Asian CHI Symposium: Bridging the Cultural and Structural Gap in HCI Research

TL;DR

The Asian CHI Symposium 2020 serves as a vital bridge between the burgeoning HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) communities in Asia and the premier global stage of the CHI conference. By implementing a unique shepherding process and creating a dedicated space for Asian sociocultural factors, the symposium aims to transform local insights into high-impact global scholarship while nurturing the next generation of researchers from underrepresented regions.

Background & Positioning

Historically, the HCI field has been dominated by North American and European perspectives. While mature Asian hubs like Japan and South Korea have vibrant domestic conferences (e.g., WISS, IPSJ), their high-quality work often fails to reach international venues due to publication barriers and differing academic cultures. The Asian CHI Symposium acts as a SOTA community-building catalyst, evolving from smaller regional workshops (since 2015) into a unified, large-scale venue within the ACM SIGCHI ecosystem.

Problem & Motivation: The "Visibility Gap"

The authors identify a two-fold problem:

1. Mature Communities (e.g., Japan, China): Produced creative solutions to hard problems but faced linguistic and procedural barriers to international dissemination.
2. Emerging Communities (Global South/Southeast Asia): Faced limited institutional support and financial resources, leading to a severe underrepresentation despite having unique research contexts.

The motivation behind the 2020 symposium was not just to "have a meeting," but to actively improve the quality of Asian research entries through targeted interventions.

Methodology: The Shepherding Model

The core innovation of the symposium is its structural approach to academic inclusion:

• The Shepherding Process: Unlike a standard "accept/reject" cycle, authors of accepted papers work with mentors (shepherds). This ensures that the final "Camera-Ready" versions meet the rigorous standards of the ACM Digital Library (DL).
• Showcase Tracks: To inspire newcomers, the symposium re-presents Asian research already accepted in main CHI tracks, providing a localized forum to discuss the "Asian context" of that work.
• Geographical Ambassadors: The organizers recruited "ambassadors" from underrepresented regions (e.g., Bangladesh, Philippines) to act as local nodes, increasing the participation of "newcomers" to 30%.

Figure 1: The chronological growth of Asian-focused HCI initiatives within CHI conferences.

Expected Impact & Key Results

The symposium designed its success metrics around Sustainability and Quality:

• Diversity Score: Targeted 40% participation from young researchers (students/PhDs) to ensure the field's longevity.
• Quality Uplift: The effectiveness of the shepherding process was measured by having shepherds rate the quality of submissions before and after the intervention, seeking a visible delta in "CHI-readiness."
• Regional Inclusion: Focused heavily on increased metrics for South and Southeast Asia, sectors typically marginalized in the broader "East Asian" tech discourse.

Figure 2: Representative visual of the symposium's collaborative spirit and institutional support.

Critical Insight & Conclusion

The Asian CHI Symposium proves that "inclusion" is a technical and pedagogical challenge, not just a social one. By focusing on the shepherding process, the organizers acknowledge that the "language of science" shouldn't be a gatekeeper for "quality of innovation."

Takeaway for the Field: For HCI to truly understand "human" factors, it must move beyond WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) populations. This symposium provides the blueprint for how regional communities can "level up" their research to meet global standards without losing their unique cultural identity.

Future Outlook: As the symposium scales, the hope is that these "Asian sociocultural factors" become standard variables in global HCI research, rather than niche topics for a satellite symposium.