(http://mjlsh.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/book.aspx?cid=2&tid=8313&pid=14028)

My Life with the Universities Service Centre: Some Recollections
Jae Ho CHUNG (Seoul National University)

This is more of a personal essay about my interconnectedness with the Universities Service Centre (hereafter USC) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for the past thirty-some years. While there was a suggestion earlier from the editor that I write an academic piece about the impact of the USC on Korean studies of contemporary Chinese politics, I single-mindedly decided to focus on the personal and, therefore, more intimate aspects of the relationship between the USC and myself. As will be detailed below, while the USC has been the most crucial research institution in my whole life, it has also been equally important to my personal life. At the age of 61 (耳順), I would also like to use this valuable opportunity to reflect a bit on my earlier steps in life.

Hong Kong and Wuxia (武俠)I was born in Pusan, the second largest city in Korea. As a port city geographically close to Japan and with American military bases, Pusan was a culturally vibrant place. As a primary school student, it was mandatory to learn Taekwondo at school and I also trained Aikido (八光流) at a gym near home. The former martial art of Korean origin was mostly about punching and high-kicking, while the latter of Japanese origin was about knuckle-breaking and low-kicking. At the age of 10, I was already, though unintentionally, introduced to comparative cultural perspectives so to speak.

An encounter of destiny came three years later, in the spring of 1973 when I first watched a Bruce Lee’s movie at a local theater. It was The Fist of Fury (精武門), Bruce Lee’s second movie, that really hit me in the head. His moves were so quick but balanced, so powerful but smooth, so unique with his attitudes and weapons, and so different from either Taekwondo or Aikido that they were like almost unrealistic. 

That year, along with my elder sister and brother, I moved to Seoul for schooling. But I was more interested in something else. I enrolled in a local Kung Fu academy (which they called Shaolin style) near home, got immersed in reading translations of Chinese wuxia novels by the author named Wolong Sheng (臥龍生), and bought Hong Kong movie magazines like 銀色世界 just to get rare photos of Bruce Lee and other action stars (back then, I was not able to read Chinese yet). My room was pasted with big posters of Bruce and his fighting scenes. Bruce Lee and 銀色世界 were, then, my only corridors to Hong Kong. A few years later, Chelsea Chan (陳秋霞) and Golden Harvest (嘉和電影) were added to the list, without knowing that I was to be much closer to the city later on. 

College, China Studies, and the USCBeing a college student, just like many others, I had to make a very important decision: what to do for the rest of my life. One day in my junior year (i.e. 1981), it suddenly occurred to me that I wanted to do something related to China. In retrospect, the decision must have been a cumulative result of the decade-long preoccupation with Bruce Lee, Chinese martial arts, and things that were Chinese in nature. For one, my first but brief visit to Taipei and Hong Kong in the summer of 1981 affirmed my decision to study about China although, back then, I had no idea of what constituted “China” as a political entity. For another, a simple question like “what would happen to Korea-China relations once diplomatic normalization should occur?” was sufficient for a young man in his twenties. Soon after, I enrolled at a Chinese language academy to learn Mandarin Chinese. Two years later, I found myself on a plane to Boston where I would spend two years for a MA degree in Chinese history at Brown University (Koreans were still forbidden to travel to the mainland).

In 1986, I started my Ph.D. study at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where the Chinese politics program was then rated as No. 1 thanks to its two giants, Michel Oksenberg (奧森柏) and Kenneth Lieberthal (李侃如). From then on, China was no longer things of hobby but a subject of critical thinking and professional writing. After completing the coursework and dissertation proposal in 1991, I went on a field trip for dissertation research. The norm for Ph.D. students then was to do archival research in Hong Kong and then to do interviews and field work in the mainland. Since the mainland China was still off limits to Koreans, I could only do the former (although I had a rare chance to visit the mainland for three months in early 1992). As far as doing research in Hong Kong is concerned, where else could you go to other than the USC, the sanctuary of so many valuable newspaper collections, yearbooks, and archives?

