Text
Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies
at Suffolk University
Annual Report for 2013-2014
Ronald Suleski, PhD, Director
Overview
The Rosenberg Institute continues to be the beacon for Asian Studies at
Suffolk. Members of the Suffolk community and of the general public in the
New England area equate Suffolk’s Asian Studies initiatives with the
Rosenberg Institute, a point that has been made to the Director many times.
Our very well-received Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series was the most active
of the Institute offerings.
In the past academic year the Rosenberg Institute successfully mobilized
support from several on and off campus organizations. Each organization
contributed their own energies and talents and funds to programs that were
co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute. In this way we take advantage of the
synergies of working with like-minded groups, and we save on the costs to
Suffolk for our events.
The active on-campus unit was the Asian Studies Program. This is aimed at
undergraduate students who want to add an in-depth knowledge of Asia and
an Asian language to their skill set. They may declare either an Asian Studies
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Major, double major (with another discipline such as Economics, History,
Philosophy, etc.), or as a Minor field. Students must meet the credit and
course requirements set by the program, and they must pass a final pregraduation assessment by a panel of members of the Program.
One of the active off-campus bodies this academic year was a member of our
community outreach partners, the Chinese Historical Society of New England
(CHSNE). A number of Suffolk faculty and staff are present or past members
of CHSNE. Suffolk students often have internships, both paid and unpaid,
with this organization as part of their training program in Asian Studies.
In the 2013-2014 academic year both of these organizations held several
programs of interest to Suffolk and to the general public as well. The
Rosenberg Institute assisted in publicizing the events and drawing in an
audience. As a result, at each of these events Suffolk students and staff were
joined by members of the general public, reinforcing the image of Suffolk as
an educational institution deeply rooted in the Boston community and making
its resources available to the general public.
Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series
The “core” of our activities continues to be the Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series.
These are the most distinguished of our speakers who make a presentation on
campus and are available to meet with interested faculty and students before or
after their public lecture. It is the centerpiece of our programs, around which we
build our other activities. We had seven speakers in our Series this past academic
year.
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We were able to secure The Poetry Center, housed within the Mildred F. Sawyer
Library, as the venue for all of our talks given as part of this Series. The speakers
in several cases were international visitors (whose travel costs were paid by other
organizations). In each case we had a full house, often with over fifty audience
members per talk. In two cases, the diplomatic offices in Boston of Korea and
Taiwan generously made the speakers available to Suffolk and reported back to
their home governments on our favorable cooperation.
Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series
Fall 2013
The Chinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us About America. 排華法案
Dr. Ben Railton. He is Associate Professor of English Studies and Coordinator of
American Studies at Fitchburg State University. His new book, the title of his talk,
highlights how remembering the Chinese Exclusion Act can help us as we consider
the issues of legal/illegal immigration and American diversity. The inspiring
American stories we discovered shifted our understanding of American identity
and communities, past and present. Co-sponsored with the American Studies
Minor Program of the History Department and the Asian Studies Program.
September 2013.
Between Integration and Coexistence: US and Chinese Strategies of World Order. 中
美外交之將來. Dr. Liselotte Odgaard is Associate Professor at the Royal Danish
Defence College. Her areas of expertise include International Relations, AsiaPacific Security and China Studies. She has published China and Coexistence:
Beijing’s National Security Strategy for the 21st Century (Woodrow Wilson
Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012). September 2013.
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Asian and Asian-American Studies: Challenges and Opportunities. Dr. Peter
Nien-chu Kiang (江念祖), Director of the Asian-American Studies Program at
UMass Boston. He has been helping Asian immigrants into New England to build
successful lives for them and their families. He brings both intellectual and streetsmart knowledge to this topic. October 2013.
"The Korean Peninsula: Challenge & Opportunity 韓國朝鮮將來如何
Kangho Park , Consul-General of the Republic of Korea in Boston. This area
of the world has again been in the news a lot in the 2013-2014 academic year. It
sometimes appears the North Korean leader Kim Jongun wants to start a war. Late
in 2013 President Obama moved in US ships and missiles, Japan went on alert, and
Chinese President Xi Jinping slapped the hand of North Korea and said “Stop this
now!” November 2013.
