Stanford University

The Guardian: Future perfect—investing in a child's wellbeing brings a big payoff

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Sourovi De, an early child development specialist with the education team at Oxford Policy Management, reports on REAP's Perfecting Parenting project in the Guardian. She discusses how Perfecting Parenting fits within the global context of early child development (ECD) research, and how ECD is fundamental to achieving the fourth Sustainable Development Goal: ensuring inclusive, quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning. Read the original article here.

 

"It’s encouraging to see “access to quality early childhood development” as one of the SDG targets. Policymakers have recognised that investing in children’s development is a way of investing in future social and economic growth. It can also result in more immediate benefits, such as preparing children to get the most out of school. Despite this, ECD programmes still face a number of major barriers – both on the supply and demand side.
 
"Funding is a huge issue. Our research shows that in many developing countries, public spending on pre-primary education amounts to less than 0.1% of gross domestic product, leaving families to absorb the cost either through private providers or informally within households and the community. Even where government pilot programmes look promising, the cost of replicating them on a large scale might be prohibitive – it’s probably no coincidence that most cases of successfully scaled-up projects are in middle- or high-income countries.

 

"Overcoming these barriers often means tailoring programmes to specific contexts and drawing on existing resources. In China, officials previously responsible for enforcing the country’s one-child policy are being retrained as parenting educators as part of the Perfecting Parenting project run by the government’s national health and family planning commission and the rural education action programme.
 
"The trainers visit children and their families in rural pilot villages, helping them follow a specially designed curriculum, incorporating arts and crafts, games and singing. By making use of existing networks and skills, the pilot minimises costs and overcomes infrastructure constraints. But the trainers have struggled to earn the trust of parents who think of them only in their family planning role."
 
 
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Huijun Gu

Encina Hall E301616 Serra StreetStanford, CA94305-6055
(650) 723-6530
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huijun_gu.jpg Ph.D.

Huijun Gu joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for the 2015-16 year as a visiting scholar from Jiangsu Administration Institute, where he serves as an associate professor.

His research interests include Planning (规划) and Governance, industrial upgrading and government behavior.

Huijun Gu obtained his Ph.D. at Nanjing University in 2013, focusing on organizational behavior.

Visiting Scholar

Global Governance: What to Expect from the G20

Montek Singh Ahluwalia is an economist who trained at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He spent several years at the World Bank before returning to India to serve as the Economic Advisor to the Finance Minister. The Government of India then appointed him to several senior positions, including Secretary of Commerce and Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance. In 1998, he was appointed as a Member of the Planning Commission and Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. In 2001, he became the Director of Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund, resigning this position in 2004 to become the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.

He has written widely about India and the world economy, co-authoring Redistribution with Growth: An Approach to Policy, and editing Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy: Issues for Reforming the Global Financial Architecture with Y.V. Reddy and S.S. Tarapore.

The Payne Distinguished Lectureship is named for Frank and Arthur Payne, brothers who gained an appreciation for global problems through their international business operations. This lectureship, hosted by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, brings speakers with an international reputation for leadership and visionary thinking to Stanford to deliver a major public lecture. 

This event is carried out in partnership with the Stanford Center for International Development (SCID).

A public reception will follow the lecture.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission 2004-2014, Government of India Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission 2004-2014, Government of India
Lectures
Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Lecture Series
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Of Paradigms, Politics and Principles: The 2016 Taiwan Elections and Implications for China’s Security Strategy and Cross-Strait Relations

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Sponsored by the Taiwan Democracy Project and the U.S. Asia Security Initiative at the Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC)

Abstract

During the recent meeting between PRC President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, the “1992 One China Consensus” served as a mutually acceptable paradigm for maintaining “peaceful and stable” conditions across the Taiwan Strait.  For Xi Jinping, the warmth of the visit thinly veiled a message to Taiwan’s leaders and electorate, as well as to onlookers in Washington.  Chinese officials and media clearly link the talks and confirmation of the 1992 Consensus to “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”—a concept that is increasingly unpalatable to many in Taiwan.  Xi hopes to keep DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (and perhaps even future KMT leaders) in the 1992 Consensus “box” and to co-opt the U.S. in this effort, but perhaps underestimates the political transformation underway on Taiwan. 