My first encounter with the USC was actually in 1986 when the institution was still at its old location on Argyle Street. But, then, I was more of a tourist than a serious researcher. My visit to the USC in 1991 was, however, totally different. For one, I was to stay there for more than eight months. Located at the basement floor of the University’s Main Library, the USC offered me a separate desk where I read People’s Daily and three provincial newspapers for the period of 1977-84, in addition to many yearbooks. During those months, I must have shed the largest amount of tear in my lifetime due to the yellow dust puffed out of those pages. Yet, every day at the USC was full of joy as the gradual progress of the research produced interesting bridges to different parts of the academic puzzle.
For another, I was not alone in Hong Kong. By the time I was stationed at the USC, I had been married to Hye Kyung for three years. Since Hye Kyung much preferred Hong Kong to Ann Arbor, I was also more than happy to spend as much time with her after my work at the USC. It should also be noted that Jean, our daughter, was conceived during my stay at the USC. Who could have known that Jean was to be an exchange student to the CUHK twenty-some years later?

The eight-month stay at the USC was never boring or dull. Thanks to the caring director Professor Kuan Hsin-chi and the attentive assistant director Jean Hung, visiting students and scholars there never felt alone and were in close interaction with each other. I still remember a couple of fun picnics that Jean organized to some mountains in the New Territories and outlying islands. During the stay, Hye Kyung and I really got into Cantonese cuisine, although mostly at the cost-effective canteens and restaurants on campus. Hye Kyung, perhaps due to her pregnancy, was really into steamed fresh-water fish (淸蒸鯇魚) and mapo doufu, in addition to a wide variety of dim sum dishes. Once in a while, when a family member or a Korean friend visited us, we spent some money by going to Sai Kung for seafood or to Taiwai for roasted pigeon.

 
During the stay, I met two people in particular, with whom my family have sustained close relationships. One, of course, is Jean who really cared for me, Hye Kyung and, later, Jean my daughter. My thanks to her are sincere and, I am sure, she knows this well. The other is Lam Tao-chiu (林道超), formerly with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and now residing in Sydney. I met him at the USC in 1991 when he was doing research for his doctoral dissertation for Australian National University. Over the years since then, I have learned so much from him as a colleague, close friend, and real expert on local China.

Back to Hong Kong: Me and the USC during the HKUST YearsAfter completing the Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan in 1993, I was fortunate to land at an assistant-professor position at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, prior to 1997, offered a wide range of privileges and perks for the teaching staff from overseas. One of them was the provision of financial support for housing, and I was given a choice between living on campus (with amazing sea views of the Clear Water Bay) and finding apartments off campus. Since HKUST was located far away from the city center, normally speaking, residing on campus seemed both logistically convenient and time-saving. Yet, I made the decision to live off campus.
There were two reasons as to why I made such a seemingly “irrational” decision. First, when I had accepted the job at the HKUST, my plan was to use three to four years of living in Hong Kong to revise and refine my doctoral dissertation and to publish a few good journal articles. It was thought that these academic accomplishments could be used for finding a good position at an American university later on. For these goals, utilizing the USC frequently and efficiently was a prerequisite. The Clear Water Bay was too far away from the USC and, therefore, I signed a contract for an apartment in Shatin (which was only two KCR stations from the USC). Of course, the trade-off was a very long commute to the HKUST from home, requiring the rides of KCR, MTR, and a local bus from Choi Hong to the HKUST. Yet, back then, the rides were joyful for a new resident of Hong Kong, and I was young enough to endure all of that.

Second, more practically, I did not plan to have a car in Hong Kong and, therefore, living on campus appeared potentially boring and inconvenient, despite the amazing sea views. Besides, for both Hye Kyung and Jean, a bustling place could be more fun and convenient (say, the hospitals, kinder garden, and restaurants). We also found a small Korean church in Taiwai. In short, Shatin provided a perfect nest for the family’s life as well as the base camp for my academic plans.