Spring 2014
Democracy in Taiwan and Mainland China 民主主義在台灣在中國. Dr.
David J. Lorenzo, National Chengchi University, Taipei. Dr. Lorenzo discussed
his exciting new book that explains how Chinese leaders have felt about the idea of
democracy in the twentieth century. He looked at several famous Chinese leaders,
including Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Ching-kuo, not forgetting
Wen Jiabao and various contemporary democracy advocates both inside and
outside the CCP. This book tells us that a more orderly form of democratic
interaction, usually coupled with heavy government “guidance,” has been preferred.
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Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies and the Taipei
Economic and Cultural Office in Boston. February 2014.
Australian-Asian Co-productions: A case study of ABC-HBO Asia
partnership. Dr. Robert DeFillippi, Suffolk University, spoke about how many
Asian producers of film and TV do not like the American Hollywood model of
global production. The Asians want to focus on local themes relevant to their own
societies, and they want to focus on programming for younger viewers. The Asian
producers want to work with Asian creative talent to bring the films and dramas to
market. Professor DeFillippi has been working most recently in Australia, Japan,
and Indonesia on his research. Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute for East
Asian Studies and the Department of Communication and Journalism. March 2014.
Media in China: more unintended consequences? 傳播? 中國? 結果? Dr.
Marcus Breen, Bond University, Queensland, Australia. This presentation
highlighted issues that confront Chinese society because of the Internet. For
example, the newly informed Chinese masses are demanding access to improved
living conditions and sometimes riot, which is an indicator of how the Internet may
empower the masses against the state, even while the official state line is that the
masses should be empowered. Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute for East
Asian Studies and the Department of Communication and Journalism. March 2014.
The final two talks in the Institute Scholar Series were co-sponsored with the
Department of Communication and Journalism, being of special interest to students
in the department. Those were the talks listed above by Dr Fellippi and Dr. Breen.
Many of the audience members for those talks were students in Communication
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and Journalism courses. Professor Micky Lee’s help was instrumental in
organizing these two talks.
Special Public Event: The China Town Hall Meeting
The China Town Hall Meeting, 中美關係 最近報告 featured a discussion
with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. This was the seventh annual
meeting and the fourth held at Suffolk. Secretary Albright spoke to us via a live
webcast from Washington, DC. We gathered in The Suffolk Law School at
6:15pm (the webcast from Washington, DC began at 7:00pm). The speaker
brought in by the National Committee was Associate Professor Vanessa Fong
from Amherst College. She was an engaging speaker who stimulated the audience
to ask many questions and the audience was extremely pleased with her talk.
The meeting was sponsored in Boston by the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian
Studies at Suffolk and WorldBoston, in conjunction with the National Committee
on United States-China Relations (New York). These National committee events
are underwritten by the Starr Foundation. October 2013.
Asian Studies Program
The activities of the Asian Studies Program promote an interest in Asia on the
campus and encourage interested students to select an Asian Studies major or
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minor. Students from other campuses in the area attended these events, though the
majority were Suffolk students. This past academic year, several of the lectures in
the Institute Scholar Series received assistance from the Asian Studies Program,
among them the talks by Dr. Railton and Dr. Kiang.
In addition, the Asian studies Program sponsored the following talks, which were
also assisted and promoted by the Rosenberg Institute.
Asian Studies Program Open House. Suffolk students who were in China,
Korea, and Japan this past year showed slides about their adventures. Suffolk
faculty talked about the Asia-related courses to be offered in the spring 2014
semester. Asian food was served! Sponsored by the Asian Studies Program and
the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies. October 2013.
Careers in Asia 在亞洲工作. The Careers Office at Suffolk University
presented a speaker who had experience working in Asia. Students interested in a
career working in Asia asked questions and talked about their plans. Co-sponsored
by the Asian Studies Program and the Rosenberg Institute and the Careers Office
of Suffolk University. October 2013.
Destination Tibet: Visit to the Roof of the World. 西藏 西藏. Our intrepid
colleague Professor Jonathan Haughton spent summer 2013 teaching in
Shanghai, then took a trip to Tibet. He coped with the high altitude and the
tensions between Chinese and Tibetans. He showed the astounding slides he took
and talked about what he saw, setting his comments in an historical context. He has
been traveling in Asia for decades, so gave an informed commentary. Cosponsored by the Asian Studies Program and the Rosenberg Institute. November
2013.
