NGO Archive
Many grassroots organizations in mainland China face numerous obstacles, including an uncertain institutional environment, difficulties in fundraising, problems with obtaining a legal identity, and more. Academics have not systematically explored or paid sufficient attention to these unfavourable conditions. In view of this, the Centre undertook a reasonably large-scale quantitative and qualitative study between 2008 and 2012. We collaborated with Tsinghua University, Sun Yat-sen University, and the NGOCN to collect information from around 260 grassroots organizations in mainland China to develop our NGO Archive in support of this research agenda.
Collective Action Database
The Centre has documented incidents of collective violence and resistance between 2008 and 2010 from records from the mass media, the Internet, and other sources. The locality, nature of the action, issue(s) at stake, framing of the action, number of participants involved, resources involved, official response, resolution of the conflict, and its impact were coded and assembled to form our database, serving to support research on civil society collective action in Chinese communities.
Giving and Civic Awareness Database
Public opinion polls were conducted through telephone interviews in five major cities in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (namely, Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Taipei, and Hong Kong) to collect the public’s opinions on giving to charity, volunteering, involvement in civic organizations and civil society, the level of development of civic consciousness, and other issues. Such information provides an important foundation for comparative research on the development of civil society across Chinese societies.