly combining six attributes, and the respondents were asked to choose one in a two-choice format. The same question was repeated 10 times with different choices, and the responses obtained from all survey targets were tabulated and analyzed. The reason for the complexity of the method is that, from a statistical point of view, this allows the researchers to get closer to the “true feelings” (public opinion) of the respondents.

The combination of attributes that received the most responses, i.e., the “ideal candidate image” in respondents' minds, was the same as in 2022: female gender, ages 32 and 42, and occupation as governor or corporate executive. This aligns with the findings from the 2022 survey, indicating strong expectations for female leaders in their 30s and 40s. Indeed, Japan’s October 2024 Diet election mirrored these results, with a record 15.7% of women elected.

Views on Same-Sex Marriage


In addition, support for same-sex marriage remained high overall, with 43.7% in favor, 38.9% neutral, and 17.3% opposed. Support for same-sex marriage increased most when the following preconditions were added: "From the standpoint of human rights and gender equality, it is unfair to not recognize same-sex marriage," and "For gay people, not having their marital relationship recognized causes various inconveniences, such as inconveniences and disadvantages in their professional and daily lives, and a sense of denial of their identity."

On the other hand, when members of Parliament and outside directors were asked about their preferred combination of attributes, the least supported of the attributes of marriage was “people in homosexual relationships.”

“Married” was the most popular, as were “never married” and “divorced,” with the least support for those in a homosexual relationship.

“While there is a growing understanding of same-sex marriage in the private sphere, there seems to be a tendency for people to choose those who are within the traditional family system for roles holding public responsibility,” said Tsutsui.

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Stanford Japan Barometer Unveils Insights into Japanese Public Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage and Marital Surname Choices

A new installment of the Asahi Shimbun’s GLOBE+ series highlights Stanford Japan Barometer findings about Japanese public opinion on recognizing same-sex unions and legalizing a dual-surname option for married couples. Co-developed by Stanford sociologist Kiyoteru Tsutsui and Dartmouth College political scientist Charles Crabtree, the public opinion survey tracks evolving Japanese attitudes on political, economic, and social issues and unveils how question framing changes the results of public opinion polls.
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Japan's Ambassador to the US Shigeo Yamada, Consul General Yo Osumi, and Kiyoteru Tsutsui, posing on the front steps of Encina Hall, Stanford.
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Japanese Ambassador to the US Visits Stanford for Dialogue on U.S.-Japan Relations and Global Security

In a recent visit by a delegation from Japan's Embassy to the United States and Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco, Ambassador Shigeo Yamada and Stanford experts discussed pressing issues affecting U.S.-Japan relations, regional security, and the international legal order. Hosted by APARC's Japan Program, the visit highlighted the role of academic institutions in informing policy and global cooperation.
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Walking Out: America’s New Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific and Beyond
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Walking Out: New Book Unravels the Shift in America's Trade Policy and Its Global Consequences

A new book by APARC Visiting Scholar Michael Beeman offers a timely analysis of the shift in United States' foreign trade policy, examines its recent choices to “walk out” on the principles that had defined the global trade system it had created, and offers recommendations for a redefined and more productive trade policy strategy.
cover link Walking Out: New Book Unravels the Shift in America's Trade Policy and Its Global Consequences
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Approximately 20 percent of Japanese women are likely to choose a different surname if a dual-surname option for married couples is introduced, according to the latest survey of the Stanford Japan Barometer. A new installment in the Asahi Shimbun’s GLOBE+ series features these and other Japan Barometer survey results.

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Visiting Scholar at APARC, 2025
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Joong-Seop Kim joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar for the 2025 calendar year. He currently serves as Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at Gyeongsang National University in Korea. While at APARC, he will be conducting research on human rights and racism in East Asia.

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Peng Chen joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar for the 2025 calendar year. He currently serves as Associate Professor at Beijing Normal University's School of Sociology. While at APARC, Professor Chen will be conducting research on the organizational mechanisms of community governance in megacities.

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Visiting Scholar at APARC, 2024-2025
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Yasmin Wirjawan joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting scholar during the 2024-2025 academic year. She currently serves as advisor to Ancora Group and Sweef Capital, and heads the Ancora Foundation. While at APARC, she will be conducting research on women’s economic participation and resilience to climate change in the Asia-Pacific, including Indonesia.

Wirjawan holds a Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation from New York University.

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Cover of the working paper "Korean Cuisine Gone Global," showing a bowl of noodles.