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Women, Career and Education in Modern China. We asked three female
professors at Suffolk, each with a Chinese cultural background, to speak to us
about their female perspectives on education and travel to America. The speakers
were Micky Lee from Communication and Journalism; Kate Li from Information
Systems and Operations Management, and Susan Wang, Visiting Scholar from
China. Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute and the Asian Studies Program.
February 2014.
Nowruz, a spring festival of Persian origin that has been celebrated for over
3,000 years. This traditional Persian (Iranian) New Year celebration was explained
by visiting scholar Mahdi Farhani Monfared from the Department of History.
The audience also enjoyed some Persian food and pastries baked by Dr.
Monfared’s wife as well as the colorful power point talk about the antecedents of
the celebration. March 2014.
Cooperation with Other Organizations
Year of the Horse 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration 馬到成功. In
addition to a talent show performed by Chinese students in Boston, the evening
ended with a full course Chinese meal catered in the student cafeteria in the
Donahue Building. President and Mrs. McCarthy joined other faculty, staff and
students from Suffolk at this gala event. The activities were organized by the
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undergraduate Chinese Student Association and the Taiwan Student Association.
The Welsh Theater on campus, holding 250 persons, was sold out for the event.
(Dr. Suleski is faculty advisor to the Chinese Student Association.) Co-sponsored
by the Rosenberg Institute and the International Student Office. February 2014.
Disappearing Chinatowns. Dr. Andrew Leong is co-author of a report prepared
by the Asian-American Legal Defense Fund. It examines the situation for
Chinatowns in New York City, Philadelphia and Boston. Our Chinatown in
Boston is a good example. The building owners are absentee families who don’t
live in the area. They are happy to sell their property to a developer who puts up
high-rise condos, which many of the workers and residents of Chinatown cannot
afford. The restaurants close and jobs are lost, so the workers and patrons move on
to other locations. The Chinatowns begin to disappear. We can see this happening
in Boston’s Chinatown, now being surrounded by buildings much higher than the
historic buildings of three or five stories. A meal of Chinese food was served. Cosponsored by Diversity Services, the Suffolk Asian-American Association, and the
Rosenberg Institute. April 2014.
The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo. Author
Scott Seligman talked about his new book . The book tells the story of an early
advocate for the Chinese communities in the United States in the late 1800s. Held
at the Kwong Kow Chinese School Auditorium, 87 Tyler Street in Boston
Chinatown, with many members of the local Chinese community present. This talk
was organized by the Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) and
co-sponsored by: The MA Cultural Council, the Asian Resource Workshop, the
Wong Family Benevolent Association, the Asian Studies Program at Suffolk
University, and the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies. April 2014.
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The first Boston screening of The Iron Road was shown at Suffolk’s Modern
Theatre. A story about the Canadian transcontinental railroad, the exploitation of
workers, the danger, the anti-Chinese feelings, plus a romantic drama. It was part
of the Boston Asian-American Film Festival (AARW), and was co-sponsored by
the Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) and the Rosenberg
Institute for East Asian Studies at Suffolk, along with Bridgewater State University.
All Suffolk-affiliated people were admitted free.
Sending Suffolk Students to Asia
Among the goals of the Rosenberg Institute at Suffolk is to encourage students to
travel for study abroad in Asia. As part of this effort a generous gift from our
benefactor Mr. Richard M. Rosenberg in the fall of 2013 allowed us to establish
the Richard M. Rosenberg Asian Studies Scholarship early in 2014.
To be eligible for consideration, applicants need to be a fulltime Suffolk student,
with a GPA of 3.0 or above, having declared a Major or Minor in Asian Studies.
Applicants submit a resume and a short essay of about 500 words, stating their
academic interests and plan of study abroad.
The first student, Hannah Lyn Duhaime was awarded a scholarship of $2,000 to
assist her in the spring 2014 semester in Kyoto on the campus of our partner school
Ristumeikan University. Hannah has maintained a GPA of 3.85 and is majoring in
Advertising with a Minor in Asian Studies.
