Demographics

Patients’ Value of Physician Continuity: Evidence from China

Thursday, February 5, 2026 | 5:00 PM -Thursday, February 5, 2026 | 6:00 PM

Continuity of medical care is widely observed, but it is often difficult to disentangle patients’ intrinsic preferences from system-imposed switching costs. In this webinar, Dr. Yuli Xu discusses a study that uses the Chinese healthcare setting, where patients can freely choose physicians at each visit and flexibly switch across hospitals and departments, to isolate patients’ value of physician continuity.

Estimating a discrete choice model, the study shows that patients strongly prefer to see the same physician despite minimal institutional barriers to switching, indicating an intrinsic preference for continuity. The study also examines how physicians’ temporary leave affects patient behavior, using a stacked difference-in-differences design. A physician’s absence leads to significant reductions in patient visits, both within the physician’s department and across other departments in the same hospital, with no substitution toward other hospitals and no detectable effects on health outcomes. Patients return to their original physicians once they resume practice. Moreover, patients with more severe conditions incur higher spending when forced to see a new physician. Overall, the findings demonstrate that patients place substantial intrinsic value on physician continuity, even in a healthcare system with highly flexible provider choice.

Speaker:

Yuli Xu joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year. She recently obtained her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on Labor and Health Economics, with particular interests in how female labor force participation and fertility decisions are influenced by labor market institutions and past birth experiences. In her thesis, "Gendered Impacts of Privatization: A Life Cycle Perspective from China," she demonstrates that the reduction in public sector employment has widened the gender gap in the labor market while narrowing the gender gap in educational attainment. She also finds that this structural shift has delayed marriage among younger generations.

In another line of research, Yuli examines the effects of maternity ward overcrowding. She finds that overcrowding reduces the use of medical procedures during childbirth without negatively impacting maternal or infant health. While it has no direct effect on subsequent fertility, she shows that mothers, especially those with a college degree, are more likely to switch to another hospital for subsequent births after experiencing overcrowding. During her time at APARC, Yuli will further investigate patient-physician relationships in the Chinese healthcare system, where patients have considerable flexibility in choosing their doctors at each visit. She will explore the persistence of these relationships and examine how patients respond when their regular doctors are temporarily unavailable.

Yuli also holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of International Business and Economics in China.

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Yuli Xu, Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow, APARC, Stanford University

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Thu, 05/01/2025 - 14:29

Healthcare Workforce Shortages and Patient Health Outcomes: Evidence from South Korea

Thursday, January 22, 2026 | 5:00 PM -Thursday, January 22, 2026 | 6:00 PM

In February 2024, the South Korean government announced an expansion of medical school enrollment by 2,000 students to address physician shortages, prompting widespread opposition from the medical community. On February 19, 2024, over 90% of trainee doctors—representing approximately one-third of physicians at major teaching hospitals—resigned and launched a nationwide walkout that lasted until August 2025. This 18-month walkout constituted a major workforce shock in a universal, single-payer system and created a rare opportunity to evaluate effects on mortality, health care use, and spending. Hear from Prof. Park as he presents the results of a study on the impacts of the walkout.

Using a difference‑in‑differences design, the findings reveal significant increases in 30‑day and 90‑day in‑hospital mortality and in weekly all‑cause mortality. Health care utilization declined across inpatient and outpatient settings, with a greater relative reduction in hospital admissions. Hospitalizations dropped primarily for simple and general conditions, whereas admissions for complex conditions remained stable. Mean spending per hospitalization rose substantially, and spending per outpatient visit increased modestly. There was little evidence of systematic substitution of care from teaching hospitals to non‑teaching facilities or primary care settings. Overall, the nationwide trainee doctor walkout in South Korea was associated with higher mortality and lower health care utilization. These findings underscore the vulnerability of health systems to workforce disruptions and highlight the need for policies that strengthen staffing resilience, contingency planning, and communication mechanisms between the government and the medical workforce.

Speaker:

Sungchul Park is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Korea University (Republic of Korea). He previously held tenure-track faculty positions at Drexel University (United States) and Ewha Womans University (Republic of Korea). As a health economist and health services researcher, he studies how to design better health care systems that deliver high-quality care at a reasonable cost while ensuring equitable access. His research evaluates the value of health care by assessing both costs and patient and population health outcomes and investigates payment and care delivery reforms, with an emphasis on value-based care. He also analyzes how emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and digital health, affect cost, quality, access, and efficiency in health care. In addition, he compares health system performance across high-income countries, particularly OECD members, to identify policies that improve care and well-being.

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Sungchul Park, Associate Professor, Korea University, South Korea

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A World Safe for Autocracy: What China Wants and the Domestic Politics that Drive It

Tuesday, January 20, 2026 | 4:45 PM -Tuesday, January 20, 2026 | 6:15 PM

Beneath Xi Jinping’s grand slogans of a “Chinese dream” and a “shared future for humankind,” there are internal tensions, debates, and competing interests that continue to shape China’s approach to the world. Through the lens of domestic politics, nationalism, and regime insecurity in China, Weiss will examine the evolving and contested landscape of what “China” wants. The talk will conclude with policy implications for the United States, prospects for peaceful coexistence, and the future of international order.

