On March 26, 2011, Gi-Wook Shin, director of the Stanford Korean Studies Program (Stanford KSP) and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, presented the keynote address "Teaching Korea to Korean American Students" at a gathering of two hundred Korean-language instructors organized by the Korean Schools Association of Northern California (KSANC).

Shin pointed to the connection between language and identity, emphasizing the importance of developing Korean-language skills in children of Korean ethnicity growing up in the United States. He noted the dual significance of having a strong, well-rounded Korean American identity: one rooted in a solid understanding of Korean language, culture, and history, with also a firm sense of being American.

KSANC is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing Korean-language instruction and programming about Korean culture and history to children and adults. Through its outreach activities, Stanford KSP helps to support the mission of KSANC and numerous other non-profit education organizations throughout Northern California.

"The bigger vision of the AP Scholars Program is that the connections live on after the two years, and that they are fruitful because of the friendships and better understanding established during the discussions." 

-Thomas Fingar
Oksenberg/Rohlen Distinguished Fellow at FSI

Former President Gerhard Casper launched the Asia-Pacific Scholars Program (AP Scholars Program) in 1997 to strengthen and expand Stanford University's ties with Asia. The program was loosely modeled on Oxford University's Rhodes Scholarship. Led by renowned China scholar Michel Oksenberg of the Asia/Pacific Research Center (the predecessor organization of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center), the first program brought together a highly diverse class of nineteen graduate students from the United Kingdom, the United States, and numerous countries in Asia. The AP Scholars Program thrived under Oksenberg's direction, but fell dormant for nearly a decade following his death in 2001.

Thomas Fingar, the Oksenberg/Rohlen Distinguished Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, re-launched the AP Scholars Program in September 2010. "I am delighted to have been asked to revive it," states Fingar. In keeping with its original design, the two-year program is open to Stanford doctoral students from Asia-Pacific countries and to those studying issues related to the region. The twelve current participants come from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and the United States, and are studying disciplines ranging from art history to engineering. In the future, incoming students will be invited to participate in the program, creating a dynamic cohort of new and continuing students.

The AP Scholars Program serves as a forum for discussing significant and often-sensitive issues relating to the Asia-Pacific region, and for building a strong academic and professional network linking Asia and Stanford. In its current format, it is designed to broaden students' understanding of how U.S. government officials think about and make policy decisions on Asia, and to provide insight into how American scholars study Asia in relation to global issues. Additionally, it offers the significant opportunity for students from different countries and academic disciplines to dialogue not only with one another, but also with leading academics and former senior-level U.S. government officials at Stanford. 

"This is really an incredible enrichment opportunity," emphasizes Fingar. Students meet once a month during the academic year for a two-hour dinner seminar featuring a presentation and a question-and-answer session with a guest speaker. These informal sessions offer a rare and a highly insightful window into the experience of individuals who have been involved in recent decades with key policy decisions about Asia and with major research shaping understanding of Asia in the United States. After each presentation, the speaker and students engage in candid dialogue.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, students will hear from academic experts on climate change, nuclear proliferation, and food and energy security, and from former senior U.S. government officials who served in the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the National Intelligence Council, and Congress. Fingar leads a wrap-up discussion after each presentation, during which the students provide their own perspectives on the issues presented. In this environment, difficult topics are discussed in an open, and thoughtful manner. There are no readings or other outside preparation required to participate in the AP Scholars Program.

Waraporn Tongprasit, a student with the Department of Management Science and Engineering who is originally from Thailand, appreciates the different issues discussed during the presentation sessions, and the opportunity for networking that the program offers. "Through the AP Scholars Program, I am learning about political, social, and economic issues in my home country and region, and about the perspective of U.S. scholars and the U.S. government on these issues," she says. "I also have an opportunity to establish connections with other students from the Asia-Pacific region who are experts in many different areas."

Yezhou Shi, a Materials Science and Engineering student from China, values the unique chance to speak so candidly with prominent scholars and former government officials, and to hear about their experience with major global issues and events. "These are stories that I could probably never know without attending the AP Scholar Program seminars—these are really inside stories," he says. Shi also enjoys the opportunity to speak with students from different countries on issues that he would not normally feel comfortable discussing. "In daily conversation, I would not bring up some of these issues unless it was with a really close friend," he stresses. "[In the program,] of course, I pay attention to what I say, but I think that everyone understands that we are there to discuss important issues."

