Navigating China Family Panel Studies (CFPS): An Unofficial Guide For Non-Chinese Speaker

As a bilingual undergraduate user of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), I have noticed that the English documentations are very scattered across multiple portals, which might be a barrier for non-Chinese speaking researchers attempting to use the data. Here is a navigation guide I compiled to hopefully mitigate some language barrier.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with CFPS or Peking University, this guide is unofficial and is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. I will however try my best to provide the most accurate information possible.

Last Update 27 August.

Introduction of CFPS (quoted from the website)

“China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) is a nationally representative, biennial longitudinal survey of Chinese communities, families, and individuals launched in 2010 by the Institute of Social Science Survey (ISSS) of Peking University, China. The CFPS is designed to collect individual-, family-, and community-level longitudinal data in contemporary China. The studies focus on the economic, as well as the non-economic, wellbeing of the Chinese population, with a wealth of information covering such topics as economic activities, education outcomes, family dynamics and relationships, migration, and health.”

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Home Page

https://www.isss.pku.edu.cn/cfps/ or https://www.isss.pku.edu.cn/cfps/en/index.htm

This is the page that appears when you search China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Do note that the two language versions are seemingly hosted on two separate websites, and I believe they are not updated in parallel. Some documents and information are only available in the Chinese website and not the English website.

I will illustrate the discrepancies using side-by-side comparison table in the following. I will point out major discrepancies that will likely affect non-Chinese speakers’ navigation of the panel data, instead of pointing out every single tiny difference.

Discrepancies in “News 相关新闻” sub-page

In general, the English website covers selective summary highlighting key data releases and international engagement; while the Chinese website includes comprehensive internal/domestic record of all CFPS activities.

Discrepancies in “Documentation 文档中心” sub-page

Discrepancies in “FAQ 常见问题” sub-page

Discrepancies in “Contact Us 联系我们” sub-page

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The Most Efficient Navigation

For non-Chinese speaking users, the most efficient path will probably be:

Register Directly at the Data Centre

URL: https://cfpsdata.pku.edu.cn/#/home

· Why? The English and Chinese versions here are better synchronized than the main website.

· What You’ll Find:

• User’s Manual
• Measures/Scales documentation
• Coding Schemes for Text Data
• Constructed Variables documentation
• Flowcharts for Questionnaires (logic flow)

All of these documents are in Chinese – but they are available here, unlike on the main English website.

Bonus: The Data Centre also contains tutorial videos for data users (also in Chinese).

Main Portals of CFPS

Summary Table

Hopefully it helps! Please tell me if I made any mistakes.