Announcing our subthemes under the general theme China Through The Looking Glass!

Each subtheme represents a specific research track, and has a dedicated research group exploring related subjects and producing research papers and collaborative work! Our research groups will have the opportunity to learn personally from our speakers and publish their work through the Vanguard Think Tank group.

Evolving Demographics: Social Norms and Social Governance

  • healthcare, labor, social impact of sustainable development, education, toxic masculinity, mental health, migration, gender, family, population, rural/urban development, brain drain, equality…

  • Under the theme of Evolving Demographics, we trace the contemporary and historical dynamics of Chinese social norms to identify trends, debate critical issues, and discover potential trends relevant in the long term. We then discuss the available tools and known best practices that could be applied in the current context to suggest pathways of furthering and deepening development through effective social governance in the future.

Augmenting Culture: Reflection and Revitalization

  • antiquities boom, cultural diplomacy, representation in popular culture, lost art, cultural influence, panda diplomacy, (de)colonizing art, cultural diaspora, collaborative initiatives, urbanism, soft power, identity politics, returning art, Chinatowns, cultural exchange, cultural appropriation…

  • Cultural re-enlightenment or rather rediscovery is a phenomenon gaining increasing traction within Chinese society. Rediscovering cultural and artistic roots has become an important trend among popular culture, but also a useful tool in boosting national pride and gaining soft power internationally. As Chinese cultural awareness rises, we track the processes of artistic (de)colonization and re-appreciation of traditional Chinese cultural heritage. We explore this development from both cultural and political perspectives.

Chasing Modernity: Finance and Technology

  • China’s Great Firewall, economic diplomacy, technological competition, overseas investment, cyberspace, fintech, security, medicine, AI & Ethics, space race, sustainable development, biotech, social governance through technology, real estate crisis, economic cooperation, renewables…

  • We use the lens of finance and technology, as well as their intersecting areas, to explore the questions of development and modernization. We look at the opportunities and pitfalls of applying technology and financial tools to societal governance and international relations. Looking at real-world examples where these tools have succeeded and failed, we conclude with important lessons on the future of effective development.

Disclaimer: As our themes were brainstormed and voted on by our audiences, we want to acknowledge the attention and support that the Sustainability and the Environment subtheme gained. It has been excluded as a separate theme on the following accounts:

  1. We have covered this theme in the past two iterations of this conference and would like to apply the lens of development instead.

  2. Sustainability and the environment are inseparable from social, economic, and the technological themes we proposed this year. Therefore, we are not abandoning the theme, but rather holding sustainability as an assumption when analyzing other socio-economic research questions at hand. In other words, environment and sustainability will still be featured throughout the conference, though not being its own separate theme.