Fingar is optimistic as he looks to the future of the program, and its continuing impact after the current class of students completes it in 2012. "The bigger vision of the AP Scholars Program is that the connections live on after the two years," he says, "and that they are fruitful because of the friendships and better understanding established during the discussions."

Pacific Vision: The inaugural AP Scholars class
 

The film Pacific Vision was released in 1998 to commemorate the AP Scholars Program's inaugural year. A clip from the film, featuring interviews with Casper and Oksenberg, is available here courtesy the Stanford University Archives. 
 

In September, Crystal Chang and Jeremy M. Menchik will join the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) as its Shorenstein Fellows for the 2011–2012 academic year. 

Crystal Chang, a PhD candidate with the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, is currently completing her dissertation on China's growing independent automotive industry. Her research examines Chinese automakers alongside historical case studies from Japan and Korea. During her time at Shorenstein APARC, she will expand her dissertation to include a comparative study of India's contemporary automotive industry, which, like China's, has experienced domestic and international success. She will also continue research that she is currently conducting about China's private energy sector, with a focus on the solar power industry. Chang holds an MPIA degree in international management from the University of California, San Diego, and a BA in international relations from Stanford University.

Jeremy Menchik, a PhD candidate with the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), is finishing his dissertation, which poses the question: what is the basis for religious tolerance in Indonesia, and why does it sometimes break down? He addresses this question through a study of Indonesian civil society and of three of the country's largest and oldest Islamic organizations: Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, and Persatuan Islam. Menchik has conducted extensive field research in Indonesia during the course of his graduate studies. At Shorenstein APARC, he will prepare his dissertation for publication and develop related projects on Islamic law, political tolerance, and political symbolism in Indonesian elections. Menchik holds an MA in political science from UW-Madison and a BA, also in political science, from the University of Michigan.

Established in 2002 through the generosity of Walter H. Shorenstein, the Shorenstein Fellowship in Contemporary Asia is an exciting opportunity for junior scholars to spend a year at Shorenstein APARC, engaging with other scholars and experiencing the world-class resources—ranging from libraries to events—that Stanford University has to offer. Shorenstein APARC looks forward to welcoming Chang and Menchik to the center in the coming academic year.

After completing the postdoc program, I landed a dream academic job, where I can continue to research health policy with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Despite its relatively short period, my postdoc experience also helped expand the scope of my research and the breadth of professional network.

-Dr. Young Kyung Do 
Former Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow (2008–09)

The Asia Health Policy Program (AHPP) at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) is pleased to announce that Ang Sun has been awarded the 2011–12 Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Sun is currently completing her PhD in development economics at Brown University. She earned bachelor degrees in computer science and economics from Peking University in 2002. Sun's research focuses on resource allocation within households, especially in developing Asia. In her dissertation, she provides empirical evidence that the 2001 divorce law in China empowered women and decreased sex-selective abortion. She has also studied multi-generational living arrangements and household decisions about fertility and labor-force participation.

We also are delighted to announce that Yuki Takagi, currently completing her PhD in government at Harvard University, will be the 2012-13 Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow. Takagi is completing her dissertation on the political economy of insurance provision and intergenerational family transfers, such as nursing and childcare, focusing on East Asia. She has earned bachelor of economics and master of law degrees from the University of Tokyo. Takagi will join Shorenstein APARC after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Politics at Princeton University in 2011–12.

The research of these two postdoctoral fellows will complement the Shorenstein APARC research initiative on demographic change in East Asia.

The Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship is designed to strengthen research in the field of Asian comparative health policy and demographic change, drawing from junior scholars in a variety of disciplines, including: demography, sociology, political science, economics, law, anthropology, public policy, health services research, and related fields. Fellows participate in AHPP events and collaborative research while completing their own projects on health policy or the social and economic implications of population aging in Asia.

Previous postdoctoral fellows in the program have accepted faculty positions in Asia and the United States. Dr. Young Kyung Do (2008–09), who earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is now an assistant professor at the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School. Dr. Brian Chen (2009–10), who earned his PhD in 2009 from the University of California, Berkeley, has accepted a faculty position at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. The current postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Qiulin Chen, earned his PhD from Peking University. He studies the political economy of China's health reforms as well as how China compares to other countries in terms of public and private intergenerational transfers (the China component of the National Transfer Accounts project).

