Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues

The U.S.-China Research Group on Culture and Society was a team of leading U.S. and Chinese scholars that met for dialogues around how American and Chinese individuals and families seek happiness in contemporary society.

From 2019 to 2024, Becky Hsu of Georgetown University and Teresa Kuan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong convened the U.S.-China Research Group on Culture and Society. The group held virtual and in-person meetings in Hong Kong and Washington D.C., discussing how citizens in both countries seek happiness in contemporary society. The scholars produced an initial background report, authored blog posts, hosted an online webinar, and published their research in an edited volume The Extraordinary in the Mundane: Family and Forms of Community in China (Columbia University Press, 2025).