Responding to China’s booming economic growth, Miami bolsters its presence in Asia.
by Betsa Marsh

In Chinese corporate culture, the most senior executive enters the room first. By mid-21st century, the custom may prove especially apt as many analysts predict that China herself will be entering any room she wants as the world’s leading economic power.

With an economy growing at nearly 11 percent a year, the Middle Kingdom has leapfrogged into urbanization and globalization, often at the cost of her citizens’ social services, health, and environment. Commercial China, on every newscast and in every magazine, is white-hot, and her leaders seem to have jettisoned the traditional value of zhongyong, a tenet of common-sense moderation, in favor of all-out industrialization.

“It’s almost like the Wild West was at one time,” suggests Roger Jenkins, dean of Miami’s Richard T. Farmer School of Business and professor of marketing. “There’s a lot of future for those who recognize it. It’s a gold rush mentality, and all the companies and universities want to be there.”

Miami, too, is bolstering initiatives in Asia and strengthening ties with universities and corporations. “We’re taking a multi-prong approach, as a university should,” says Jeffrey Herbst, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

First, Miami has created a new major this year, East Asian languages and culture. It’s also doubled the number
of Mandarin 101 slots, and they’re all filled, indicating how seriously students are taking these initiatives. Second, the business school has a new China business program. Third, Miami leaders are hoping to build and participate in a learning center in Shanghai.

“And this isn’t all,” Herbst adds. “We’re hoping to announce even more initiatives in the future, to South Asia and especially India. Asia is especially important to our students because their careers will span most of the 21st century. China has more than a billion people and is economically dynamic, and broader Asia is strategically important, both for the amount of conflict in the region and the potential opportunity for the U.S. In a perfect world, all faculty and students would have a semester in China.”

As author Thomas Friedman would say, “The world is flat,” even in Oxford, Ohio. Jenkins, who put a copy of Friedman’s book about globalization in each business faculty mailbox, says, “Ohio and the Midwest are not competing at the international level, with the exception of Procter & Gamble, and the only way to do that is to know Chinese and be able to operate and trade in these areas. Our efforts are central to that.”

One of the keystones of Asian outreach is the success of Miami’s overall international education program. Miami already ranks among the top schools nationwide for the number of undergraduates studying abroad, according to a recent report by the Institute for International Education. A total of 1,360 undergraduates and 74 graduate students earned academic credit abroad in 2004-05, an increase of 126 students - or 10 percent - over the previous year.

Many choose to go to Miami’s campus in Differdange, Luxembourg, but students have also ventured to the Czech Republic, Russia, Ghana, Chile, and New Zealand.

During their four years, nearly 30 percent of Miami undergrads study overseas. Still, Herbst formed a task force two years ago to increase that number to 50 percent “as soon as possible.”

That 50-percent figure would be about 2,000 students, “and we jokingly say ‘2,009 students studying abroad by 2009,’ Miami’s 200th anniversary,” says David Keitges, director of international education.

Most American students still go to Western Europe, but faculty are encouraging them to consider Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. International studies semester and summer programs are carefully planned around Miami credit requirements for on-time graduations.

“Since Sept. 11, 25 percent more Americans are studying abroad,” Keitges says. “That may seem counterintuitive, but there has been a big surge.” At Miami, he cites the doubling of Mandarin 101 sessions, the reintroduction of Korean, and a steady demand for Japanese as indicators of student interest in Asia.

Miami has numerous exchange agreements that provide opportunities for students and faculty to explore language, culture, and fields of study on site. In China, exchange agreements have been signed with Peking University for business and Liaoning Normal University for education. The business school dean plans to sign with Fudan University in Shanghai this fall.

“The major business schools, the Harvards and Whartons, forged key relationships with major business schools in China 10 years ago, so Miami is not a pioneer,” Jenkins says. “We are the early majority with a presence in China.”