Thoughts from the postdoctoral fellows

Dr. Do notes that "given that the primary goal of most postdoc programs is to help fresh PhD graduates prepare a successful academic career, my postdoc experience at Stanford['s Shorenstein] APARC has proved to be effective in my professional career thus far. After completing the postdoc program, I landed a dream academic job, where I can continue to research health policy with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Despite its relatively short period, my postdoc experience also helped expand the scope of my research and the breadth of professional network."

Dr. Chen adds that "the postdoctoral position opened many more doors than I had coming directly out of my Ph.D. program... The support I received was phenomenal... The wider Stanford community affords the postdoctoral fellow the opportunity to meet and interact with leading scholars of virtually any field in the arts and sciences."

The new postdoctoral fellows anticipate similarly stimulating experiences at Stanford:  Takagi says she is "delighted and excited" to accept the fellowship, and Sun emphasizes that she appreciates "the opportunity to spend one year at such a prestigious place as the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford, which will be a very nice start of my research career."

Go out there and change the world.
- Tim Draper, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

"Whatever the world looks like now, it will change," said Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), during the keynote session at the March 1 Entrepreneurship in the Global Marketplace seminar, organized by the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) with sponsorship from Alibaba.com, the first in a series of seminars by the Schwarzenegger Emerging Entrepreneur Initiative. Concluding his remarks, Draper urged the overflow audience: "Go out there and change the world."

Draper and the nine other participants shared different perspectives on entrepreneurship, but a key message underlying all of the presentations was that the world is a dynamic, rapidly changing place where entrepreneurs can succeed by anticipating and responding to global trends. In doing so, many suggested, it is also possible to change the world—for the better. The participants all concurred that China is one of the key places in the world—now and in the future—to do business, representing a challenging but a vast frontier of opportunity.

Global demographic trends are a major factor that venture capitalists consider when making investments. Addressing the worldwide aging phenomenon, which is particularly acute in Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan and China, Draper explained how DFJ has invested in a company that manufactures videogame-like devices designed to improve cognition, noting the growing market for such devices that help keep cognitive health apace with a longer life span. Hans Tung, a partner with the Shanghai-based venture capital firm Qiming Ventures, described how his firm is tracking the large segment of China's population living in small cities away from commercial hubs. These members of the populace, who prefer to shop online where they can find a wider selection of goods than in their local shopping malls, are quickly becoming a driving force in China's e-commerce market.

It is China's e-commerce and other Internet firms—fueled by the explosion of Internet users—that carry increasingly significant weight in China's domestic and the global economy. Duncan Clark, a visiting scholar at SPRIE, presented related findings from SPRIE's China 2.0: The Rise of a Digital Superpower research initiative, which is led by Marguerite Gong Hancock, associate director of SPRIE. China 2.0, explores the conditions generating such rapid growth of the Internet, and investigates questions surrounding the possible global implications of it. Clark noted that as China's three largest Internet firms—search engine Baidu, instant-messaging service Tencent, and e-commerce portal Taobao—expand, domestic competition will not only intensify, but move further into the global economic arena. The "big three" firms are already ranked among the top 20 Internet sites in the world based on site traffic. According to Clark, the key question in the future for U.S. companies will be how to partner with Chinese companies in order to insure their own growth.

Riding the global wave of innovation and entrepreneurship, Jonathan Ross Shriftman, co-founder of Solé Bicycle Company, and Ryder Fyrwald, vice president of global operations at the Kairos Society, have discovered opportunities to effect positive change despite a global climate of intense economic competition. Shriftman, a recent University of Southern California (USC) graduate, described the lessons that he has learned through his company's quest to manufacture low-cost, quality fixed-gear bicycles that provide a stylish, alternate form of transportation. Despite funding and language challenges, Shriftman and his partner succeeded in connecting with a manufacturer in China through Alibaba.com, and have sold nearly 800 bicycles to date. Fyrwald, who is still an undergraduate at USC's Marshall School of Business, explained the philosophy behind the Kairos Society, an international network of student entrepreneurs who seek to solve world issues through entrepreneurship and innovation. He cited the example of WaterWalla, a company that has developed, among other technologies, a low-cost water purification device for use by urban slum dwellers.

From the perspective of seasoned venture capitalists Draper and Tung and emerging entrepreneurs Shriftman and Fyrwald, the message at Entrepreneurship in the Global Marketplace was clear: the way to succeed in a rapidly changing world is to react promptly—and creatively—to global trends. And, as Shriftman suggested, it is possible to "do well by doing good," and change the world in a positive way.