Speaker:

Jessica Chen Weiss is the David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and the inaugural faculty director of the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) at SAIS. From August 2021 to July 2022, she served as senior advisor to the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department on a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars (IAF-TIRS). Weiss is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her research appears in International Organization, China Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, and Review of International Political Economy. With commentary in the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Los Angeles Times, and the Ezra Klein show, Weiss was profiled by the New Yorker and named one of Prospect Magazine's Top Thinkers for 2024. Weiss is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute Center for China Analysis and previously the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University and an assistant professor at Yale University. She founded FACES, the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford University. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, she received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.

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

Jessica Chen Weiss, David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies Faculty Director, Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

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Why Women Leave: Gendered Pathways of Global Talent

Thursday, January 15, 2026 | 12:00 PM -Thursday, January 15, 2026 | 1:15 PM

This talk examines how gender and gender inequality shape global talent migration, with a focus on flows to the United States. Conceptualizing gender as both an individual attribute and a structural condition, An shows how macro-level inequalities and micro-level aspirations jointly organize migration pathways. Using South Korea as a case study, the analysis demonstrates that women migrating to the U.S. are more educationally selective than men, suggesting that gender inequality drives women's talents abroad. The talk also introduces comparative work on Korea and Taiwan that investigates gendered return patterns among U.S.-trained PhDs.

Speaker:

Photo of Korea Program postdoctoral fellow Minyoung An

Minyoung An is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL). Her research investigates how gender shapes global talent flows and the career trajectories of highly skilled workers. Using large-scale datasets and mixed methods, she examines educational selectivity, gendered return migration, and transnational academic linkages. Her work advances understanding of how gender inequality structures pathways of skilled migration and global talent circulation.

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

Minyoung An

minyan1@stanford.edu

Korea Program Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025-2027

minyoung_an.jpg PhD

Minyoung An joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Korea Program Postdoctoral Fellow beginning July 2025 through 2027. She recently obtained her doctorate in Sociology from the University of Arizona. Her research lies at the intersection of gender, transnational migration, and knowledge production, combining statistical modeling, computational methods, and in-depth interviews.

Her dissertation analyzes gendered migration patterns in South Korea and among international PhD students in the U.S., revealing how gender inequality in countries of origin produces distinct selection effects and return migration dynamics. She also studies academic career trajectories and prestige hierarchies, exploring how gender and national origin affect integration into global academia.

At APARC, she will be involved with the Korea Program and the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL) as she pursues two projects that extend this research agenda: one using computational analysis of social media data to examine gendered migration intent, and another investigating the academic trajectories and institutional reception of international scholars from East Asia. Through these projects, she aims to advance understanding of how transnational inequalities shape global mobility, opportunity, and inclusion.

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Minyoung An, Postdoctoral Fellow, APARC, Stanford University

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Civil Society, Cleavages, and Political Parties in Western Europe

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Mon, 10/27/2025 - 12:00

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Mierke-Zatwarnicki, A., Borbáth, E., & Hutter, S. (2025). Cleavage theory meets civil society: a framework and research agenda. West European Politics, 1-30.

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Motivation

Political parties have long reflected dividing lines between groups in a society, often called political ‘cleavages’. Examples include workers vs. business owners, Protestants vs. Catholics, and urban vs. rural constituents. Civil society organizations (CSOs) — such as unions, churches, and chambers of commerce — have historically shaped the content and strength of these cleavages.

However, both CSOs and cleavages have changed in recent decades. For one, traditional cleavages have declined in importance, and new divides have emerged, such as between the so-called winners and losers of globalization or between those on one side or the other of the culture wars. In addition, formal CSOs have seen declining membership and reduced political influence, while informal groups and more episodic activism have grown. While CSOs and political parties used to have highly formalized relationships, they now tend to engage with each other more opportunistically and sometimes antagonistically. It seems clear that CSOs continue to influence political cleavages — both old and new — in the 21st century. But how exactly does this occur?

Contribution

In “Cleavage Theory Meets Civil Society,” Alex Mierke-Zatwarnicki, Endre Borbáth, and Swen Hutter examine the varied historical and contemporary relationships between CSOs, cleavages, and political parties in Western Europe. The authors develop a general framework for understanding the relationship between CSOs and cleavage development, providing insights into how contemporary politics reflects long-term changes in the structure of civil society.

The paper is set against social science research on cleavages, which can be divided into two broad streams. First, classical scholarship emphasized the importance of early 20th-century mass associations, such as unions, in shaping cleavages and party politics. By contrast, newer work, written against the backdrop of a changing CSO landscape, has viewed CSOs as largely irrelevant, arguing that opposition parties shape cleavages via direct interactions with voters. Neither body of previous work provides a compelling framework for understanding how contemporary CSOs — given their fragmentation, informationalization, and politicization -- matter for cleavages.

The authors also shed light on the phenomenon of polarization, which is a key part of democratic backsliding. Indeed, electorates are polarized around several cleavages — economic, religious, and cultural — that populist leaders have used to justify excluding their opponents from politics, portraying them as existential threats to a specific way of life.

Processes and Mechanisms

The authors suggest that cleavage development can be seen as the culmination of three processes, which CSOs may influence in key ways. The first is “group formation,” which concerns how individuals come to identify as workers, congregants, or otherwise. The second process is “political institutionalization,” which entails cleavages being embodied in party competition. The third is “political stabilization,” whereby cleavages are reinforced over time by parties.

