From April 18th to 21st, Prof. Li Youmei, First Vice President of Shanghai Academy, and her party visited NUS East Asian Institute, NUS Centre for Family & Population Research, and NTU Department of Sociology. During the visit, the delegation conducted extensive and in-depth exchanges with these institutions on such issues as thinktank construction, collaborative research, data sharing, and exchange of visits among scholars.
Zheng Yongnian, Director of NUS East Asian Institute, warmly welcomed the delegation led by Li Youmei, and the two sides discussed the basic situation in depth, the result production model, the talent training model, the evaluation mode, and the challenges in the construction of thinktanks. Li Youmei pointed out that the development of thinktanks requires not only forward-looking scholars, but also extensive and in-depth social research. At present, the development of China's thinktanks still need to perfect the institutional mechanism and make a breakthrough in the selection and appointment of talents. Zheng Yongnian indicated that China needs objective and rational research on thinktanks, the development of thinktanks requires a certain degree of independence, and the research and judgment on Chinese society needs theoretical tools suitable for China. During the talks, the two sides also discussed such issues as future cooperation, exchange visits, joint organization of meetings, and sharing of research results.
Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Director of NUS Centre for Family & Population Research, attached great importance to the visit. On April 20th, Li Youmei gave a keynote lecture entitled “The Main Driving Force of China’s Social Governance”, at which Li pointed out that the transformation and development of China’s social governance is different from the evolutionary mode under which European and American civil society and modern democratic countries have developed simultaneously, or the drastic mode of the Soviet Union guided by large-scale social movements and social democratization, but is a progressive mode, driven by political party-nation based on national conditions, on the premise of ensuring the stability of the regime and the ruling position of the Communist Party. In the reform and innovation of China's social governance, it is emphasized that the Party is the core of the leadership responsible for "controlling the overall situation and coordinating all parties", which is the essence of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. The speech aroused intense attention of and vigorous discussion by the scholars and colleagues present in the lecture.
April 20th, Li Youmei and her colleagues visited both NTU Department of Sociology and NTU Overseas Chinese Museum, during which, the two sides exchanged views on the historical development of institutions, the main areas and directions of research, the training of talents and the development of disciplines. The two sides believe that social science research needs to be clearer about the future development direction of the discipline, develop a development approach based on an interdisciplinary center, and demand-orientated, integrated resources to study public issues, in order to solve practical problems.
This visit has made a series of achievements with NUS East Asian Institute, NUS Centre for Family & Population Research and NTU Department of Sociology in cooperative research, data sharing, exchange of visits, and sharing of research results, and thus laid a solid foundation for further cooperation between the two sides in the future.