Suffolk continues to send its students to study in Asia, often for a single
semester. In the 2012-2013 academic year we had four students studying in China;
five students studying in Japan, and four students who went to Korea. The
students in China received scholarships from the Fulbright Program. The students
in Japan were at our partner school Sophia University in Tokyo and after returning
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to the Suffolk campus they organized a Japan Student Association which in the
2013-2014 academic year held a number of activities at which Japanese was the
language of communication. The students in Korea each received a scholarship
from the Jongha Scholarship Foundation organized by KCC Corporation in Seoul.
Dr. Henry Kim of the Economics Department assisted Dr. Suleski and Dr. Zheng
in these programs.
Rosenberg Institute Hosts visiting Scholar from China.
In the 2013-2014 academic year, the Rosenberg Institute welcomed Dr. Liu Xiaoli
劉曉麗 as a visiting scholar for a one year appointment. The invitation letter was
issued by Dean Greenberg and Dr. Liu was invited to be housed in the Department
of History by department chair Dr. Robert Allison.
Dr. Liu is a specialist on the recovered literature of the Manchukuo. This was a
puppet state set up by the Japanese from 1932 to 1945 when they occupied
Northeast China. Its traces are highly visible in northeast China still today: the
major rail lines run on beds laid out by the Japanese; striking buildings put up on
those days are used today for hotels, banks, and hospitals; large-scale coal mining
operations expanded by the Japanese are still in use today.
Dr. Liu has been rediscovering literature produced during that period, stories and
essays about the life and times of Manchukuo that had disappeared from public
notice for nearly seventy years. When Manchukuo suddenly collapsed at the end of
the war, most of the literature written in Chinese and in Japanese was “lost,”
because it had appeared serialized in newspapers and magazines. But few libraries
had collected the newspapers or magazines. Through careful research of library
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holdings and used book markets, Dr. Liu has been able to retrieve and “re-create”
much of this literature, which will appear in Chinese in a series of thirty-five
volumes edited by Dr. Liu. Since Manchuria is also a specialization of Dr. Suleski,
Dr. Liu wanted to be based at Suffolk.
Dr. Liu was given an Outstanding Young Scholar award by the Chinese Ministry
of Education in 2009. She teaches at East China Normal University in Shanghai,
one of China’s outstanding schools. Her expenses at Suffolk were completely
covered by the Chinese government.
Suffolk and Harvard Co-sponsor a one-day workshop on the importance of
Manchukuo.
In this case, the Rosenberg Institute joined with the Weatherhead Center for
International Affairs at Harvard to put on the workshop which featured several
well-known scholars in the field, plus graduate students from Harvard and Yale. Dr.
Liu Xiaoli made a presentation about her research, and Dr. Suleski chaired a panel
of experts. The workshop was titled The Making and Unmaking of Manchukuo.
It took place on the Harvard campus in April 2014. Scholars from Suffolk also
attended. The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard, Dr. Suleski’s
previous employer, also joined to provide funds for the gathering and the current
Center Director Dr. Mark Elliott, chaired the workshop.
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Heaven the Equalizer. Rosenberg Institute Sponsored an Exhibition of
Chinese Paintings. See poster below.
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In April and May 2014, the Rosenberg Institute joined with the Mildred F. Sawyer
Library to sponsor an exhibition of paintings by shanghai artist Li Linxiang 李林
祥. The exhibition was titled Heaven the Equalizer (tiangou 天鈎). Li uses
traditional rice paper, inks and brushes, but his creations tend to be very symbolic,
prompting an intellectual response from the viewer. The five creations hung in the
large display cabinet at the entrance to the Sawyer Library were all mounted on
traditional-style scrolls. Li has exhibited in Canada, Europe and Australia, but this
was his first exhibition in the United States.
