Universities help build bridge across Pacific

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There is no knowledge that is not power.”

Missouri State University is applying that sentiment overseas.

The university has set up several programs in China, attempting to share American information about agriculture and science and tap into vast resources of Chinese knowledge.

The centerpiece of the MSU presence is its branch campus at Liaoning Normal University in Dalian, China.

Jim Baker, MSU vice president for research and economic development, is in charge of the school’s China programs. He said the Dalian campus offers a two-year degree focused on business, through the MSU West Plains campus, with the option of completing a bachelor of science program through the main campus in Springfield.

MSU has sent 33 students from Missouri to the China campus, including two who are there this semester.

But the school’s presence goes beyond the Dalian campus.

“Through Qingdao University, we have a faculty and student exchange program,” Baker said. “That’s where we have some faculty that we hire to teach classes (there) in English, and then we have College of Business (Administration) professors that go there.”

The university also has partnerships with several agricultural schools in China, as well as a program with Liaoning University of Chinese Medicine that studies why ancient Chinese remedies are effective.

Drury University also is involved in a China program, through its membership in the Associated New American Colleges Study Abroad Consortium. The program allows students to spend a fall semester in Chengdu, China, studying literature, history and tai chi.

Other area universities, including Evangel and Southwest Baptist, also participate in study abroad programs in China through various college coalitions.

These educational programs will help to bridge a gap between the two cultures – a gap that hinders the potential for economic growth, according to Brad Bodenhausen of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

“There are differences in the business culture, but there are also similarities. The (university) presence there really gives us an advantage in navigating those differences,” he said. “You need to have a contact there that looks out for your interests – someone who speaks Chinese, knows the culture and represents you.”

Bridging the gap

Ma Keyong is native to China and teaches the Chinese language to students at MSU’s Springfield campus. He said that in the three months he’s been here, he’s been amazed by the lack of connection between the two countries – a problem student exchanges can help to alleviate.

“People ask me questions that show that they don’t know much about the real China; they ask about things that happened many years ago,” he said. “We’re offered a story and a picture about the other country that’s quite different than what you see when you come here. If you come here and really see it with your own eyes and talk with people you come across, you will tell the people back home a more exact picture of real American life and education.”

Southwest Missouri is trying to bridge that gap. Ma said groups like the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce are doing a good job in trying to get the word out about opportunities across the Pacific.

“The chamber knows quite a lot about China and is doing a lot to introduce the business world to China and China to the business world,” he said. “In that way, this area is quite ahead of other parts of the United States.”

The exchange of ideas and people between America and China helps to accentuate the differences in the two countries’ ideas about business and life.

Randell Wallace, president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, was part of the chamber’s delegation that crossed the Pacific in April. He said the students they met, and the discussions they had, were “truly amazing.”

“They came out to talk to Westerners, and they wanted to discuss business issues, quality of life issues, philosophical issues and religious issues, which really surprised us,” he said. “It was a wake-up call for many of us. They’re very bright, and we’re going to have to be on top of our game to compete with the students that China is producing.”

Chuck Woolley of Kingsley Group agreed.

“When you think about their motivation, it certainly surpasses the motivation of our students,” he said. “They’re bettering their lives and transforming them. That’s the real challenge of our educational system – to provide that motivation.”

Click below for more in the series on business opportunities in China:

Tapping the China market

Business philosophies influence each other

Local companies searching for trade options in China