During my tenure at the HKUST, I made it a rule to go to the USC at least twice a week although it went down to once when a sufficient amount of documents and archives had been acquired for the revision of the dissertation and more time was spent on writing and editing than researching. Hye Kyung often complained jokingly that “you seem to be working harder now than during the days of a doctoral student.” That was also her signal that it was high time to go for a nice Cantonese meal at the city center. As a result of those frequent trips to the USC, I was able to publish articles in such journals as China Quarterly, Pacific Affairs, and China Information.
Of course, Bruce Lee was not out of my mind yet. During my three-year stay in Hong Kong, I paid a few visits to the site of his previous residence, called 梅鶴小築, in Kowloon Tong. I also went to the Baptist University Hospital where Lee suddenly passed away at the age of 33 due to an overdose of painkiller. My connections with the Fragrant City and Bruce Lee continued. 

Back Home and the USCIn the spring of 1995, I was offered a position at the Department of International Relations at Seoul National University. It was a dilemmatic situation for a variety of reasons. For one, it was not clear to me whether going back to Korea then was preferable to staying in Hong Kong or finding a position in the United States from an academic point of view. For another, going back home meant that a lot of social connecting and reconnecting would barge into my life, making it hard to focus on research and teaching. Yet another concern was about whether my family could adapt well to a new environment. After a few weeks’ agonizing, I decided to go back. After all, Seoul National University was my alma matar and, once the position was filled, there wouldn’t be another chance (in those days, each department would have only one China specialist).

I started my first semester at Seoul National University in the spring of 1996, 13 years after I graduated from there. As expected, returning home required a lot of connecting and reconnecting (mostly in the form of dinging and drinking at night) as Korea was also a nation of intimate social networks. I tried very hard to maintain a certain amount of time wholly devoted to research and preparation for teaching (in the first two years, I had to convert my lecture notes in English to Korean, and that transition took quite some time at the expense of numerous weekends). Being in Korea, I made it a rule to visit Hong Kong at least once a year to get myself fully updated by the valuable collections of the USC. For twenty-some years since then, I can proudly say that I kept that promise very faithfully. 
Adapting fully to Korean life after a hiatus of 13 years was not easy at all. Reconnecting via dining and drinking was also hard sometimes, taking away a lot of valuable time for research. The most unbearable was the fact that the publication of my dissertation into a book was long delayed due to my “transition” from Hong Kong to Seoul. Yet, thanks to the five years of hard work – much of the groundwork done at the USC during my Hong Kong years and my follow-up visits from Seoul since 1996 – my first single-authored book Central Control and Local Discretion in China was published by Oxford University Press in 2000. I find much pride in the fact that the book is still cited quite often. The following is the acknowledgment of the USC in the preface of that book.
I am particularly grateful to Kuan Hsin-chi and Jean Hung of the USC, who made my stay there so comfortable and productive.

During the 2000s, the irreplaceable value of the USC, at least from my own perspective, was found in that small but quiet room in the back of the upper floor (9/F) of the USC. That room not only housed copies of the most recent periodicals in Chinese (many of which were not available in Korea), but being in that room also virtually made me feel as if I was talking to many experts in China over key issues of the time in China. Once in that small room, I often lost the passage of time, only to be reminded by the staff member there that it was time for her lunch or closing. Archival digitalization and open source networks were undoubtedly helpful in shortening the distance of academic research, but they could never replace the “atmosphere” of that small room.

My commitment to visiting Hong Kong at least once a year has been well sustained throughout the 2010s, due not only to the irreplaceable value of the USC but also to the fact that I frequently attended the Annual Graduate Student Conference sponsored by the USC as well as its International Advisory Council meetings. One additional – and very important – reason was that no good Cantonese restaurants were found in Seoul until very recently (now Seoul boasts two branches of Michelin one-starred Tim Ho Wan 添好運). My visit to the Fragrant City was usually accompanied by Hye Kyung and Jean (after she entered college), and we would enjoy barbeque rice (叉燒飯) and dim sum for lunch, and hot pot for dinner (our favorite spot was Tak Hing 德興 in Tshimshatsui East). Tao-chiu and his wife (Pamela) would often take us out for nice Cantonese dinner at Lei Garden (梨圓) at Tsimshatsui East or Shatin. Cantonese meals are always irresistible although my long-time preoccupations with Bruce Lee gradually faded away as my hair got greyer.

