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$50,000 Fellowship Awarded for Study of Rural Chinese Electoral System

Xinping Village accountant (name unknown)
is counting the ballot before election.
The voter registration list is beside on the
table. (Photo taken Jan. 4, 2003)

WASHINGTON, DC—IREX is proud to announce the 2002 grantee of the John J. and Nancy Lee Roberts Fellowship: Dr. Qingshan Tan. Dr. Tan, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Cleveland State University, will be investigating the village electoral system as an emerging political institution in China. The Roberts Fellowship supports cutting-edge research in the social sciences in Afghanistan, Asia, Eurasia, Europe, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Turkey by annually providing one grant of up to $50,000.

Village elections, regarded as one of the three most significant events since Deng Xiaoping’s reform, along with de-Communization and free-village and township enterprising, have fundamentally transformed the Chinese countryside. Since the introduction of the 1987 electoral system, more than half a million villages have conducted free elections for village chiefs in China.

“I do think that this grant will enable me to research on an important subject in today's Chinese political life, that is the understanding of how an important political institution like the village election in China was created, evolved, and developed” said Dr. Tan. “Such understanding will help gain insights on future Chinese political development, especially with regard to electoral expansion to higher levels of government positions.”

Dr. Tan will make several trips to China to conduct research for this project. He will conduct interviews and collect data on the latest rounds of elections in Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui, Sichuan, Hunan, Hebei, Jilin, Liaonin, and Ninxia. Additionally, he will interview representatives from NGOs, universities, research institutes, and the central government, including the Rural Research Office of the State Council, the Research Department of the National People’s Congress, the China Academy of Social Science, and Beijing University.

Dr. Tan received his BA in English from the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute, his MA in international relations from the Beijing Institute of International Relations, and his PhD in political science from Emory University.

This year 60 applications were received for the Roberts Fellowship from academics and other professionals across the United States. Other proposals focused on areas as diverse as religion, law, cultural anthropology, and women’s studies.

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