For many first-year students at Duke Kunshan University, research can feel like something distant: a world of faculty offices, grant proposals, academic talks, and polished conference presentations. But for three members of the Class of 2026 — Chia-l Wei,Hanyang Zhou, and Felipe Rebello Silvestri — research did not begin with certainty. It began with a class, a question, a newsletter, a professor’s suggestion, or a topic that kept returning until it became impossible to ignore.

Over their four years at DKU, each of them found a different route into China-related research. What connected their journeys was the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, a DKU research center established in 2018 to advance research and teaching on the social, economic, and political factors shaping modern China. With a mission as supporting contemporary China research, connecting undergraduate learning with empirical social science, and bringing scholars together for exchange, CSCC became more than a funding body for these students through grants, lectures, conferences, faculty mentorship, and informal academic communities. It was a place where early questions could become research projects, and where students could begin to see themselves as scholars. Read More