Centrifugal Empire and the USCBy the late 2000s, over 70 percent of my research focus shifted to the issues of Chinese foreign policy and US-China relations, while the remainder was still on my life-long subject of central-local relations in China. After I published my second single-authored book Between Ally and Partner: Korea between the United States and China in 2007 (Columbia University Press), I wanted to devote most of my time and effort to my third single-authored volume on China’s central-local relations. For this, I had to make frequent trips to the USC and that small room on the upper floor over the period of eight years since 2008. The outcome, Centrifugal Empire: Central-Local Relations in China, was published in 2016 by the Columbia University Press. Soft covers were soon published, and in 2017, the book was awarded the Choice Award in Outstanding Academic Titles. The following is my acknowledgment of the USC in the book’s preface:
I must also acknowledge the invaluable support (including one term of the Hysan Lee Fellowship) I received over the years from the USC. Without the archival research conducted there, this book could not have become what it is now. 

Blessings from the USC were not my monopoly, however. Many Korean scholars have also benefited from doing archival research at the USC. My former students, Yousun Chung (鄭有善: currently at Hanguk University of Foreign Studies via Academia Sinica), Yukyung Yeo (呂裕慶: currently at Kyunghee University via City University of Hong Kong), Jieun Kim (金知恩: currently at the University of Pennsylvania), and many others shared with me their highly positive personal experiences with the USC. I believe that is really the silent but resonating power of the USC.
It has been over two years since I last visited the USC before the outbreak of the COVID-19. And in that short period, quite a change has occurred to the USC as well, for the better or worse. As someone whose life, both academic and personal, has been enriched so much by the USC, I thank the institution for the privileges it granted to me for more than three decades, and I truly hope it will continue to provide them for many committed and aspiring scholars in the years to come. Once again, I thank Jean, Professor Kuan, Gao Qi, and other staff members at the USC for such nice memories of the past thirty years. Long Live the USC~

往事拾零: 在中国研究服务中心的日子
—作者：郑在浩（国立首尔大学）

这篇文章是关于三十多年来我和香港中文大学大学服务中心（以下简称USC）之间的关系。虽然编辑建议我写一篇关于USC对韩国当代中国政治研究的影响的文章，我依然决定讲述自己和USC的交往，因为这才是我心之所系。USC不仅是我一生中最关键的研究机构，它对我的个人生活同样重要。在我年届61岁耳顺之际，借此宝贵机会，回顾人生路上的点点滴滴。

香港与武侠

我出生在韩国第二大城市釜山。这个在地理上靠近日本并有美国军事基地的港口城市，是一个充满文化活力的地方。学习跆拳道是我上小学时的必修课，我还在家里附近的健身房训练合气道（八光流）。前者源自韩国的武术，主要是出拳和高踢，而后者源自日本的武术，主要是击节和低踢。尽管是无意，可以说我在10岁的时候就已经接触到比较文化的视角。

三年后命运让我与香港邂逅。1973年春天，我第一次在釜山的电影院看了一部李小龙的电影《精武门》，这是他的第二部电影，可真是击中了我的大脑。他的动作是如此迅速而平稳，如此有力而流畅；他的态度和武器如此独特，和跆拳道与合气道不一样，简直亦幻亦真。

