From the Editor-in-Chief
As strategic competition between the United States and China becomes increasingly protracted, the regional order in East Asia is undergoing a profound transformation. At the same time, the production of knowledge in China Studies faces mounting challenges. As China and its neighboring regions remain at the center of geopolitical competition, cross-border exchanges, academic collaboration, and field research have all been affected by growing geopolitical tensions and security concerns. Under these circumstances, how scholars continue to understand China, observe East Asia, and sustain intellectual dialogue across different scholarly communities has become one of the defining challenges of contemporary East Asian Studies. The challenge for China Studies, therefore, extends well beyond keeping pace with rapidly changing political realities. It also lies in sustaining the accumulation of knowledge, advancing theoretical inquiry, and cultivating scholarly communities that combine intellectual continuity with openness through intergenerational mentorship and international collaboration. It is in this context that this issue of East Asian Studies: China and Its Neighboring Regions begins with the academic career and intellectual legacy of Professor Kevin J. O’Brien, inviting readers to reconsider how China Studies can continue to evolve in a changing international environment through diverse methodological approaches, interdisciplinary dialogue, and the transmission of scholarly traditions across generations.
This issue is published on the occasion of Professor O’Brien’s retirement from the University of California, Berkeley, and features two special essays reflecting on his remarkable contributions to the study of Chinese politics over nearly five decades. Professor O’Brien has not only transformed the field through his pioneering research on grassroots governance and, together with Professor Lianjiang Li, the influential concept of “rightful resistance,” but has also devoted himself to mentoring younger scholars and fostering collaborative research. In doing so, he has helped cultivate a vibrant scholarly community distinguished by rigorous fieldwork, conceptual innovation, and sustained intellectual exchange. As Rachel Stern observed at Professor O’Brien’s retirement symposium, this intellectual tradition can aptly be described as “The Berkeley School of China Studies.” More than recognition of an individual scholar’s achievements, the term captures the collective intellectual legacy created by Professor O’Brien, his colleagues, and generations of students. It also illustrates how a scholarly tradition can continue to shape the development of China Studies through theoretical innovation, empirical research, and academic mentorship.
This issue contains three feature essays, one book-focused piece, and one field reflection. Although these contributions address diverse topics, they share a common concern: how knowledge about China and East Asia can continue to be produced, refined, and transmitted amid a rapidly changing international and academic environment. Together, they demonstrate how historical reflection, theoretical innovation, policy analysis, and field research collectively expand the intellectual boundaries of Asian Studies.
The opening feature article is Professor O’Brien’s own reflection on his academic career. Revisiting nearly half a century of research since China’s Reform and Opening, he intertwines his personal intellectual journey with the evolution of U.S.-China relations. The essay illustrates how China Studies has continually adapted to China’s rise and evolving international circumstances while reminding scholars that intellectual inquiry
should remain grounded in understanding, dialogue, and the pursuit of truth rather than in predetermined political positions.
To complement Professor O’Brien’s retrospective, this issue also features an essay by his former student and longtime collaborator, Lian-jiang Li, titled “亦開風氣亦為師” Beyond reviewing Professor O’Brien’s major theoretical contributions to the study of Chinese politics, Li examines his enduring influence from the perspective of scholarly inheritance. Through conceptual innovation, collaborative research, and decades of mentorship, Professor O’Brien has helped establish a research tradition whose impact extends well beyond his own publications. By introducing the idea of The Berkeley
School of China Studies, Li’s essay invites readers to reflect not only on the accomplishments of an individual scholar but also on how internationally influential scholarly communities are formed, sustained, and transmitted across generations.
The third feature article, by Hsin-hsien Wang, shifts the focus to contemporary geopolitics. Using the recent Trump–Xi summit as its point of departure, the article analyzes new developments in U.S.-China relations and their implications for the strategic landscape of East Asia. Whereas Professor O’Brien’s essay offers a historical perspective on the evolution of bilateral relations, Wang’s contribution examines the contemporary geopolitical environment, exploring how competition and cooperation continue to coexist and shape regional security, cross-Strait stability, and the future order of East Asia. Taken together, these essays provide complementary historical and policy-oriented perspectives for understanding one of the defining relationships of our time.
Collectively, the three feature articles are concerned not only with contemporary Chinese and East Asian politics but also with the broader question of how China Studies can continue to advance under changing international conditions. The Author Spotlight further extends this discussion through an introduction to Global Asias, co-authored by Tina Chen and Charlotte Eubanks. Challenging conventional boundaries among Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, and Diaspora Studies, the book advocates a transregional, transcultural, and interdisciplinary approach to understanding Asia. In
doing so, it offers a new analytical framework while encouraging continued reflection on the objects, methods, and intellectual boundaries of Asian Studies in an era of shifting global knowledge production.
Another distinctive feature of this journal is the Field Observation section, introduced as part of the journal’s recent transformation. Fieldwork has long been fundamental to China Studies, and many influential concepts and theories have emerged from scholars’ sustained engagement with local society. Yet geopolitical tensions and changing research environments have significantly reduced opportunities for Taiwanese and Western scholars to conduct long-term fieldwork in mainland China, making first-hand observations increasingly valuable. In response, this journal seeks not only to encourage Taiwanese scholars to share their field experiences but also to invite scholars based in mainland China to contribute first-hand perspectives. In this issue, “從門店到國家：家政服務商品化的觀察與思考” by Suo-wei Xiao of Beijing Normal University draws on long-term ethnographic research on China’s domestic service industry to examine the interactions among commodification, marketization, and state governance while exploring broader issues of care labor, social reproduction, and institutional transformation. Her contribution demonstrates once again the indispensable role of fieldwork in generating nuanced understandings of contemporary Chinese society.
Since its transformation in 2025, East Asian Studies: China and Its Neighboring Regions has remained committed to serving as an open, timely, and intellectually rigorous platform for scholarly exchange. The five contributions in this issue, from the intellectual legacy of one of the most influential scholars in the study of Chinese politics and the evolving dynamics of U.S.-China relations to new conceptualizations of Asian Studies and first-hand field observations from contemporary China, collectively demonstrate how knowledge is continuously accumulated, enriched, and transmitted
across generations, methodologies, and scholarly communities. As international politics and research environments continue to evolve, the journal remains committed to fostering interdisciplinary, transregional, and intergenerational dialogue while contributing fresh perspectives to both China Studies and East Asian Studies and deepening our collective understanding of China and its neighboring regions.
Editor-in-Chief
Chih-shian Liou