The Xi administration has also hardened its position regarding “core interests” such as Taiwan, embodied in a “bottom line principle” policy directive that eschews compromise.  Although many commentators and most officials across the region have shied away from stating that the PRC and Taiwan are at the crossroads of crisis, the collision of political transformation on Taiwan and the PRC’s “bottom line principle” will challenge the fragile foundations of peaceful cross-Strait co-existence.  Changes in the regional balance of military power brought about by a more muscular People’s Liberation Army compounds the potential for increased friction, providing Beijing with more credible options for coercion and deterrence.

This talk will consider the politics and principles involved in cross-Taiwan Strait relations in light of the upcoming 2016 Taiwan elections and the policies of the Xi Jinping administration; and will discuss some of the possible implications for China’s national security policy, regional stability, and the future of cross-Strait relations.

Bio

Cortez Cooper
Mr. Cortez A. Cooper III joined RAND in April 2009, providing assessments of security challenges across political, military, economic, cultural, and informational arenas for a broad range of U.S. government clients.  Prior to joining RAND, Mr. Cooper was the Director of the East Asia Studies Center for Hicks and Associates, Inc.  He has also served in the U.S. Navy Executive Service as the Senior Analyst for the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific, U.S. Pacific Command.  As the senior intelligence analyst and Asia regional specialist in the Pacific Theater, he advised Pacific Command leadership on trends and developments in the Command’s area of responsibility.  Before his Hawaii assignment, Mr. Cooper was a Senior Analyst with CENTRA Technology, Inc., specializing in Asia-Pacific political-military affairs.  Mr. Cooper’s 20 years of military service included assignments as both an Army Signal Corps Officer and a China Foreign Area Officer.  In addition to numerous military decorations, the Secretary of Defense awarded Mr. Cooper with the Exceptional Civilian Service Award in 2001.

2016 Taiwan Elections and Implications for Cross-Strait and Regional Security
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Cortez Cooper Senior International Policy Analyst RAND Corporation
Seminars

The Sunflower Movement and the Future of Taiwan's Political Culture

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Abstract 
Based on first-hand participant-observation, this talk will examine the culture, politics, and spatiality of the Sunflower Movement. Taiwan's most significant social movement in decades, the Sunflower Movement not only blocked the passage of a major trade deal with China, but reshaped popular discourse and redirected Taiwan's political and cultural trajectory. It re-energized student and civil society, precipitated the historic defeat of the KMT in the 2014 local elections, and prefigured the DPP's strong position coming into the 2016 presidential and legislative election season.
 
The primary spatial tactic of the Sunflowers-- occupation of a government building-- was so successful that a series of protests in the summer of 2015 by high school students was partly conceived and represented as a "second Sunflower Movement". These students, protesting "China-centric" curriculum changes, attempted to occupy the Ministry of Education building. Thwarted by police, these students settled for the front courtyard, where a Sunflower-style pattern of encampments and performances emerged. While this movement did not galvanize the wider public as dramatically as its predecessor, it did demonstrate the staying power of the Sunflower Movement and its occupation tactics for an even younger cohort of activists.
 
The Sunflower Movement showed that contingent, street-level, grassroots action can have a major impact on Taiwan's cross-Strait policies, and inspired and trained a new generation of youth activists. But with the likely 2016 presidential win of the DPP, which has attempted to draw support from student activists while presenting a less radical vision to mainstream voters, what's in store for the future of Taiwanese student and civic activism? And with strong evidence of growing Taiwanese national identification and pro-independence sentiment, particularly among youth, what's in store for the future of Taiwan's political culture? 
 

Speaker Bio

Ian Rowen in Legislative Yuan Ian Rowen in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan during the Sunflower Student Movement protest.

Ian Rowen is PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and recent Visiting Fellow at the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan, Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology, and Fudan University. He participated in both the Sunflower and Umbrella Movements and has written about them for The Journal of Asian Studies, The Guardian, and The BBC (Chinese), among other outlets. He has also published about Asian politics and protest in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (forthcoming) and the Annals of Tourism Research. His PhD research, funded by the US National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, has focused on the political geography of tourism and protest in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. 