那一年，我和我的姐姐、弟弟一起搬到首尔上学，但我对学业外的东西更感兴趣。我在家附近的一家功夫学院（他们称之为少林派）学习，沉浸在阅读卧龙生翻译的中国武侠小说中；购买香港电影杂志，如银色世界。只是为了获得李小龙和其他动作明星的罕见照片（那时我还不能阅读中文）。我的房间里贴满了李小龙及他的打斗场面的大张海报。当时，李小龙和银色世界是我通往香港的唯一通道。几年后，陈秋霞和嘉禾电影也加入了此列，而我却不知道今后将更接近这座城市。

大学，中国研究和USC

像许多大学生一样，我必须做出至关重要的决定：我的余生该做什么。大三（1981年）的一天，我突然想到，我想做与中国有关的事。回想起来，这个决定一定是我十年来对李小龙和中国功夫入迷、对中国武术以及和中国相关的事物的兴趣，日积月累的结果。1981年夏天我首次短暂访问了台北和香港，尽管当时我对作为一个政治实体“中国”没什么概念，依然明确从事中研究的决定。何况对于一个20多岁的年轻人来说， “一旦邦交正常化，韩中关系会如何？” 的简单问题就足够了。不久之后，我进入一所中文補習班学汉语。 两年后我已经坐上去波士顿的飞机，准备花两年时间在布朗大学攻读中国历史硕士学位（当时韩国人仍被禁止前往大陆）。

1986年，我开始在密歇根大学安阿伯分校攻读博士学位。归功于它u的两位巨头，奥森柏和李侃如，这里的中国政治课程在当时被评为第一。从那时起，中国不再是兴趣和爱好，而成为批判性思维和专业写作的主题。1991年完成课程和论文提案，随之去实地考察，进行论文研究。当时博士生通常先在香港做文献研究，然后到大陆做访谈和实地考察。由于中国大陆对韩国人来说仍然是禁区，我只能做前者（虽然我在1992年初有一个难得的机会访问大陆三个月）。到香港做研究的话，除了收藏了许多宝贵的报纸、年鉴和档案的宝地USC， 你还能去哪里呢？

我第一次接触USC其实在1986年，当时它还在亚皆老街的旧址。不过那时我更像是一个游客，而不是认真的研究者。我在1991年对USC访问则完全不同，首先我将在那里呆上八个多月。USC位于香港中文大学图书馆的地下一层，中心为我提供了一张专用书桌，在这里我伏案阅读1977-84年期间的《人民日报》和三份省级报纸以及许多年鉴。几个月里，翻越旧报纸扬起的粉尘，大概令我流下了一生中最多的眼泪。然而，随着研究的进展，渐渐为解答学术上各式各样的诘难找到有趣通道，令我在USC的每一天都充满乐趣。

此时，我和Hye Kyung（惠京） 已经结婚三年, 我在香港不是独自一人。 惠京喜欢香港胜于安阿伯，我也乐意在USC下班后尽可能多与她相处。在这里，妻子怀上我们的女儿Jean (裕真)。谁能想到，二十多年后，Jean会成为中大的交换生呢？

多亏中心主任关信基教授的关怀和助理主任熊景明的细心照料，在USC的八个月里，我从未感到无聊沉闷。在那里访问的学生和学者彼此之间交流密切，从不感到孤独。我还记得景明组织了几次有趣的野餐，带大家去到新界和离岛的山林中。 惠京和我由衷地喜欢上粤菜，也不顾那是校园里比较贵的餐厅。也许由于怀孕的缘故，惠京非常喜欢清蒸淡水鱼和麻婆豆腐，还有各种点心。偶尔家人或韩国朋友来探望我们时，会破费去西贡吃海鲜或去大围吃烤乳鸽。

我要特别提及在香港遇到的两个人，我们一家至今与他们关系密切。不用说，一个是熊景明，她对我和惠京及女儿Jean关照有加，相信她也知道我对她的诚心感激。另一位是林道超，他曾在香港理工大学教书，现住在悉尼。1991年我在USC认识他时，他正在澳大利亚国立大学做博士论文研究。这位中国地方政府專家成了我真正的朋友，多年来，我从他身上学到不少。