^{Stage of cleavage development}	^{Importance of political linkage}	^{Importance of social closure}
^{I. Group formation}	^Low	^High
^{II. Political institutionalisation}	^High	^Medium
^{III. Electoral stabilisation}	^High	^High

Table 1. Role of civil society across stages of cleavage development.

To understand how CSOs might shape these three processes, the authors outline two mechanisms. The first is “linkage,” whereby CSOs communicate group demands and pressure political parties to represent them. Linkage is hypothesized to be more important during the latter processes of institutionalization and stabilization; it was historically important in group formation but less so today because of the aforementioned decline of formal CSOs.

The second mechanism is “social closure,” which concerns how group boundaries are solidified. CSOs are hypothesized to contribute to social closure by bringing group members together and organizing them around shared demands, increasing their sense of ingroup identification. This mechanism is important for group formation as well as political stabilization.

CSOs still appear to facilitate linkage and social closure, albeit in different ways than in the early 20th century. For example, CSOs are less likely to have formal links to parties but continue to exert pressure by organizing around individual issues, candidates, and elections. Voters’ relationships to CSOs are also more varied, creating divisions within the electorate between highly-active individuals who have a strong sense of group identity and people who are less ‘anchored’ to the cleavage. The authors also hypothesize that some of these dynamics may produce asymmetric changes across the left and right, as the strength and tactics of CSOs vary.

^{Trend in civil society}	^{Implications for political linkage}	^{Implications for social closure}
^{Fragmentation}	^{Civil society groups have less capacity to present unified demands to parties and are more likely to compete for influence and adherents. Groups that persist are likely to be highly mobilised and ideologically distinct, exerting targeted pressure on priority issues and succeeding when they find points of cross-organisational consensus.}	^{Groups and identities likely to be more heterogeneous; individuals tend to form multiple, competing group attachments which vary over time in their personal salience. Likely to produce pockets of high social closure amongst ‘untethered’ masses.}
^{Informalization}	^{Civil society organisations less likely to have ongoing formal relationships with parties; influence comes through mobilisation in moments of political crisis or indecision.}	^{Interactions between group members become less frequent and more spontaneous, reducing social closure for most people while increasing it amongst committed adherents.}
^{Politicisation}	^{Landscape of civil society organisations is more differentiated and issue-specific, with groups pursuing alternate (and occasionally competing) linkage strategies; pressure on parties comes from different sources during different periods of mobilisation and is most effective in moments of coordination.}	^{Salience of voters’ group identities changes across different moments, depending on how parties and civil society groups invoke them. ‘Groupishness’ of the population as a whole may become very high in particular critical moments.}
^{Overall effect}	^{Move towards more volatile forms of linkage, operating through punctuated equilibrium moments of mobilisation and contestation rather than stable formal ties.}	^{Proliferation of multiple identities leads social closure to bifurcate; ‘tight’, mobilised groups coexist alongside heterogeneous masses who become sporadically activated.}
	^{Combination of the three trends widens the number and types of civil society actors that intervene in processes of political linkage, leading different groups to exert influence at different times and ‘successful’ pressure to hinge on effective cross-group coordination.}	^{Combination of the three trends simultaneously widens and blurs possibilities for participation, leading to a growing gap between people who are activated consistently and those whose group identification is more fluid and context-dependent.}

Table 2. Implications of the changing structure of civil society.

Cross-National and Case Study Evidence

The authors then analyze cross-national data on political parties and voters in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. One data source concerns the extent to which political parties are tied to CSOs and whether they receive large-scale CSO donations. A second source looks at whether party supporters are active in CSOs. Preliminary findings point to important differences between old, class-based parties (especially Social Democrats) and newer parties, with the latter much less tied to CSOs. However, within the new party families, Green parties are more tightly linked to CSOs than far-right parties, but there also exists variation within far-right parties. These patterns demand a more fine-grained analysis of specific cases.

Figure 2. Members of civil society organizations among the electorate of political parties in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Note: The figure is based on the Joint EVS/WVS 2017-2022 Dataset (2022). It uses the battery of membership in organizations and partisanship questions. In the WVS, partisanship is measured with ‘Which party would you vote for?’; in the EVS, with ‘Which political party appeals to you most?’ For this figure, the two items are treated as functional equivalents. The percentage of members is calculated from all respondents indicating sympathy towards the respective party.

Finally, the authors qualitatively analyze three distinct cases: one New Left party and both old and new far-right populist parties — the German Green Party, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Their analysis reveals key differences as regards the importance of CSOs in fostering linkage and social closure. CSOs played a key role in consolidating the Greens and SVP, whereas in the case of AfD, antipathy from German CSOs helped generate a more outsider identity.

The Greens emerged via linkages with left-libertarian social movements in the 1970s and 80s. This included groups supportive of environmental protection and feminism and opposed to nuclear proliferation. CSOs provided ideas and personnel, which helped build a sense of social closure among party supporters. This identity still persists in spite of the subsequent fragmentation of civil society.

By contrast, SVP emerged through connections to Swiss farmers' associations, rural economic networks, and local interest groups. SVP has been radicalizing since the 1990s, becoming one of Europe’s most successful far-right parties and aligning itself with Euroscepticism. SVP’s long history of rural and community penetration has helped strengthen social closure among its electorate.