Manufacturing’s Yin to Marketing’s Yang By Betsa Marsh For entrepreneur Richard Wong ’81, the ancient concept of yin yang may offer guidance for Westerners approaching the manufacturing powerhouse of China. “You don’t go yin yin or yang yang, but you take your strength to their strength. China is a third-world country that is all about manufacturing. But manufacturing only creates wealth if someone can buy it, and the only way they know to buy it is through marketing and branding. “The Chinese don’t understand Western marketing and branding, and I don’t think they’ll develop it in the next 50 years because of the cultural background. So if Americans took something they’re very good at — marketing and branding — over to Chinese manufacturing, it could be tremendous. “Miami also could bring a course on entrepreneurship to them — that’s what the people want. True entrepreneurship, like Hewlett-Packard, starting a business in the garage. That would be incredibly successful. Chinese have great ideas and will work 50 hours a day. They just don’t have any money.” Wong’s insights come from culture, family, and his own business venture, chinablue. Born in Shanghai into two great industrial clans, Wong was a boy when his family petitioned to leave during Mao Zedong’s bloody Cultural Revolution. His grandfather settled them in Toledo, and Wong, after earning a Miami degree in environmental design, headed to San Francisco for a career in architecture. All the while, he watched his mother and grandmother at the stove, preparing the sauces that are the secret to the food he loves. He started making big batches and, by 1995, jettisoned architecture for his own brand of Shanghai flavors. Today, chinablue has 30 items and the company is branching into housewares, stores, and hotel/restaurants, the first being negotiated now in Las Vegas. “I wanted to show the beauty, style, and culture of Shanghai, the city of industry, and not the stereotype that everyone is from Chinatown.” This year Wong launched his own cookbook, Modern Asian Flavors: A Taste of Shanghai, printing 20,000 copies — in Hong Kong, naturally. “The megatrends used to be Paris to New York, but now the gateways are Shanghai and LA. “Mandarin is almost the language of choice because everyone’s facing east. English is mandatory as the second language. “The Chinese already think they’re smarter than Westerners, and they know they can work twice as hard. Those are things Chinese will never tell you. “People can’t compete with China. What they should do is bring their strength. So the faster we bring marketing to them, the better.”

In Korea, participating schools are Yonsei University in Wonju, the University of Seoul, and the Korean National University of Arts. Japan’s Kansai Gaidai University near Osaka is a Miami exchange partner as well.

“Most of these have a handful of students back and forth each year,” Keitges says, “but the new Petters Group Shanghai Learning Center will mean that 60 students or more each semester can study in China.”

The residential center in Shanghai will be a hub for business and academic study and training for students not just from Miami but from universities across the U.S. It is the brainchild of Thomas Petters, CEO of Petters Group Worldwide in Minnetonka, Minn., who has also committed $4 million to Miami to create the Jennifer Petters Chair in Asian Business, named after his daughter. A national search is on to fill that post.

“The interchange of Chinese and American faculty and students will build individual capabilities for working in an international environment,” Petters says. “Our business will benefit, too, from the interchange and robust dialogue — in multiple languages — that will exist in the halls of the center.”

Such a safe, modern residential base for students is an essential component of the new China business program, which has 30 students enrolled already and will be an overlay to such majors as finance, marketing, and management.

“Over the years of having students and faculty in Luxembourg, we realized that establishing family stays is important for blending cultures,” Jenkins says. “In China, it’s not possible to do home stays because there is not an adequate level of comfort and safety.” The Shanghai learning center, then, will offer safe lodging for students and faculty, as well as modern classrooms.

During four years of intensive language and cultural study, students in the China business program will learn Mandarin at Miami during their first year, then go to the learning center for a summer immersion course, which will include field trips, sessions with China experts, and celebrations of Chinese holidays and customs.

After a second year of Mandarin back in Oxford, students will return for one semester at a university in China, followed by a summer internship with a company engaged in China-related commerce. China business students will complete their work with a Sinocentric senior capstone project.

Students from other disciplines, such as art, architecture, education, and engineering, will also use the learning center as their base for study in China. The goal is for all divisions and campuses to be represented.

Unlike in China, Miami’s ties are already strong in Korea because of alumni there.

The just-retired president of Seoul National University, Unchan Chung MA ’72, is a business school grad. Higgin Kim ’69 is CEO of Byucksan Engineering and Construction in Seoul and president of Miami’s alumni association in Korea. He has given $1 million for the Higgin Kim Asian Business Program, enhancing the Pacific Rim summer- and semester-long exchange programs with universities in Asia.

Beyond China and Korea, Jenkins is looking south. “Vietnam has lots to offer in the future, and I would like us to be one of the first major American business schools with connectivity there.”

To Vietnam’s west, the burgeoning biotech center of India beckons. “We understand strategically how important India is,” Jenkins says. “We’re still discussing what relationship to build with universities there.”