回到香港： USC，香港科技大学

1993年在密歇根大学完成博士课程后，我很幸运地在香港科技大学（HKUST）获得助理教授的职位。1997年之前，香港的高等教育学府为海外的教学人员提供了各种特别待遇。其中一项是住房补贴，我可以选择住在校内（可欣赏清水湾的迷人海景）或在校外寻找公寓。科大离市中心很远，住在校内似乎既方便又省时。然而我还是选择住在校外。

做出这样一个看似 “不明智”的决定有两个原因。我接受香港科技大学的工作时，计划利用在香港生活的三到四年时间来修改、完善我的博士论文，并在学术期刊上发表几篇像样的文章。这些学术成就有利于在美国大学中寻找一个好的职位。为实现这个目标，多去并善用USC乃先决条件。清水湾离USC太远了，因此我在沙田租了一套公寓（那里离USC只有两个火车站）。当然，这样做的代价是从家里到科大舟车劳顿，需要乘坐火车，地铁，再转乘从彩虹到科大的小巴。不过对于我这个香港的新居民来说，路途依然愉快，何况我还很年轻，忍耐一下无妨。

尽管有海景迷人，住在校园里会有种种不便，会日久生怨，这也是我不打算在香港买车的缘故。对惠京和Jean来说，繁华的市中心更有趣，更方便（比如医院、幼儿园、餐馆）。我们还在大围发现了一座小小的韩国教堂。总之，沙田为我们的家庭生活提供了一个完美的巢穴，也是我学术研究的大本营。

在香港科技大学任职期间，我规定自己每周至少去USC两次，待找到足够的的文献及资料去修改我的论文后，改为每周去一次。我花在写作和修改文章的时间比研究的时间还多，惠京经常开玩笑地抱怨说：”你现在似乎比读博士的时候更辛苦了”。这也是她的信号，表明是时候去市中心吃一顿美味的广东菜了。经常去USC，对我在《中国季刊》、《太平洋事务》、《中国信息》等杂志上发表文章大有帮助。

当然，李小龙并没有从我的脑海中消失。在香港逗留的三年中，我几次去他以前在九龙塘的住所，梅鹤小筑。我还去了李小龙在那里因服用过量的止痛药而突然离世浸会大学医院，那时他年仅33岁。我与这座城市和李小龙的关系仍未中断。

回家与USC

1995年春天，我得到了国立首尔大学国际关系学系的职位，诸多因素令我面临两难决策。首先，从学术角度来看，我不清楚此时回韩国是否比留在香港或在美国找一个职位更合适。此外，回国意味着大量的社会、私人关系将重新闯入我的生活，使我难以专注研究和教学；另外也担忧我的家人是否能适应新的环境。纠结数周之后，我决定回去。毕竟，国立首尔大学是我的母校，而且一旦职位被填补，就不会再有机会了（在那个年代，每个系只有一名中国专家）。

1996年春季学期，我开始在国立首尔大学执教，距离我从那里毕业已经13年了。不出所料，回国后需要与众多旧知及新交联络（主要是在晚间吃吃喝喝），韩国始终是个社交网络紧密的国家。我尽很大的努力继续将一定时间完全用于研究和备课（在头两年，我必须将我的英文讲义转换为韩文，这得花相当多的时间，牺牲了许多周末）。在韩国，我规定自己每年至少访问香港一次，让自己充分了解USC的宝贵收藏。从那时起的二十多年来，可以自豪地说，我非常忠实地履行了这个承诺。

在中断13年后，完全适应韩国的生活一点不容易。通过吃饭和喝酒重新建立关系有时颇为困难，占用了很多宝贵的研究时间。最令人难以忍受的是，由于我从香港到首尔的 “过渡”，博士论文成书出版的时间拖延了很久。总算五年来的辛勤工作，包括在香港期间在USC完成的大部分基础研究，以及1996年以来从首尔再多次去中心访问所得，我的第一本学术专著《中国的中央控制与地方酌量》于2000年由牛津大学出版社出版。我能够引以为荣的是，这本书仍然经常被引用。以下是该书序言中对USC的感谢。