Finally, AfD emerged in a more fragmented context, via its ties to right-wing protest networks. The party was a top-down vehicle that organized in response to what it saw as Germany’s mismanagement of the Eurozone crisis. AfD lacks dense connections to CSOs and has instead built informal and often volatile alliances with protesters. Many German CSOs — as well as German society more generally — explicitly oppose AfD, which has ironically helped AfD build an outsider identity because its supporters feel isolated and stigmatized.

The case studies vividly illustrate how varied CSO relationships shape cleavages and partisanship in three of the most important Western European parties.

*Research-in-Brief prepared by Adam Fefer.

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Fri, 10/24/2025 - 14:53

Minyoung An

Read more about Minyoung An

minyan1@stanford.edu

Korea Program Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025-2027

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The Evolution of Age-Friendly Jobs in a Rapidly Ageing Economy

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Cover of the Journal of the Economics of Aging

Korea’s labor force shift toward older, female, and more educated workers has been even more dramatic than that of the United States in recent decades. This paper documents how Korean job characteristics vary by age and characterizes the “age-friendliness” of Korean employment from 2000 to 2020 by applying the Age-Friendliness Index (AFI) developed by Acemoglu, Mühlbach, and Scott to Korean occupational data. The AFI measures job characteristics—such as physical demands and job autonomy—based on occupational descriptions and worker preferences. Our primary empirical findings are that the age-friendliness of Korean jobs grew more slowly than in the United States, and that older Koreans were not the main beneficiaries of these jobs. Both findings reflect the demographic, labor market, and institutional differences between Korea and the United States. The slow growth of AFI can be partially explained by labor market rigidities, the role of large firms in Korea, and the flattening of managerial structures.

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Innovation for Healthy Aging

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May 14, 2025

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Journal of the Economics of Ageing

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Karen Eggleston

Does Electoral Affirmative Action Worsen Candidate Quality?

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Soraya Johnson

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Mon, 04/14/2025 - 12:00

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Democracies face the challenge of requiring competent yet representative leaders in order to effectively embody the will of the people. More than a hundred countries have electoral quotas for women and minorities to ensure representation; however, such efforts are being threatened globally under the guise of critiques alleging that quotas undermine meritocracy and candidate quality.

To assess this assumption, Stanford Assistant Professor of Political Science Soledad Prillaman examined in a CDDRL research seminar the relationship between candidate quality and electoral affirmative action. Her co-authored study relies on data from India, where the largest of such policies is enacted, and local Gram Panchayat positions are proportionally reserved for women and lower caste individuals on a rotating basis. Using population, census, and survey data, Prillaman compared the quality of politicians by looking at their level of education and their relative education performance.

Her findings reveal that politicians in general are positively selected, meaning that they are much better educated than the constituents they serve. While quota-elected politicians had lower average education levels than non-quota politicians, they were more positively selected — they were drawn from a higher tail of their group’s education distribution. This means that quota politicians are relatively better educated than non-quota politicians, suggesting that they are of no worse quality and maybe even higher quality.

To further bolster this claim — that quota politicians may be of higher quality than non-quota politicians — Prillaman shows that voters hold quota politicians to a higher education standard than non-quota politicians and that the lower levels of average education are largely due to inequality in access to education.

The evidence provides little justification for the assumption that electoral quotas undermine meritocracy. Instead, inequality of opportunity underlies differences in levels of education, and overall quality can be higher because voters tend to hold minority candidates to higher standards. As affirmative action policies are under challenge across the globe, it is critical to remember that improving minority representation in our democratic systems does not require sacrificing candidate quality.

Francis Fukuyama presented his research in a CDDRL seminar on April 3, 2025.

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Rethinking Bureaucracy: Delegation and State Capacity in the Modern Era

Francis Fukuyama traces how scholars and policymakers have grappled with the tension between empowering bureaucracies to act effectively and ensuring they remain accountable to political leaders.

Rethinking Bureaucracy: Delegation and State Capacity in the Modern Era

Michael Albertus presented his research in a CDDRL seminar on March 6, 2025.

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How Land Shapes the Fate of Societies

Tracing land’s role as a source of power, University of Chicago Professor of Political Science Michael Albertus analyzed how its distribution affects governance, social stratification, and conflict.

How Land Shapes the Fate of Societies

Juliet Johnson presented her research in a REDS Seminar, co-hosted by CDDRL and TEC, on February 27, 2025.

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Show Me the Money: Central Bank Museums and Public Trust in Monetary Governance

Juliet Johnson, Professor of Political Science at McGill University, explores how central banks build public trust through museums.

Show Me the Money: Central Bank Museums and Public Trust in Monetary Governance

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In the wake of widespread challenges to affirmative action policy, Stanford Political Scientist Soledad Artiz Prillaman’s research challenges the notion that electoral quotas for minority representation weaken candidate quality.

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Mon, 04/14/2025 - 11:26

Who Lives Alone in South Korea? Trends Over the Last Four Decades (1980-2020)

Thursday, May 8, 2025 | 12:00 PM -Thursday, May 8, 2025 | 1:15 PM

The share of the South Korean population living alone has substantially increased over the last four decades, sparking public concerns about loneness and its broader effects on individuals and society. In this talk Dr. Hyunjoon Park analyzes trends in living alone in Korea from 1980 to 2020. Analyses show a divergence in solo living between those with more and less education in both younger and older age groups but in oppositive directions. Among young men and women aged 25-34, those with a bachelor’s degree or higher are increasingly more likely to live alone than their peers with a high school education or less. In contrast, among older adults aged 65-74, individuals with the lowest level of education are increasingly more likely to live alone. Dr. Park discusses the implications of solo living trends for family dynamics and inequality in Korea.

