On behalf of the editorial team, I welcome you to this special issue on public administration education in Asia. Back in January of last year, when we were thinking about this symposium, one of the goals was to share the extent to which public administration both as a discipline and as a primary vehicle for training the next generation of public servants grew in Asian countries over the last several decades. Given that many educators of public administration in Asian were educated in Western nations, curiosity arose as to whether PA theories in Western contexts would fit with the contexts in many parts of the Asian countries that boast rich diversity in culture, economies, and history. The obvious question is whether, or how, the customs embedded in many of the theoretical arguments taught inWestern nations can be applied to the vastly different cultural values and customs in Asian countries. Well, it is fair to say a lot has happened since the discussion took place then. For one, seeing how countries around the globe react to and deal with the current pandemic that is COVID-19, it is interesting to see culture having, not surprisingly, a definitive impact on making decisions to roll out even a seemingly simple government recommendation. For example, while wearing a face mask has been usual and customary for simple personal hygiene measures in countries like Japan and South Korea long before the pandemic started, and therefore did not quite require government announcement (or enforcement) to wear it, it took quite a while for others. In the US, it took more than two months since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first confirmed coronavirus case for the US federal government to recommend wearing it ultimately. As the CDC acknowledged, recommending that people wear face masks in public is a decision that is rare in theUnited States. It would be anyone’s guess as towhether the hesitance to wear face masks is because it evokes the images of outlaws in western movies or because wearing one was simply frowned upon anywhere since themassacre in the opening night of the film The Dark Knight Rises in the Aurora movie theater back in 2012. Clearly, culture appeared to be a significant factor (or perhaps a bit of hindrance for some) in seeing how public administration plays out differently in different countries, although all strived to practice good governance. What then is good governance? If we, for example, define governance as the process of decision-making and the process by which public institutions make

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超越国界的公共行政教育：对“独特治理”持开放态度

我代表编辑团队欢迎您阅读本期关于亚洲公共行政教育的特刊。早在去年 1 月，当我们考虑这次研讨会时，其中一个目标是分享公共行政作为一门学科和作为培训下一代公务员的主要工具在亚洲国家发展的程度。最近几十年。鉴于亚洲的许多公共行政教育者都在西方国家接受过教育，人们好奇西方背景下的公共行政理论是否适合亚洲许多拥有丰富文化、经济和历史多样性的国家的背景。显而易见的问题是，是否或如何，西方国家教授的许多理论论证中所蕴含的习俗可以应用于亚洲国家截然不同的文化价值观和习俗。好吧，可以说自从讨论发生以来发生了很多事情。一方面，看看全球各国如何对当前的 COVID-19 大流行做出反应和处理，有趣的是，文化对制定甚至看似简单的政府建议的决策产生了决定性的影响，这并不奇怪。例如，虽然在大流行开始之前很久在日本和韩国等国家，为了简单的个人卫生措施而戴口罩已成为普遍和习惯，因此并不完全需要政府宣布（或强制执行）戴口罩，但需要相当长的时间一会儿给别人。在美国，自美国疾病控制与预防中心宣布首例确诊冠状病毒病例以来，美国联邦政府最终建议佩戴它，历时两个多月。正如疾病预防控制中心承认的那样，建议人们在公共场合戴口罩在美国是罕见的决定。任何人都猜测是否戴口罩犹豫不决是因为它唤起了西方电影中不法分子的形象，还是因为自从电影《黑暗骑士崛起》中的奥罗拉电影首映之夜发生大屠杀以来，戴口罩在任何地方都不受欢迎早在 2012 年，文化似乎是一个重要因素（或者对某些人来说可能是一个障碍），以了解公共行政在不同国家的表现如何不同，尽管所有人都努力实践善治。那么什么是善治？例如，如果我们将治理定义为决策过程和公共机构做出决策的过程