Chinese Studies, Social Science Think Tanks, Earth and Space: the Art Museum, USC Special Collection, Opinion Polls and the First CUHK Satellite

CUHK's research reach extends well beyond the hard sciences in the laboratory. Chinese studies are part of the University's founding identity; social surveys are how it feeds public debate; and Earth observation has lifted its gaze from the campus to satellite orbit. This article weaves three strands — humanities, social science and Earth — into a single piece: Chinese studies, represented by the Institute of Chinese Studies and the USC Special Collection; social-science think tanks, represented by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies and the Hong Kong Quality of Life Index; and Earth-and-space research, represented by the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science and the first CUHK satellite. The founding years of each unit and the names listed are based on the latest official announcements.

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# Part One · Chinese Studies and Archival Special Collections

Chinese studies is one of the founding characteristics of CUHK, and can be traced along two lines: the humanistic research establishment represented by the Institute of Chinese Studies, and the contemporary China research archives represented by the Universities Service Centre (USC) Collection.

# I. The Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) and the Art Museum

According to CUHK Research^※, the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) was founded in 1967 on the initiative of Li Choh-ming, the University's founding Vice-Chancellor, as an international platform for exchange and collaboration in Chinese scholarship. In its early years it was sustained mainly by scholars from New Asia College's research institute, spanning fields such as history and philosophy (Tang Chun-i among them).

The Institute's Art Museum, established in 1971, occupies a building designed with input from architects Szeto Wai and I. M. Pei, sited between the central administration building and the University Library. According to a CUHK announcement^※, the Museum collects, preserves, researches and exhibits artefacts reflecting ancient and modern Chinese art, humanities and cultural heritage; in recent years it has added new exhibition spaces (such as the Lo Kwee Seong Pavilion). Its directors have included founding curator James Watt (屈志仁), followed by Kao May-ching, Peter Y. K. Lam and Sabrina Rong, among others; several generations of directors have built the collection to over 16,000 pieces. According to the Art Museum's official history page^※, the Jen Yu-wen (简又文) collection, acquired in 1973 and comprising over a thousand items, is especially strong in Ming and Qing Guangdong painters and founders of the Lingnan School of painting — a key acquisition that set the Museum's collecting direction in its early years. The most important source of donations to the Museum is the Bei Shan Tang foundation: according to CUHK in Focus^※, the Bei Shan Tang Foundation has long donated paintings, calligraphy, rubbings, ceramics, jade, bronzes and lacquerware — including rare Song dynasty rubbings — to the Museum; and according to the Art Museum's official history page, the foundation's founder, Lee Jung-sen, was the Museum's most important patron, with his donations (both objects and acquisition funds) accounting for nearly half of the collection, enriching the Museum's research and exhibition base in calligraphy, painting and material culture. For the Museum building itself and a fuller account of the collection's development, see the Art Museum and the Institute of Chinese Studies: an I. M. Pei–designed treasure house of Chinese art, with its foundations laid by Bei Shan Tang.

# II. The Universities Service Centre (USC) Collection: archives for the study of contemporary China

The collection of the Universities Service Centre for China Studies (USC) is an important repository of primary and secondary source material for the study of contemporary China. According to a Times Higher Education report^※ citing CUHK materials, the USC was founded in 1963 and holds some 80,000 volumes, along with a large trove of rare newspapers, periodicals and local materials; it has long been regarded by overseas scholars as a key base for the study of contemporary China. According to CUHK Library^※, the USC Collection focuses on China after 1949, with an emphasis on regional and local data; and according to the Library's LibGuides^※, the collection covers newspapers, yearbooks (including statistical yearbooks), local gazetteers (at provincial, city, county, township and village levels), periodicals, documentary films and census materials, and is now housed on the 8th and 9th floors of the University Library. For how the USC Collection relates to the University Library's other special collections, see the University Library system and special collections.

Editorial note: the USC underwent an institutional reorganisation around 2020, and the associated discussions touch on university governance. This volume (research/archives) records only the facts as officially stated — founding year, scale of the collection and current housing — and does not go into the governance narrative.

# III. Digital humanities and the ancient-texts database

The Institute of Chinese Studies also supports major digital humanities infrastructure. According to the CUHK D. C. Lau Research Centre for Chinese Ancient Texts^※ and related research materials, the Institute launched the CHANT (CHinese ANcient Texts) database project in 1988, integrating transmitted and excavated texts from the pre-Qin period through the Six Dynasties (roughly 1500 BCE to 600 CE) into a full-text searchable database. According to a related academic introduction^※, it contains over 30 million characters, covering oracle-bone, bronze and bamboo-slip materials among other excavated sources. The project is run by the Institute's D. C. Lau Research Centre for Chinese Ancient Texts, named in memory of the late scholar D. C. Lau. The Institute also publishes academic journals and monograph series, including the Journal of Chinese Studies (《中国文化研究所学报》).