Hyunjoon Park is Korea Foundation Professor of Sociology and Director of the James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Park is interested in family and social stratification in cross-national comparative perspective, focusing on South Korea and other East Asian societies. He has studied changes in marriage, divorce, and living arrangements as well as consequences of demographic and economic trends for education, well-being, and socioeconomic outcomes of children, adolescents, and young adults in Korea. He was the director of the Korean Millennials Research Lab, a multiyear and multidisciplinary project team tasked with investigating the transition to adulthood among young adults in South Korea and Korean Americans in the US. His publications include the single-authored book Re-Evaluating Education in Japan and Korea: De-mystifying Stereotypes (Routledge, 2013); the coauthored book Diversity and the Transition to Adulthood in America (University of California Press, 2022), and the coedited volume Korean Families Yesterday and Today (University of Michigan Press, 2020).

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

Hyunjoon Park, Korea Foundation Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

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Fri, 03/07/2025 - 14:29

Taiwan Forward: Driving Modernization Amid Shifting Global Dynamics

Saturday, March 22, 2025 | 5:45 PM -Sunday, March 23, 2025 | 2:30 AM

Flyer for the conference "Taiwan Forward." Image: aerial view of Taipei.

We have reached capacity for this event and registration has closed.

Organized by the Taiwan Program at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC)
Co-sponsored by National Taiwan University's Office of International Affairs

As Taiwan looks to develop comprehensive strategies to promote national interests, it faces challenges shared by other advanced economies. How can Taiwan leverage AI innovation and its semiconductor prowess to drive resilience and continued growth while promoting entrepreneurship and forging advantages in emerging industries? What regulatory and policy measures are needed to scale Taiwan’s role as a global leader in biomedical and healthcare advancements while ensuring patient trust and safety? How can it address the gaps posed by rapid family changes and population aging? And how do its historical and linguistic legacies shape present narratives and identities, within Taiwan and among the Taiwanese diaspora?

Join us for a conference that explores these questions and more, featuring panel discussions with scholars from Stanford University, National Taiwan University, and other universities in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Singapore, alongside Taiwanese industry leaders. We will examine Taiwan’s strategies for navigating modernization in a shifting global landscape — bridging technology, industry, culture, and society through interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives.

8:45 - 9:10 a.m.
Opening Session

Welcome Remarks

Shih-Torng Ding
Executive Vice President, National Taiwan University

Gi-Wook Shin
Director, Shorenstein APARC and the Taiwan Program, Stanford University

Congratulatory Remarks

Chia-Lung Lin
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan

Raymond Greene
Director, American Institute in Taiwan

9:10-10:40 a.m.
Panel 1 — Advancing Health and Healthcare: Technology and Policy Perspectives

Panelists

Kuan-Ming Chen
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, National Taiwan University

Lynia Huang
Founder and CEO, Bamboo Technology Ltd.

Ming-Jen Lin
Distinguished Professor, Department of Economics, National Taiwan University

Siyan Yi
Associate Professor, School of Public Health, National University of Singapore

Moderator
Karen Eggleston
Director, Asia Health Policy Program, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University

10:40-10:50 a.m.
Coffee and Tea Break

10:50 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Panel 2 — Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Leadership

Panelists

Steve Chen
Co-founder, YouTube and Taiwan Gold Card Holder #1

Matthew Liu
Co-founder, Origin Protocol

Huey-Jen Jenny Su
Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Former President, National Cheng Kung University

Yaoting Wang
Founding Partner, Darwin Ventures, Taiwan

Moderator
H.-S. Philip Wong
Willard R. and Inez Kerr Bell Professor in the School of Engineering, Stanford University

12:30-1 p.m.

Perspectives from Stanford and NTU Students

Tiffany Chang
BS Student in Engineering Management & Human-Centered Design, Stanford University

Liang-Yu Ko
MA Student in Sociology, National Taiwan University

1-2 p.m.
Lunch Break

2-3:30 p.m.
Panel 3 — Interwoven Identities: Exploring Chinese Languages, Taiwanese-american Narratives, and Japanese Colonial Legacies in Taiwan

Panelists

Carissa Cheng
BA Student in International Relations, Stanford University

Yi-Ting Chung
PhD Candidate in History, Stanford University

Jeffrey Weng
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University

Moderator
Ruo-Fan Liu
Taiwan Program Postdoctoral Fellow, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University

3:30-3:45 p.m.
Coffee and Tea Break

3:45-5:15 p.m.
Panel 4 — The Demographic Transformation: Lessons from Taiwan and Comparative Cases

Panelists

Yen-Hsin Alice Cheng
Professor, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica

Youngtae Cho
Professor of Demography and Director, Population Policy Research Center, Seoul National University

Setsuya Fukuda
Senior Researcher, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan

Moderator
Paul Y. Chang
Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Association Senior Fellow, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University

5:15-5:30 p.m.
Closing Remarks

Gi-Wook Shin
Director, Shorenstein APARC and the Taiwan Program, Stanford University

Paul Y. Chang is the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Association Senior Fellow at Shorenstein APARC and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Chang is also the Deputy Director of the Korea Program at Shorenstein APARC and the President of the Association of Korean Sociologists in America. Chang’s research on South Korean society has appeared in flagship disciplinary and area studies journals. He is the author of Protest Dialectics: State Repression and South Korea’s Democracy Movement, 1970-1979 (Stanford University Press) and co-editor of South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (Routledge). His current work examines the diversification of family structures in South Korea. Before joining Stanford, Chang served on the faculty at Harvard University, Yonsei University, and Singapore Management University. He earned his B.A. from UC Santa Cruz, M.A. degrees from Harvard Divinity School, UCLA, and Stanford, and his Ph.D. from Stanford’s Sociology Department.