The changes in India in the past four years astonish Barnali Gupta, associate professor of economics and a native of Kolkata (Calcutta). So much so that she worked with the School of Business and international education to organize a two-week field study this summer, introducing 16 students to the complexity of life and business in India.

The group traveled to Hyderabad with its dozens of self-sufficient research parks popping up. Then it was on to New Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, and the Taj Mahal. Government speakers addressed the group, while Dr. Varaprasad Reddy, CEO of Shantha Biotech, shared his vision for the company and for India.

“The students did an amazing job of trying to assimilate the diaspora that is India in such a short time,” Gupta says.

One of the legacies of the British Empire in India, of course, is English as the language of government and commerce. But for most other Asian programs, the vital connective tissue is language.

“There is renewed interest in language, from grade school on,” says Robert DiDonato, professor and chair of German, Russian, and East Asian languages. “You can hear the freshmen at orientation, ‘Where’s the Chinese table?’ ”

With 125 students enrolled in Mandarin 101, DiDonato has added two full-time visiting faculty, as well as one part-time visiting instructor from Taiwan who will preside over the Chinese floor in the theme-learning community. “Students will be doing Chinese activities — we want them to eat, speak, read, write, and breathe Chinese.”

Arabic is second in demand, followed by Korean, reinstated after a 10-year hiatus. Japanese enrollment is strong, with an upsurge in Hebrew, and Hindi knocking at the door.

“The interest in Chinese is overwhelming, partly because of what’s happening in the news globally and partly because parents are encouraging their children to learn Chinese,” DiDonato says. No one seems deterred by Mandarin’s reputation. “I never say a language is difficult. It depends on your interest, application, and motivation.”

To the provost, language is the linchpin.

“If the next generation doesn’t know Chinese, it will be at a competitive disadvantage,” Herbst says. “It is very related to the economy of the 21st century. If we get this right, the opportunities for our country will be tremendous. If we get it wrong, the downside will be astonishing also.”

Bridging the East-West Gap
By Betsa Marsh

It was just one Chinese factory after another, two or three a day, up to 50 in six weeks. That’s what most Miami students, trailing in the wake of Walter Arnold, associate professor of political science, saw during a summer session in the late 1990s. What Chris Folino ’97 saw was his future.

Folino’s field study dovetailed with his father’s work in China. “I visited him in Hong Kong and knew ‘This is where I want to live.’ ”

The economics major, with a minor in Chinese language and Asian studies, took another bit of advice from Arnold: Go to Taiwan and become fluent. “After graduation, I was home six hours before I left for Taiwan University.”

The course meant four hours of classes and eight hours of study a day, six days a week, for two years: “It was brutal.” But when Folino reported for a job at Ohio Wholesale in Seville, Ohio, near his native Strongsville, he was fluent in the language the company needed in order to have its home decor and gift items made in China.

After a year of learning the basics of U.S. business, he was back in his adopted Hong Kong, liaising with Chinese factory managers and wholesalers in the States. After several more Ohio companies hired his multicultural skills, Folino launched Newvision-Asia in 2003.

His firm, growing at 30 percent each year, bridges the gap between East and West, handling everything from checking e-mails for idiomatic language to ensuring that factories use no child or prison labor.

“Anyone can go to Asia now, with trading companies adding huge markups and hiding who the factory is. We monitor the project, find the factory, and oversee it in an atmosphere of total transparency. We make communications easier and pricing better.” His U.S. clients are commissioning such diverse items as Cedar Point amusement park souvenirs and alarm system components.

“The days of the expat package, with paid housing, food, and flights home, plus obscene amounts of money, are long gone. People who work here now have to be fluent and be prepared to start from the ground up.

“I’d recommend students take one of the Miami programs and go to the country they’re interested in before they decide to learn the language and move,” says Folino, whose wife is a Hong Kong native. “It’s OK to not stay if it’s not for you.”

Folino offers advice to any student or alum thinking about a career in China at chrisf@newvision-asia.com.

Betsa Marsh is a Cincinnati-based journalist who has covered stories on every continent. She’s slurped noodles, sailed in a junk, and had her fortune told in the Soothsayer’s Hall at Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple in Hong Kong.

Back to the Miamian Magazine Fall 2006 Web page