From the Institute of Chinese Studies and the Art Museum in the 1960s to the USC Collection for contemporary China, CUHK has accumulated a dual archive straddling classical humanities and contemporary social data: the Art Museum is weighted towards art and artefacts, while the USC Collection is weighted towards local and statistical materials from after 1949. Together they underpin CUHK's distinctive position in Chinese studies.

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# Part Two · Flagship Social Science Research and Policy Think Tanks

CUHK's Faculty of Social Science has a long track record in opinion polling, social indicators and policy research, built mainly around the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies (HKIAPS), its Telephone Survey Research Laboratory and the Hong Kong Quality of Life Index.

# IV. The Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies (HKIAPS) and the Telephone Survey Research Laboratory

According to the official HKIAPS introduction^※, the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies was founded in September 1990 with the aim of promoting interdisciplinary social science research on social, economic and political development. It houses several research units and programmes (including the Global China Studies Programme) and periodically releases opinion poll findings on issues of public concern.

According to HKIAPS materials^※, the Telephone Survey Research Laboratory was established in 1995 to provide professional telephone survey support to researchers and social institutions. It is one of Hong Kong's main telephone survey units and the technical foundation of HKIAPS's polling work. In addition, according to HKIAPS materials^※, HKIAPS began its Indicators of Hong Kong Social Development project as early as 1988, collecting social development data through sample surveys every two years since.

This technical base underpins HKIAPS's monthly opinion poll product line, which continues to this day. According to a CUHK announcement^※, HKIAPS releases a monthly "Popularity of the HKSAR Government and the Chief Executive" survey; in the February 2025 wave, 13.5% of respondents expressed satisfaction with the HKSAR Government, and by May of the same year that figure had risen to 19.4%. Beyond satisfaction with governance, HKIAPS also conducts thematic surveys on issues such as youth development — according to an HKIAPS press release from June 2025^※, a poll published that month focused on young people's subjective perceptions of upward mobility. These monthly and thematic polls, together with policy commentaries by HKIAPS researchers published in outlets such as Bauhinia (e.g. a September 2025 piece on the Policy Address and the development of the Northern Metropolis), constitute HKIAPS's output as a policy think tank engaged in ongoing public debate.

# V. The Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey (CCPOS)

Beyond HKIAPS, the Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey (CCPOS), under the School of Journalism and Communication, is another important polling unit at CUHK. According to the official CCPOS introduction^※, CCPOS was founded in 2004 and provides high-quality research for academia, government, non-profit organisations and commercial clients, with research focused on media and society, journalism and democracy, and public attitudes towards press freedom and social issues. According to CCPOS's methodology note for its "Media Credibility" surveys^※, these surveys use computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), with random sampling among Hong Kong telephone numbers, targeting Cantonese-speaking residents aged 18 or above. Before 2019 only landline numbers were called; from 2019 the design switched to a mixed landline-plus-mobile mode.

CCPOS is the local partner for Hong Kong in the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, contributing each year to a cross-country comparable survey of news consumption and trust. According to CCPOS's page for the 2025 report^※, the 2025 survey covered 28 offline and 43 online news brands, with the public broadcaster RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) enjoying the highest trust among respondents at 71.3%, followed by NowTV News. The report also notes that overall public trust in the news industry declined slightly between 2024 and 2025, while trust in specific news brands generally rose, and the proportion paying for online news increased from 17.5% in 2024 to 22.2% in 2025. This kind of multi-year, cross-regionally comparable data is what sets CCPOS apart from one-off polls — it can continuously track changes in the media ecosystem.

# VI. The Hong Kong Quality of Life Index

The CUHK Hong Kong Quality of Life Index, developed by CUHK's Faculty of Social Science, is a composite index combining objective and subjective indicators to assess and monitor quality of life in Hong Kong. According to the relevant academic material^※ and the index document^※, the index uses 2002 as its base year and combines representative sample surveys with official statistics. According to the relevant documentation, since 2014 the number of sub-indices has increased from three to five (health, social, cultural & leisure, economic, and environmental), and the number of indicators from 21 to 23. According to a CUHK announcement^※, the index is released at the end of each year.

For the latest releases of each poll and index, and any adjustments to sub-indicators, please refer to the current versions published by HKIAPS and in CUHK announcements.

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# Part Three · Earth, Space, Ocean and Environment

CUHK has long been building capacity in remote sensing, Earth and space information, and marine and environmental science, built mainly around the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS), its satellite ground station, and the two CUHK satellites launched successively between 2024 and 2026.