Tiffany Chang, Miss Asia USA 2024 and the first Taiwanese recipient of the title, is a Stanford University junior studying Engineering Management & Human-Centered Design. She is a research assistant at APARC under Dr. Karen Eggleston and worked as an Intern at a Taiwanese AI company, Intumit Inc last summer. Tiffany plays a significant role in the Taiwanese and Asian American communities, serving as a spokesperson, emcee, influencer, and model. She has moderated high-profile events featuring notable figures such as the President of Taiwan and representatives from Chanel, and serves as a brand ambassador for esteemed Asian products. Recognized as Taiwan's "guiding light," reflecting her influential leadership within the community, Tiffany is a frequent guest on Taiwanese talk shows. Tiffany's philanthropic endeavors include founding Madhatter Knits, a global nonprofit dedicated to providing knit hats for premature babies in NICUs, showcasing her unwavering commitment to advocacy, inspiration, and empowerment, particularly for marginalized voices.

Kuan-Ming Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University and Director of the Behavioral and Data Science Research Center. He is a labor economist specializing in family economics, studying how family members support one another through caregiving, financial transfers, and labor market decisions. His research covers topics such as job flexibility, intimate partner violence, long-term care, and the economic impact of family structures on well-being. Dr. Chen’s work applies empirical methods, including natural experiments and administrative data analysis, to understand labor supply dynamics and policy impacts. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Steve Chen is an Internet entrepreneur who co-founded YouTube. Born in Taiwan, Steve moved to the US when he was 8 years old. Steve grew up in Chicago and moved to Silicon Valley in 1999 to join PayPal, where he met Chad Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube. In 2005, Steve left PayPal to create YouTube. YouTube quickly became one of the web's fastest-growing sites and was sold to Google for $1.65 billion. Steve was the first recipient of the Gold Card, a program Taiwan launched in 2018 to attract foreign talent to move to the country. In 2019, after 20 years spent in Silicon Valley, Steve moved his family to Taiwan using the Gold Card. In Taiwan, Steve has collaborated with the government to foster a better ecosystem for local entrepreneurs to create startups.

Carissa Cheng is a Taiwanese American Stanford University senior studying International Relations, focusing on Asia. Her interest in Asian American activism began when she started making student films in high school and questioned why Asian Americans were so underrepresented behind and in front of the camera. Last year, she served as one of the Co-Chairs of Stanford’s Taiwanese Cultural Society (TCS), which hosts Stanford’s largest pan-Asian event each year: TCS Night Market. Last summer, she studied at National Taiwan University, where she also interned at AI firm Intumit as part of the Stanford Global Studies program. Through her academic and professional work, she hopes to learn how Asian countries can unite to fight global challenges such as climate change and political polarization and explore the intersections and differences between Asian and Asian American identities and cultures.

Yen-Hsin Alice Cheng is a Professor and Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. She is trained as a demographer and received a Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the Pennsylvania State University in the United States. She also spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany. Her main research interest is family demography, focusing on family changes and social inequalities. Her recent research investigates the socioeconomic differentials in marriage, cohabitation, divorce, and fertility over the past few decades in Taiwan and East Asia. Her latest works also include studies on disadvantaged youths and families, as well as comparative studies on public attitudes toward homosexuality.

Youngtae Cho (Ph.D) has been a professor of demography at the Graduate School of Public Health at Seoul National University (SNU) since 2004. Currently, he serves as the director of the SNU Population Policy Research Center. Professor Cho and his research team’s academic interests include the fundamental cause of the lowest low fertility in Korea, measuring and analyzing a new concept of population (presenting population), the impact of population dynamics on future market change, and demographic dividend issues for Vietnam and Indonesia. He achieved his Ph.D., specializing in demography, from the University of Texas-Austin in 2002. He served as a member of the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy, and a member of the National Economic Advisory Council.

Yi-Ting Chung is a History Ph.D. student in the fields of East Asia and transpacific history. Born and raised in Taiwan, her concern lies in the marginalized communities who were excluded, sacrificed, and forgotten in the making of the Japanese empire. Her current research direction examines how the colonial subjects of the Japanese empire—Okinawans, Koreans, and Taiwanese—traversed the Pacific while treading the complex boundaries of nation, empire, and race between Japan and the US in the first half of the twentieth century. Yi-Ting is also deeply passionate about teaching and dedicated to bettering her pedagogy. At Stanford, she designed and taught the class “Between Empires: Modern History of Taiwan.”

Shih-Torng Ding is the Executive Vice President and a distinguished professor at National Taiwan University, specializing in animal nutrition, molecular regulation, smart agriculture, agricultural biotechnology, and industry development strategies. His outstanding research has earned him numerous prestigious honors.