An Opening Reception was held in April 2914, at which many of the top officers
of Suffolk were present to congratulate the artist. Among these were President
James McCarthy, Interim Provost Bernard Keenan, Vice-Provost Jeffry Pokorak,
Dean Kenneth Greenberg, History Chair Robert Allison, Library Director Sharon
Britten, and Dr. Suleski of the Rosenberg Institute. Artist Li presented a traditional
style scroll of mountains and rivers to the Rosenberg Institute. The scroll was
accepted on behalf of the Institute by President McCarthy, and it is now on loan
hanging in the president’s office. (Artist Li Linxiang is the husband of our visiting
scholar Liu Xiaoli, so he paid his own expenses to Boston since his purpose was to
visit his wife and daughter for two months.) A news story about the opening
reception was put on the front page of the Suffolk University Homepage. A photo
from the opening Reception is below.
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Photo shows left to right: Dean Greenberg, Interim Provost Keenan,
President McCarthy, Vice-Provost Pokorak, Artist Li Linxiang, History
Chair Allison, Institute Director Suleski, Library Director Britton.
Visitors to the Rosenberg Institute in 2013-2014
Dr. Suleski is always pleased to welcome professional visitors to the Institute,
where they learn about our programs and also relate the projects they are working
on. They offer advice about possible projects and directions we might take. In no
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small measure, they help to spread the word about the active programs of the
Rosenberg Institute to their own institutions.
Arthur J. Coury. Dr. Coury is a specialist in the fields of biomedical research and
bioengineering. He has had a distinguished career with many publications and
patents. He has been appointed a visiting professor at Sichuan University in
Chengdu China, and he had various questions about dealing with his Chinese
colleagues and government entities. July 2013.
Bert Stern. Dr. Stern taught English and creative writing at Wabash College for
nearly forty years. He also taught at Peking University in the 1980s, where he met
the then elderly Robert Winter, an American who was in China from the 1920s
until his death in the 1980s. Not a communist, not a political radical, Winter was a
vigorous man of strong opinions and a strong sense of adventure. Dr. Stern has
written a book about Winter. We discussed the materials he used and aspects of the
editing yet to be done. July 2013.
Tanaka Shigeko 田中惠子. Mrs. Tanaka is a Vice-President of the Asiatic Society
of Japan. She is also a specialist in the history of Hizen 肥前 porcelain produced in
Japan and exported in the middle of the 1600s. Her research has uncovered how
these objects made their way to Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and England, where they
are now held by museums and private collectors. We discussed her visit to Boston
to inspect pottery collections in New England. August 2013.
Dwight Clark. Mr. Clark is the founder of Volunteers in Asia, headquartered at
Stanford University. VIA exchanges university students between the United States,
Japan, Singapore, Burma, and Taiwan. The group is now celebrating their 50th
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anniversary, and all activities continue. We discussed different models for sending
students abroad. October 2013.
Vanessa Fong. Dr. Fong teaches at Amherst College. She has published on
China’s One Child Policy, and the effects it has in psychological terms on both the
parents and their children, and how it influences decisions they make about their
child’s future. She was a speaker at our China Town Hall meeting held at the
Suffolk Law School. October 2013.
Richard M. Rosenberg. Mr. Rosenberg is our benefactor, who paid a day-long
visit to the Suffolk campus. While here, he was able to meet a number of the
students who had studied in Asia on programs arranged by the Rosenberg Institute.
He was in town to be inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. While on campus he met President McCarthy, Dean Greenberg, and
other campus leaders. October 2013.
Farhani Monfared. Dr. Monfared is an Iranian scholar currently teaching in the
History Department of Suffolk as part of the Scholar in Crises Program. He was
threatened for his political views in Iran, and is now being welcomed by American
universities under this program. We discussed the courses he is teaching about the
Mongol Empire, our Asian Studies program, and his plans for courses in the spring
2014 semester. November 2013.
Martin Alintuck. Mr. Alintuck has worked as an international executive in China
and Japan. He was in charge of the American Pavilion in Shanghai during the
recent World Expo in 2010. He is teaching at the Sawyer Business School this
semester. We had a lot of experiences to share about living and working in Asia.
November 2013.
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Zhou Xuanyun 周玄雲. Mr. Zhou is a Daoist Master (fashi 法士) who was
ordained in China in the Correct Way (zhengyi 正一) Branch. He has been living
in the States for the past four years. I raised many questions about contemporary
Daoist practices based on the ceremonies I have seen while traveling in China.
November 2013.