To understand the transformation of Korean food from an “ethnic curiosity” into one of the world’s hottest cuisines, the Korea Program at Shorenstein APARC brought together culinary experts and  academics at the conference “Korean Cuisine Gone Global.” Held on April 11, 2024, the event featured celebrity chef Judy Joo, a renowned television star, an international restaurateur, and owner of the famed Seoul Bird, and Ryu Soo-young, an acclaimed actor turned culinary maestro. They shared their culinary journeys and joined a lineup of esteemed scholars to offer insights into the transformation of Korean cuisine, the role of race and place in its success story, and new directions in the study of food and Korean culture. The scholars' papers have been collected in this volume.

About the Contributors

Rebecca Jo Kinney is an interdisciplinary teacher and scholar of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, and an associate professor at the School of Cultural Studies at Bowling Green State University. Kinney’s award-winning first book, Beautiful Wasteland: The Rise of Detroit as America’s Postindustrial Frontier (University of Minnesota Press, 2016), argues that contemporary stories told about Detroit’s potential for rise enable the erasure of white supremacist systems. Her research has appeared in American Quarterly, Food, Culture & Society, Verge: Studies in Global Asia, Radical History Review, and Race&Class, among other journals. Her second book, Mapping AsiaTown Cleveland: Race and Redevelopment in the Rust Belt, is forthcoming from Temple University Press in 2025. She is working on a third book, Making Home in Korea: The Transnational Lives of Adult Korean Adoptees, based on research undertaken while a Fulbright Scholar in South Korea. 

Robert Ji-Song Ku is an associate professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University (SUNY) and the managing editor of Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. His teaching and research interests include Asian American studies, food studies, and transnational and diasporic Korean popular culture. Prior to Binghamton, he taught at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and Hunter College (CUNY). He is the author of Dubious Gastronomy: Eating Asian in the USA (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014) and co-editor of Eating More Asian America: A Food Studies Reader (NYU Press, forthcoming 2025), the sequel to Eating Asian America (NYU Press, 2013). He is also co-editor of Pop Empires: Transnational and Diasporic Flows of India and Korea (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019) and Future Yet to Come: Sociotechnical Imaginaries in Modern Korea (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2021), as well as the Food in Asia and the Pacific series for the University of Hawai‘i Press. Born in Korea, he grew up in Hawai‘i and currently lives in Culver City, California. 

Jooyeon Rhee is an associate professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature and director of the Penn State Institute for Korean Studies. She specializes in modern Korean literature and culture. Her main research concerns Korean popular literature, with particular emphasis on transnational literary exchanges and interactions. Currently, she is writing her second book on cultural imaginations of crime and deviance manifested in late colonial Korean detective fiction. Her other research interests include diasporic art and literature and food studies. 

Dafna Zur (editor) is an associate professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford. Her first book, Figuring Korean Futures: Children’s Literature in Modern Korea (2017), interrogates the contradictory political visions made possible by children’s literature in colonial and postcolonial Korea. Her second project explores sound, science, and space in the children’s literature of North and South Korea. She has published articles on North Korean popular science and science fiction, translations in North Korean literature, the Korean War in children’s literature, childhood in cinema, children’s poetry and music, and popular culture. Zur’s translations of Korean fiction have appeared in wordwithoutborders.org, Modern Korean Fiction : An Anthology, and the Asia Literary Review

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Papers from Shorenstein APARC’s Korea Program Conference

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Dafna Zur
Rebecca Jo Kinney
Robert Ji-Song Ku
Jooyeon Rhee
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Flyer for the talk "Is South Korea Trapped or Transitioning?" with portrait of speaker Kim Boo-kyum

Once the term "Japanification" was widely used in the Western media, cautioning that prolonged economic stagnation could spread to other countries like in Japan. But recently, "South Koreanification" has emerged, meaning that Korea's demographic crisis marked by low birth rates and rapid aging can become a reality elsewhere, too.

In this talk, Mr. Boo Kyum Kim, former Prime Minister of Republic of Korea, will examine the dual challenges of declining birth rate and accelerating aging population facing Korea, and discuss policy directions and strategies South Korea should take for its sustainable national growth. 

Portrait of Boo Kyum Kim

Mr. Boo Kyum Kim was the 47th Prime Minister of Republic of Korea (2021-22), and prior to that,  he was the First Minister of the Interior and Safety (2017-19). Since his college years in 1980s, Mr. Kim had been a leader of democratization movements, and he  served four terms as a National Assembly Member between 2000 and 2017. He received a BA in Political science from Seoul National University and an MA in public administration from Yonsei University in Korea.