“我特别感谢USC的关信基和熊景明，他们令我在中心的研究舒心而卓有成效”

至少从我自己的角度来看，在2000年代，USC不可取代的价值在于置于九楼那个安静的期刊阅览室的馆藏。那里不仅有最新的中文期刊（其中许多是在韩国买不到的），在那间屋子里，似乎让我觉得自己好像在和中国的许多专家讨论当时中国的关键问题。一旦进入那个小房间，我常常会忘记时间流逝，需要被工作人员提醒，她该吃午饭了，或者该关门了。档案数字化和网络无疑有助于缩短学术研究的距离，但它们永远无法取代那个小房间的 “气氛”。

在整个2010年代，我一直保持每年至少访问香港一次的承诺，这不仅是由于USC不可比拟的价值，也因为我经常参加中心主办的博士生年会以及其国际咨询委员会会议。去香港还有一个重要原因，直到最近，在首尔还没有找到好的广东餐馆（现在首尔拥有两家米其林一星的“添好运”分店）也是。我通常由惠京和Jean陪同（在她进入大学后），一道前往。我们在午餐时享用叉烧饭和点心，晚餐时吃火锅（我们最喜欢的地方是位于尖沙咀东的德兴）。林道超和他的妻子（Pamela）经常会带我们到尖东或沙田的利苑去吃美味的粤菜晚餐。尽管随着我的头发变白，我对李小龙的长期关注逐渐消失，但广式饭菜总是让人无法抗拒。

《离心帝国》和USC

到了2000年代末，我的研究重点70%以上转移到中国外交政策和中美关系问题上，中央与地方关系仍然是我毕生关注的问题。2007年，出版了第二本专著 《盟友和伙伴之间：美国和中国之间的韩国》（哥伦比亚大学出版社）之后，我打算将大部分时间和精力投入到 “中国的中央与地方关系”。为此，在2008年以后的八年当中，我不得不经常去USC九楼的那个小房间。《离心帝国：中国的中央地方关系》于2016年由哥伦比亚大学出版社出版，很快又出版了便装版。2017年，该书获得了优秀学术著作的选择奖。以下是我在该书的序言中对USC的感谢。

“我还必须感谢USC多年来对我的宝贵支持（包括利希慎奖学金）。没有在那里进行的档案研究，本书不可能呈现。 

然而，从USC获益甚多的远不仅只我个人，许多韩国学者也从USC的馆藏中受益，包括我以前的学生，目前在韓國外國語大学的郑有善（Yousun Chung），在慶熙大学的余有卿（Yukyung Yeo），在宾夕法尼亚大学金知恩（Jieun Kim），以及其他许多人。他们都曾与我分享在USC得益匪浅的经历。我相信，这确实是USC桃李无言下自成蹊的力量所在。

由于COVID-19爆发，我已经有两年多未能到访USC。在这短短的时间里，USC发生了相当大的变化。无论结果好坏，作为一个在学术和个人生活方面都因USC而丰富的人，我感谢该机构三十多年来给予我的特别支持，我真心希望它在未来的岁月里能继续为许多坚定和有抱负的学者提供同样的帮助。我再次感谢熊景明、关教授、高琦和USC的其他工作人员，感谢他们在过去三十年里给我留下的美好回忆。USC万岁。

郑在浩，Jae Ho Chung, 国立首尔大学国际关系学教授，中美关系研究项目主任。 首尔大学本科毕业，获布朗大学硕士学位，密西根大学博士学位（1993）。1993 – 96 执教于香港科技大学，任香港中文大学中国研究服务中心国际顾问委员会成员至2020年。郑在浩教授撰写及编辑学术著作凡十九本，包括《中国的中央控制及地方酌量》，牛津大学出版社，2000；《盟友与伙伴之间》哥伦比亚大学出版社，2007年; 《离心帝国》哥伦比亚大学出版社，2016年。