The number of connections between Indiana and China is not the challenge
The number of connections between Indiana and China is not the challenge. Making them smarter and thicker is. The state needs more connections to China in order to flourish economically. But we also need to connect the connections.
The Academy and China
People and trade are only part of the connections linking Indiana and China. The large state universities are renowned for their programs of study and research in China and Asia. This tradition is being focused by the Confucius Institutes that are partially funded by the Chinese government at IUPUI, Purdue, and Valparaiso. These Institutes are intended to stimulate and strengthen cultural and business ties for local communities and the universities.
IUPUI is fleshing out its strategic partnership with Sun Yat Sen University, while Indiana State University’s economics department uses its partnership with Liaoning University to enhance its clout in China and in Indiana.
The large universities are adding specialized programs such as IU’s Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business, or the Chinese Law Program at the law school of IU-Indianapolis.
Every year more of the state’s smaller state colleges and private universities add Chinese language programs. As can be seen with the Asian Programs and the Museum of Master Au Ho-nien at the University of Indianapolis, the state’s small schools and universities often have all-but-unknown gems of resources.
That “all-but-unknown” part could be trouble, however. It is not that the state lacks connections to China. But simply having connections may not be enough. If Richard Longworth, in his book Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism, is correct in his analysis of the Midwest’s hammering by the forces of globalization, Indiana’s culture and economy are poorly prepared for the 21st century. The state’s business and political leaders lack the nimbleness, the creativity, and the connections needed to take advantage of opportunities and avoid risks.
Business Schools and China
The state needs more connections to China in order to flourish economically. But we also need to connect the connections. It is widely acknowledged that universities and businesses must be better partners … thus the Kelley Schools of IU-Bloomington and IUPUI have rapidly blooming programs that place their students and recent graduates in Chinese companies as well as American firms doing business with China. Smaller business schools are trying to do the same, often with few resources or connections. But this is just a start: universities large and small have a wide range of connections with universities outside their business schools.
Arts, Cultural, Religious, and Social Organizations
Looking off campuses turns up many other connections to China: churches, ethnic clubs and associations, nonprofit organizations, museums, high school classes, adoptive families, and so on. Many carry on their work in isolation from organizations that share their interest. If Indiana is to take full advantage of opportunities, these connections must connect with each other, they should become thicker.
Just forming new connections and nurturing thicker connections between Indiana and China is just part of the challenge. Those connections have to be mobilized to solve problems, in Indiana and in China. The connections have to be smarter. Anne-Marie Slaughter imagines the networked future for the United States:
In this century, global power will increasingly be defined by connections — who is connected to whom and for what purposes. … Imagine, for example, a U.S. economy powered by green technology and green infrastructure. Communities of American immigrants from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East will share this new generation of products and services with villages and cities in their home countries. Innovation will flow in both directions. In the United States, universities will be able to offer courses in truly global classrooms, relying on their international students and faculty to connect with educational institutions abroad through travel, the Internet, and videoconferencing. Artists of all kinds will sit at the intersection of culture, learning, and creative energy. U.S. diplomats and other U.S. government officials will receive instant updates on events occurring around the world. They will be connected to their counterparts abroad, able to quickly coordinate preventive and problem-solving actions with a range of private and civic actors.
Indiana's challenge for the present and future is to create an infrastructure that allows us to do this here at home.
Sagamore Institute
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