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Gi-Wook Shin
Boo Kyum Kim, former Prime Minister, Republic of Korea
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Flyer for the book talk "Against Abandonment" with a portrait of author Jennifer Chun

BOOK TALK

Against Abandonment: Repertoires of Solidarity in South Korean Protest (Stanford University Press, 2025) by Jennifer Jihye Chun and Ju Hui Judy Han offers insight into the utility and futility of protesting precarity under neoliberal capitalism. Based on long-term ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with key labor and social movement activists, the book follows the protests of minoritized workers, especially women employed in precarious jobs, as they contend with what it means to be treated as disposable and what it takes to resist. Long-term protest camps, life-threatening hunger strikes, grueling prostrations, perilous high-altitude occupations are agonizing to perform and to witness but often powerful as affective catalysts of change. Through dramatic performances and rituals that are repeated across time and space, Against Abandonment finds that protesters cultivate repertoires of solidarity as a relational force that binds people and worlds together in a collective praxis of refusal. In doing so, Against Abandonment builds upon intersectional, transnational, and abolitionist feminist theorizing that has long emphasized the centrality of building relations of care and community in place-based struggles against capitalist abandonment.

portrait of Jennifer Chun

Jennifer Jihye Chun is Professor of Asian American Studies and Labor Studies at UCLA. Her research and teaching focus on labor and community organizing; gender, care, and migration; ethnography and intersectional feminist methods; and culture, power, and global capitalism. She is the author of the award-winning book Organizing at the Margins: the Symbolic Politics of Labor in South Korea and the United States (Cornell University Press) and Against Abandonment: Repertoires Solidarity in South Korean Protest (co-authored with Ju Hui Judy Han; forthcoming, Stanford University Press). Chun is currently Chair of International Development Studies (IDS) and Associate Director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. 

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Paul Y. Chang
Jennifer J. Chun, Professor, Asian American Studies and Labor Studies, UCLA Professor, Asian American Studies and Labor Studies, UCLA
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The past several years have posed difficult challenges for foreign journalists covering China. With increasing restrictions, harassment, and obstruction of the renewal of press cards by the Chinese authorities, many foreign correspondents, especially those working for U.S. media, have been expelled and now find themselves reporting on China from abroad. Chris Buckley, the chief China correspondent for The New York Times, is among those forced to leave the country he had lived and worked in for over 20 years. Since 2022, he has reported on China and Taiwan from Taipei. Still, Buckley, winner of the 2024 Shorenstein Journalism Award, hopes others will feel encouraged to plunge into the adventure of studying China.

In his keynote address at the award ceremony, Buckley reflected on his decades of covering one of the defining narratives of the 21st century: China’s rise and its evolution under Xi Jinping. Voicing his concerns about the repercussions of discouraging new generations from pursuing China-related careers, he shared the deep sense of fulfillment his work has brought him.

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The Shorenstein Journalism Award honors Buckley for his many years of exemplary reporting on China, and now also Taiwan. The Award Judging Committee notes that his body of work reflects “truly unparalleled knowledge and understanding of China” and vividly unveils the country’s political and social transformations under Xi Jinping’s rule.

Following Buckley’s keynote remarks, the award ceremony featured a conversation about key issues that put China in the news. Buckley was joined by two China scholars: Oriana Skylar Mastro, a center fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) whose work focuses on Chinese military and security policy, and Xuegunag Zhou, the Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in Economic Development, a professor of sociology, and a senior fellow at FSI. William Dobson, the coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, chaired the discussion. Dobson, who also serves on the judging committee for the Shorenstein Award, is an award-winning journalist in his own right with a long career in international reporting.

The Power of History in China Under Xi


Buckley’s reporting has shed light on China's rise through deeply nuanced stories, capturing complexities and key developments across a wide range of issues. These include the country’s extraordinary economic growth and contradictions, such as the emergence of a bold consumer culture under a Communist Party that upholds Marxist ideology; the struggles of rural migrants moving into towns and cities; the Chinese government’s use of high-tech surveillance to suppress and control Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other ethnic groups; the modernization of China’s military; Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and in the South China Sea; and, notably, the unfolding of COVID-19. Buckley spent 76 days in Wuhan during the lockdown there, covering the early onset and coverup of the pandemic — a story for which he and his team won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.

“Chris has been one of the most perceptive and sensitive chroniclers of modern China,” Dobson noted as he introduced Buckley at the award ceremony.

Above all, Buckley’s stories have illuminated the rise and thinking of Xi Jinping. In contrast to expectations that Xi would be a pragmatist focused on economic growth, “what we’ve seen instead is a leader who has made priorities of political security and ideological revival,” said Buckley. “A leader who sees himself as presiding over a historic transformation.”

Whatever approach we take, it helps to be attuned to the influences of China’s past and how that history is very much alive in contemporary times.
Chris Buckley

Under Xi, the Chinese Communist Party has reinforced control over Chinese society, the economy, and China’s claimed territories. Even more so, Buckley underscored, Xi and the Party have also been reasserting control over history, extending and exercising power by shaping collective memories. In China under Xi, he said, memories of war, revolution, famine, massacre, and extraordinary change are erased, rewritten, and fought over.