 

Presentation Slides

Ian Rowen Doctoral Candidate University of Colorado Dept of Geography
Seminars

The Possible Approaches for Defusing Tensions in the South China Sea: A Taiwanese Perspective

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In this talk, Wellington Shih will provide a historical and legal overview of the Republic of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. He will also review the latest developments in the ongoing dispute between the People’s Republic of China, the ROC on Taiwan, and other claimants in the region, including the Philippines, and discuss the South China Sea Peace Initiative proposed by the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou. 

The Possible Approaches for Defusing Tensions in the South China Sea: A Taiwanese Perspective
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Visiting scholar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan)
Lectures

The Evolving Sino-American Relationship and the Korea Problem

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Distrust between the United States and China continues to grow in Northeast Asia. Among many contributing factors, the North Korea issue is one of the most important, as illustrated by the controversy over the possible deployment of the United States’ THAAD missile defense system in South Korea. Thus, resolving or mitigating the Korea problem, a significant goal in its own right to both the United States and China, is also essential to reducing U.S.-PRC (People's Republic of China) strategic distrust. China and the United States share long-term interests vis-à-vis the Korean peninsula. The question is how its resolution might be achieved. U.S. efforts to induce North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs by offering incentives and imposing sanctions have failed, and Chinese attempts to encourage Pyongyang to adopt PRC-style economic reforms have not fared much better. With Washington, Beijing, and Pyongyang unlikely to change their approaches, the hope for any new initiative must rest with Seoul. South Korea’s special relationships with the North, the United States, and the PRC, along with its status as a dynamic middle power, give it the potential to play a larger leadership role in dealing with North Korea. In doing so, South Korea should consult with the United States and China on a long-term strategy for inter-Korean reconciliation that would, for now, finesse the nuclear issue. Such a strategy would require U.S. and Chinese support of the South Korean leadership in addressing the Korea problem. The process of working together with Seoul to formulate and implement this strategy would allow both powers to ensure that their long-term interests on the peninsula are respected. Although there is no guarantee that such an effort will succeed, the worsening situation on and around the Korean peninsula and the U.S. and PRC’s lack of progress all argue for this new approach, as do the potential benefits to the U.S.-PRC relationship.

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China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies
Authors
Gi-Wook Shin
David Straub

Hangping Xu

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Graduate Student - East Asian Languages and Cultures
SCPKU Pre-Doctoral Fellow, September-November 2015
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Hangping Xu is a doctoral candidate at Stanford University, with two Master's degrees in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies respectively. He is also pursuing a Ph.D minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies; additionally, he participates in Stanford's Digital Humanties lab, exploring the utilizations, in research and pedagogy, of visualization and mapping technologies. Transnational and interdisciplinary in its approach, his research focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese literature, film, and culture. His publications have appeared or are forthcoming in peer-reviewed journals such as Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), Critical Multilingualism Studies, and Pacific Affairs, as well as from Cambridge University Press (book chapter). He is currently completing his dissertation titled "Vulnerable Bodies as Agents: Disability Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Chinese Culture," which investigates the shifting representations and performances of the disabled body in Chinese fiction, film, and popular culture over the long twentieth century. Drawing upon, among others, political and moral philosophy, critical theory, cultural anthropology, performance theory, literary and cultural studies, the dissertation project tracks the hegemonic establishment, following the birth of the modern nation-state, of what can be called the ideology of ability (or ableism); it seeks to reconstruct disability in political, rather than pathological, terms, critically examining the manners in which the disabled body figures at the intersection of aesthetics, ethics, and politics. Not only does the dissertation aim to launch the minority identity of disability as a political concept for reconsidering Chinese modernity but also ultimately for revisiting theoretical paradigms, especially with regard to critical questions such as agency, embodiment, gender, sexuality, aesthetics, citizenship, and social justice. His papers have been presented at major conferences such as the American Comparative Literature Association annual meeting, the International Society for the History of Rhetoric biennial conference, and the Modern Language Association annual convention (scheduled). He has taught language, literature, film, writing and rhetoric classes at the college level for more than six years. In 2015, he won the Centennial Teaching Award from Stanford University. The other distinctions and awards that he has received include the Silas Palmer Research Fellowship from the Hoover Institute, the Best Presentation Award from the Chinese Language Teachers Association of California (CLTAC) annual conference, and the Mori-ASPAC Best Paper Prize from Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast Annual Conference.

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