Professor Yun-han Chu was born in 1956 in Taipei City. In 1973, he was admitted into the division of International Relations at the Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University. After graduating in 1977, he was admitted into the graduate program at the department where he studied under Professor Hu Fu, achieving a Master’s degree in 1979. Following graduation, he went to the United States for advanced study, achieving a PhD in Political Science from the University of Minnesota in 1987. After returning to Taiwan, he taught in the department until his death in 2023. Professor Chu was jointly appointed as a Distinguished Fellow of Institution of Political Science at Academia Sinica since 2002. In 2012, he was elected as an Academician of Academia Sinica.

In 2000, Professor Chu co-founded the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) with Professor Fu Hu. The ABS is a cross-national survey project headquartered in Taiwan that studies comparative democratization in Asia. In 2004, the Global Barometer Survey (GBS) was established by the ABS and four other regional survey programs. The Hu Fu Center for East Asia Democratic Studies at the College of Social Sciences, National Taiwan University currently serves as the GBS secretariat. The GBS covers more than 90 countries around the world and has become as well known as the World Values Survey in comparative survey research, making Taiw

Professor Chu taught at the department for 36 years, teaching courses including Comparative Government, Methodology of Political Science, Seminar on International Political Economy, and Seminar on the Socio-Political Changes of Mainland China. Professor Chu published extensively in both Chinese and English. His thinking developed over many decades of learning was expounded in two recent books, The Rise of China and the Reorganization of Global Order (《高思在雲》) and The Future of Globalization: Fission vs. Fusion (《全球化的裂解與再融合》). He was a keen observer of the dramatic political and economic changes taking place across the globe and offered profound advice to Taiwan in the midst of these changes. As well as his undoubted influence on the study of political science in the Greater China region, Professor Chu was the most visible Taiwanese political scientist in the international academic community. Professor Chu also made an enormous contribution to teaching and research in the department. His pioneering and innovative approach to the study of politics will set an example for many years to come.