With extensive experience in government advisory roles, Dr. Ding has served on the Board of Science and Technology (Executive Yuan), the Research Advisory Committee for the Council of Agriculture, and BioHub Taiwan. As NTU’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Ding led key educational innovations, including a specialization-focused learning system, future classrooms, and enhancements to NTU COOL. Now, as Executive Vice President, he advances teaching and learning, sustainability initiatives, school development research, bilingual education, and international exchanges.

Furthermore, Dr. Ding serves as the CEO of National Taiwan University System, working to foster collaboration among three universities and expand educational resources for students.

Karen Eggleston is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Asia Health Policy Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at FSI. She is also a Fellow with the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Eggleston earned her PhD in public policy from Harvard University and has MA degrees in economics and Asian studies from the University of Hawaii and a BA in Asian studies summa cum laude (valedictorian) from Dartmouth College. Eggleston studied in China for two years and was a Fulbright scholar in Korea. Her research focuses on government and market roles in the health sector and Asia health policy, especially in China, India, Japan, and Korea; healthcare productivity; and the economics of the demographic transition.

Setsuya Fukuda is a Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Japan, where he conducts demographic research on the inter-relationships between gender, family formation, and family policy. His current research focuses on gender role division, educational assortative mating, fertility, and intergenerational transfers in international comparative settings, looking, in particular, at how Japan’s gender structure and intergenerational relations are poised to change in relation to population decline, new family policies and technological development.

Raymond F. Greene assumed duties as the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on July 8, 2024. Prior to this assignment, he served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Greene is a member of the State Department’s Senior Foreign Service with the personal rank of Minister-Counselor and has spent his entire 28-year career advancing U.S. diplomatic, economic, and security engagement with the Indo-Pacific region. In Washington, Mr. Greene was Director for Japan and East Asian Economic Affairs at the National Security Council and Director of the Office of Economic Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In the latter capacity, Mr. Greene was elected as Chair of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum’s Economic Committee.

Overseas, Mr. Greene served as U.S. Consul General in Chengdu, China, Okinawa, Japan, and as the Deputy Director at AIT. Earlier assignments included Chief of the Political-Military Affairs Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Deputy Chief of the Political Section at AIT Taipei, and as a political officer in Tokyo and Manila. Mr. Greene was the first Baker-Kato Diplomatic Exchange Fellow at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo. He also was assigned as a State Department Faculty Advisor at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. (Government/Japanese) and M.P.M. (International Security and Economic Policy) from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Lynia Huang is the CEO and founder of Bamboo Technology Ltd., a company focused on advancing mental health care through AI-driven solutions. With a background in military psychological counseling and a strong commitment to mental health advocacy, she has dedicated her career to integrating technology with psychological support. Lynia holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from National Taiwan University. She is also a pioneer in the development of AI-based mental health services, including the HereHear virtual therapist app, which has gained global recognition. Lynia’s passion for improving emotional well-being through accessible technology is evident in her work with various organizations, including collaborations with hospitals and corporations. She believes that mental health support should be universal and strives to make these services available to everyone, especially in underserved communities.

Liang-Yu (Louis) Ko is currently an MA student in the Department of Sociology at National Taiwan University. His research centers on political sociology, focusing on state-society relations, political culture, and public opinion. He investigates how political trends interact with cultural and institutional factors, particularly in areas such as polarization, nationalism, and "culture wars." He is always open to connection and collaborative research.

Chia-Lung Lin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan

Chia-Lung Lin possesses extensive experience in government, academia, and industry. He currently serves as minister of foreign affairs of Taiwan, vice chairman of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, and chairman of the International Cooperation and Development Fund. Previously, he held positions including secretary-general of the Office of the President, ambassador-at-large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, minister of transportation and communications, mayor of Taichung City, legislator, minister of the Government Information Office, National Security Council advisor, assistant professor at National Chung Cheng University, research associate at the United Nations University, and Fulbright scholar in the United States. He is also a cofounder of Taiwan Thinktank and honorary chairman of Mt. Dadu Industrial Innovation Foundation.

Minister Lin holds a PhD in political science from Yale University in the United States, as well as dual master’s degrees in political science and philosophy. Additionally, he earned a master’s and bachelor’s degree in political science from National Taiwan University.

Ming-Jen Lin earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2002. His research interests span multiple fields, including data science and economics, demography and health, law and economics, and labor economics, with particular interest in interdisciplinary collaboration within the social sciences. His research appears in journals such as American Economic Review, Nature Communication, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, and International Economic Review.

Currently, he serves as a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University. He previously held the government position of Deputy Executive Secretary at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Director at the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, both at the National Science and Technology Council. He has also served as the Chair of the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University and President of the Taiwan Economic Association.

Matthew Liu is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Origin Protocol. He is also active as an angel investor and advisor to dozens of startups. Previously, he served as VP of product at Qwiki and Bonobos. Matthew started his career as the third product manager at YouTube. He graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering and M.S. in management science and engineering from Stanford University.

Ruo-Fan Liu is the inaugural Taiwan Program Postdoctoral Fellow at Shorenstein APARC, Stanford Univerity. She earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research explores how Taiwan's holistic admission reforms created uncertainties for students and how parents and teachers leveraged cultural and social capital to restore admissions advantages. A Fulbright recipient and former Congress party negotiator, Ruo-Fan is also the author of Let the Timber Creek: An Alternative School’s Utopia for Coming Generations, recognized as one of the top ten non-fiction books by China Times. Her work has been published in International Studies in Sociology of Education and Ethnography, and she also investigates transformative meritocracy and credentialism in East Asia. At APARC, Ruo-Fan is transforming her dissertation, When Ladders Move, into a book manuscript, while expanding her research on uncertainty and legitimacy to offer practical recommendations for different nations’ policies and talent flows.

Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in Sociology and a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He has served as director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center since 2005, and as founding director of the Korea Program since 2001. His research concentrates on social movements, nationalism, and international relations, focusing on Korea and Asia. He is the author/editor of numerous books and articles, including South Korea’s Democracy in Crisis: The Threats of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization and The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security. His new book, Talent Giants in the Asia-Pacific Century, a comparative study of talent strategies of Japan, Australia, China, and India, will be published by Stanford University Press in 2025.

In 2023, Shin launched the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), an initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia. In May 2024, he launched the new Taiwan Program at APARC and currently serves as the program director.

Shin previously taught at the University of Iowa and the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a B.A. from Yonsei University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Huey-Jen Jenny Su was the first and only female president in the 95-year history of National Cheng Kung University (2015–2023) and a professor of Environmental Health (1992–2024). In 2018, the scientific journal Nature recognized her as one of the 10 “Science Stars of East Asia.” She received the 2017 Leadership Award in Public Health Practice from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the 2022 Outstanding Professional Global Corporate Sustainability Award, the first recipient from the academic.

Dr. Su actively fosters academia-industry collaborations and international partnerships, strengthening Taiwan as a key global player in sustainability, multidisciplinary research, and technological innovation. Currently, she leads strategic planning initiatives for the Ministry of Education’s University Academic Alliance in Taiwan and serves on the National Climate Change Committee, Office of the President, R.O.C. (Taiwan). Her leadership drives sustainability and resilience in a rapidly evolving global landscape.

Yao-Ting Wang is an experienced entrepreneur and technology visionary. Yaoting co-founded two successful technology startup companies in Silicon Valley. In 1995, he co-founded Numerical Technologies, Inc. (San Jose, California) (NASDAQ:NMTC) based on his doctoral research for IC manufacturing. As the Chief Technology Officer and Senior VP of Engineering, Yaoting was active in company operations and helped take it public in 2000. The company was later acquired by Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) in 2003.

In 2004, Yaoting co-founded Clear Shape Technologies, Inc. (Sunnyvale, California) and was the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer. The company was a pioneer in the space of design for manufacturing (DFM) and recognized by multiple prestigious awards including the EDN Innovation of the Year Award (2007), the EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award (2007), one of the top 10 semiconductor companies' Partner Award (2007) and the EE Times 60 Emerging Startups (2007). The company was acquired by Cadence (NASDAQ:CDNS) in August of 2007.

In August of 2008, Yaoting moved back to Taiwan and co-founded Darwin Ventures with Simon Fang.

Yaoting received his Ph.D. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and his B.S. in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University.

Jeffrey Weng has been an Assistant Professor of Sociology at National Taiwan University since 2021. His research centers on language and nationalism in China and Taiwan, and his work has appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, Theory and Society, and the European Journal of Sociology.

Weng holds a B.A. from Yale University and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining NTU, he was a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow in Contemporary Asia at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

H.-S. Philip Wong is the Willard R. and Inez Kerr Bell Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. He joined Stanford University as Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2004. From 1988 to 2004, he was with the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. From 2018 to 2020, he was on leave from Stanford and was the Vice President of Corporate Research at TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor foundry, and since 2020 has remained TSMC's Chief Scientist in a consulting, advisory role.

He is a Fellow of the IEEE and received the IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award, the IEEE Technical Field Award to honor individuals for outstanding contributions to solid-state devices and technology, as well as the IEEE Electron Devices Society J.J. Ebers Award, the society’s highest honor to recognize outstanding technical contributions to the field of electron devices that have made a lasting impact.

He is the founding Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford SystemX Alliance – an industrial affiliate program focused on building systems and the faculty director of the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility – a shared facility for device fabrication on the Stanford campus that serves academic, industrial, and governmental researchers across the U.S. and around the globe, sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation. He is the Principal Investigator of the Microelectronics Commons California-Pacific-Northwest AI Hardware Hub, a consortium of over 40 companies and academic institutions funded by the CHIPS Act. He is a member of the US Department of Commerce Industrial Advisory Committee on Microelectronics.

Siyan Yi is an Associate Professor and UHS-SPH Integrated Research Programme Leader, National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. He also serves as Director of KHANA Center for Population Health Research in Cambodia and Adjunct Associate Professor at Touro University California, the United States. Dr. Yi is a medical doctor and an infectious disease epidemiologist by training. He received his Ph.D. from the School of International Health of the University of Tokyo in 2010. He was a 2011-12 postdoctoral fellow at the Asia Health Policy Program at Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University.

His implementation research program focuses on developing and evaluating community-based innovative interventions for improving access to prevention, treatment, and care services for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, sexual and reproductive health, and maternal and child health among vulnerable and marginalized populations in Southeast Asia.

THIS CONFERENCE IS HELD IN TAIPEI, TAIWAN, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 2025, FROM 8:45 AM TO 5:30 PM, TAIPEI TIME

International Conference Hall, Tsai Lecture Hall
College of Law
National Taiwan University

No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road
Taipei City, 10617
Taiwan

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Wed, 01/29/2025 - 14:30

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