He described how, under this drive, publications that question the official version of past events have been shut down, religious sites in Xinjiang demolished, access to sensitive sites like a cemetery for Red Guards restricted, and the Party’s accounts of its past retold through television shows, newly built museums, and other public displays.

Buckley recalled a 2019 reporting trip to Xinyang — a rural part of Henan province, a base of the Communist revolution, and one of the worst hit areas during the Great Leap Forward famine of the late 1950s. Speaking to elderly farmers carrying the memories of their family members who died in the famine, he kept witnessing a reverence for Mao that extended to the Party and Xi.

“I was struck that even in this part of the Chinese countryside where peasants endured the greatest suffering, so many embraced the Party’s version of the past. And I think that means they also tend to embrace the Party’s story of China’s present and the future.”

According to Buckley, Xi and his generation harbor concerns about the Communist Party’s drifting away from its roots as it moves further from the founding generation. To counter this process, the Party reinforces its founding myths and narratives as vital sources of authority and legitimacy, ensuring continuity with the past.

From Master Narratives to Geopolitics


Buckley also pointed out a deeper layer of China's efforts to shape history and memory under Xi’s leadership. He noted how the Politburo and Xi have shown a keen interest in studying and retelling China’s ancient history, with official efforts to shape the discussion of history reaching back thousands of years. These actions, he said, demonstrate efforts to construct “a narrative of unbroken Chinese nationhood and values,” creating continuity from China's distant past to the present.

Furthermore, at a time when neither the master narrative of Maoist Marxism nor the image of China as a modernized, respected member of the family of great powers seems to resonate fully, Xi and the Party are “reviving narratives of civilizational greatness and destiny,” he argued.

He emphasized that the Party’s aggressive efforts to shape historical memory do not mean Chinese people accept these accounts without question, and there are individuals and groups who, often at great personal risk, continue to challenge and push back against the official version of history. Yet overall, Xi and the Chinese Communist Party have successfully embedded history in political and social structures, creating a framework that defines China’s policies and foreign policy behavior.

Contestation over history also courses through many of the great issues that put China in the news — Taiwan, the South China Sea, Tibet and Xinjiang, and China’s relationship with the United States and the West in general.
Chris Buckley

The looming power of and contestation over history is one reason why Buckley hopes others will feel encouraged to study China even in an age of shrinking access. Otherwise, he cautioned, at a time when China matters so much to the world, “the accumulated cost could be a loss of our pooled understanding, and the fresh voices that we need for healthy debate, decision-making, and reporting.”

Now living and working in Taiwan, Buckley observes the importance of history and memory from the lens of the complexity of Taiwanese domestic currents.

“The divisions between Beijing and Taiwan are a territorial dispute, but they are founded in vastly different understandings of Taiwan’s history and identity,” he noted.

The themes of cross-strait tensions and the centralization of power under Xi were the focus of the discussion with Buckley, Mastro, and Zhou.

The Shorenstein Journalism Award, which carries a cash prize of $10,000, recognizes accomplished journalists who have significantly contributed to a greater understanding of Asia throughout their careers based on their knowledge of Asian societies and the ability to draw upon it to communicate insights to audiences worldwide. To learn more, visit the Award page.

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Open Faculty Positions in Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Korean Studies, and Taiwan Studies

Stanford University seeks candidates for a new faculty position in Japanese politics and foreign policy, a faculty position in Korean Studies, and a new faculty position on Taiwan. All three appointments will be at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and affiliated with Shorenstein APARC.
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Oriana Skylar Mastro and a cover of her book, "Upstart"
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China's Strategic Path to Power

A new book by Stanford political scientist Oriana Skylar Mastro offers a novel framework, the “upstart approach," to explain China's 30-year journey to great power status through strategic emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship.
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(Clockwise from top left) Michael McFaul, Oriana Skylar Mastro, Gi-Wook Shin, Kiyoteru Tsutsui
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Stanford Experts Assess the Future of the Liberal International Order in the Indo-Pacific Amid the Rise of Autocracy, Sharp Power

At the Nikkei Forum, Freeman Spogli Institute scholars Oriana Skylar Mastro, Michael McFaul, Gi-Wook Shin, and Kiyoteru Tsutsui considered the impacts of the war in Ukraine, strategies of deterrence in Taiwan, and the growing tension between liberal democracy and authoritarian populism.
cover link Stanford Experts Assess the Future of the Liberal International Order in the Indo-Pacific Amid the Rise of Autocracy, Sharp Power
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In the era of Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has reasserted control over the recollection and retelling of the past as vital sources for shaping Chinese national identity and global power projection, says Chris Buckley, the chief China correspondent for The New York Times and the recipient of the 2024 Shorenstein Journalism Award.

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