ABOUT HARLEY CHENG
I investigate how institutions shape the choices people make in everyday life.
My interest in public policy began with a simple habit: questioning the distance between what institutions promise and what people actually experience. Through interviews, field investigation, research, and writing across Asia, I have explored how governance, law, trust, migration, and economic opportunity affect different communities.
Comparative public policy · Field research · Political economy
Nepal · 2026
MY INTELLECTUAL JOURNEY
The Places That Changed the Questions I Ask
Hong Kong · 2023
Asking how institutions remain accountable
An early interview about elections, the rule of law, civil society, transparency, and accountability led me to ask how political institutions gain legitimacy. It made institutional trust feel less abstract and more like a question of everyday credibility.
Taiwan · 2024
Discovering the gap between law and implementation
My AP Research project on e-cigarette regulation and digital marketplaces shifted my focus from whether a law exists to whether institutions can enforce it effectively. The gap between formal rules and lived practice became a central research question.
Sri Lanka · 2025
Learning that crises have multiple interpretations
Interviews with a lawyer, business owner, banker, and political leader taught me to compare perspectives rather than search for one definitive explanation. The same crisis was lived, explained, and judged differently across professional worlds.
Nepal · 2026
Connecting opportunity, trust, and the future
Conversations about brain drain, women’s employment, refugee identity, and political change showed me that people judge institutions partly by whether they can imagine a future within them. Opportunity and trust are deeply connected.
THE QUESTION BEHIND EVERY INVESTIGATION
How do institutions translate policy into lived experience?
Trust
Why do people believe some institutions and doubt others?
Implementation
Why do policies that appear strong on paper fail in practice?
Opportunity
What makes people remain, leave, participate, or disengage?
HOW MY THINKING CHANGED
I became less interested in finding the “correct” perspective.
The more people I interviewed, the more I realized that contradiction was not a weakness in my research. It was often the most valuable evidence.
I initially approached political issues by deciding whether a policy was good or bad. Fieldwork showed me that a lawyer, business owner, politician, refugee, and student may experience the same policy differently. I now compare multiple voices before forming conclusions. This method has made me more comfortable with uncertainty and more attentive to context.
Questions I am still investigating
Why Field Observation Matters
“Students are surrounded by short-form entertainment that demands little patience. What we call ‘laziness’ may not simply be a lack of intelligence. People needed to a part of their world and observe to sustained attention and deeper thinking.” — Professor Kapil Adhikari