# VII. The Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS) and the satellite ground station

According to the official ISEIS introduction^※, the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS) was founded in 2005, growing out of the Joint Laboratory of Geoinformation Science (JLGIS) established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CUHK. The Institute operates a ground receiving station for medium- and high-resolution satellite remote sensing. According to a CUHK announcement^※, the ground station was completed in 2005, supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and Hong Kong's Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC); the Fok Ying Tung Remote Sensing Science Building is connected to the ground station. It is one of the important satellite remote sensing research facilities in southern China, used for natural disaster monitoring, urban environment assessment and the like. For example, according to a CUHK announcement^※, ISEIS revealed through remote sensing analysis that about 80% of buildings were damaged in the Yushu earthquake. A more recent example is closer to home: according to a CUHK in Focus report^※, on the night of 7 September 2023 Hong Kong recorded its highest single-hour rainfall since records began in 1884; that same night the ISEIS team obtained high-resolution satellite data from the China National Space Administration, helping the government analyse flooding and sharing the information in real time with the Hong Kong Observatory and the Drainage Services Department, among others. ISEIS also runs several regional projects funded by the National Remote Sensing Centre of China (NRSCC), including the operation of the Hong Kong satellite ground receiving station, cross-border water security monitoring in Guangdong–Hong Kong, and air quality simulation in the Pearl River Delta.

# VIII. The first CUHK satellite

According to a CUHK announcement^※, ISEIS worked with the Earth Observation System and Data Centre of the China National Space Administration to drive the first CUHK satellite project. According to CUHK in Focus^※, the project grew out of a research programme funded in March 2023 by the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) — "Development of the CUHK satellite and integrated remote sensing technologies for near-real-time monitoring of landslides" — making it the first Earth observation satellite project funded by the Hong Kong government. The satellite was launched on 24 September from Shandong aboard a Smart Dragon-3 (捷龙三号) rocket, serving research directions including natural disaster monitoring, carbon neutrality and sustainable development.

# IX. CUHK Sat-1: the second satellite, carrying the DeepSeek large language model

After the first satellite reached orbit, the ISEIS team moved straight on to a second. According to a The Standard report^※ and a Macao News report^※, the second satellite, named CUHK Sat-1, was launched on 12 February 2026 by a Smart Dragon-3 carrier rocket from offshore waters of Guangdong. It carries a high-resolution multispectral remote sensing camera covering 10 bands from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared, with a spatial resolution of about 1 metre, serving environmental monitoring, smart transport and emergency response in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and major cities around the world.

What has drawn the most attention to CUHK Sat-1 is that it is the first satellite in the world to deploy the DeepSeek large language model on orbit. According to both reports citing the research team, the team lightweighted the DeepSeek model and restructured its workflows to fit the satellite platform's limited onboard computing power and the requirement for stable long-term operation in orbit, enabling the satellite to perform near-real-time target recognition and feature extraction on multispectral data in space — without first downloading raw data to a ground station for processing. The project is led by Professor Kwan Mei-po, Director of ISEIS, with Dr Ma Peifeng, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Resource Management and chief engineer of the satellite project, as technical lead. According to the reports, this is the first Earth observation satellite project funded under the "Aviation and Aerospace Technology Special" stream of the Innovation and Technology Support Programme run by the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong SAR Government, and the first time a local university has directly led the full cycle of an Earth observation satellite — from design and development to application. CUHK Sat-1, together with another satellite, the "Hong Kong Youth Science and Technology Innovation Satellite", is regarded as the starting point of Hong Kong's first low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation.

# X. Ocean and environmental research

The Simon F. S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, according to the laboratory's official webpage^※, conducts research spanning ecology, evolution, conservation, genomics, ecotoxicology and biotechnology, studying organisms from marine microbes to eukaryotes, with a particular focus on corals, seaweeds and crustaceans. Coral conservation has become a signature direction for the Laboratory in recent years: according to a CUHK announcement^※, the team discovered that denitrifying specialist bacteria living in symbiosis with corals can effectively remove nitrate pollution from sewage and agricultural runoff, helping corals survive in polluted waters; the findings were published in Nature Communications. The Laboratory also runs a coral restoration citizen science project with WWF: according to a CUHK in Touch report^※, volunteer divers collect damaged coral fragments, which are raised in the laboratory and later transplanted onto seabed platforms; of a batch of 40 rescued corals, 39 survived. Mangrove ecology is another signature direction: according to the related research report^※, a team working in this area found that the conversion factors previously used to estimate mangrove carbon stocks were biased, and that correcting them shows mangrove carbon stocks have been underestimated by about 23% — underscoring the role of mangroves in carbon sequestration and climate change response. CUHK also hosts several institutes and centres concerned with environmental, energy and carbon neutrality issues, which cross over with the marine and Earth science directions.

Editorial note: for the specific teams, findings and the latest list of units under the ocean and environment heading, please refer to the official CUHK pages.

From the ground station at the Fok Ying Tung Remote Sensing Science Building to two satellites launched in succession carrying different generations of technology, ISEIS has charted a clear technological upgrading path — "ground reception, then on-orbit processing" — over two decades: the first satellite proved the viability of a Hong Kong government–funded Earth observation satellite, and CUHK Sat-1 has taken a large language model directly onto a space platform.

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Related reading: Overview of research achievements, State key laboratories, Agricultural biotechnology, Research output and spin-off companies, the Art Museum and the Institute of Chinese Studies: an I. M. Pei–designed treasure house of Chinese art, with its foundations laid by Bei Shan Tang.

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