Ryan Shaffer. Mr. Shaffer is Associate Director of Programs at the Maureen and
Mike Mansfield Foundation, in the Washington, D.C. office. We discussed some
of the projects Mr. Shaffer is working on, including the US-Japan Nuclear
Working Group, along with the programs to educate government officials from the
United States about Japan, and the dialogues promoted between mid-career
scholars from the US and Japan on current issues facing both nations. February
2014.
Stanley Chen. Actually Mr. Chen did not come to the Institute, but I went to visit
him. He lives in a retirement community in Canton, MA and does not travel easily.
He comes from a very prominent family in China that for a number of generations
has been connected to the top leadership. He was interested in the work of the
Rosenberg Institute and wanted to meet me. He supports five students at UMASS
Boston with full scholarships. He said he’d like to speak with a friend to see if this
friend would be interested in helping Suffolk students. He was honored by BCNC,
one of our Institute outreach partners. February 2014.
Thay V Thao. Thay (pronounced Thai) took my Intro to Asian Studies course
when he was a freshman, and now he graduated in May 2014. He has become
active in the Alternative Spring Break programs run by Suffolk in which our
students and some faculty visit poor communities in the US or in Venezuela to re19
build homes etc. He plans to enter the Peace Corps in a year, but plans to take the
coming year by traveling to Asia to teach and learn about local customs. We met to
talk about possibilities and how he might go about locating a suitable job in Asia.
March 2014.
Peter Kornicki. Dr. Kornicki teaches at the University of Cambridge in England.
He is a specialist on Japanese literature and book publishing, particularly in the
pre-modern era. Dr. Suleski has published about manuscript culture in China
(hand-written materials widely used by the common people), so we had much to
talk about. Dr. Kornicki is visiting Harvard. March 2014.
Lu Keli 路克利. Dr. Lu is a professor at Renmin University (remin daxue 人民大
學) in Beijing and teaches about Chinese political history. He translated my Fifty
Year History of the Fairbank Center at Harvard into Chinese. He reported to me
that this has become a best-seller in China, having sold over 20,000 copies so far.
April 2014.
Asai Ryohei 浅井良平. Mr. Asai is an MBA graduate from Suffolk’s Business
School. He returned to Tokyo and is now working in IT support in marketing for
Sapporo Beer. He was an organizer of the Suffolk Asian Student’s Business Club
in the past, and their annual business conference received support from the
Rosenberg Institute. May 2014.
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Community Outreach Partners
In order to spread word of Suffolk and its Asian Studies programs throughout the
wider Boston and New England area, The Rosenberg Institute has identified
several local non-profit community-based organizations that deal with Asia. These
are designated as part of the Institute’s Community Outreach Partners. An
overview of these programs follows.
In September 2013, for the fourth year in a row, through the Rosenberg Institute,
Suffolk provided a welcoming meeting space to the Taiwan diplomatic office in
Boston, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), for their annual
gathering titled Taiwan Student Leaders in America 台灣留學生交流會.
Outstanding students from Taiwan studying the in United States were brought to
the Suffolk campus for a full day of exchanging ideas and experiences. The costs
were completely covered by TECO.
The Rosenberg Institute continues to endorse the Chinese Historical Society of
New England (CHSNE) as one of our community outreach partners. Suffolk
faculty serve on the board of this organization. The Society’s annual dinner was
held in September 2013 at the China Pearl Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown.
Suffolk faculty were invited to join the Rosenberg Institute table, where they met
many leaders of the Boston Chinatown community, including several whose
children attend Suffolk or have graduated from Suffolk.
Primary Source is a non-profit organization advocating for teaching about Asia in
the junior high and high school curriculum. They have achieved a notable success
in New England, which ranks as one of the best regions in the country in terms of
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offering courses and study units about Asia. The Rosenberg Institute endorses
Primary Source as one of our Community Outreach Partners.
In December 2013 Suffolk University and the Rosenberg Institute hosted 12
students and faculty from Brookline High School. They were welcomed by Dan
Wu from International Student Advising and Study Abroad, who is a graduate of
BHS. Ronald Suleski of the Rosenberg Institute also welcomed the students to our
campus. Suffolk Student Ambassadors then took everyone on a tour of the Suffolk
campus. Eight of these students were from the Gaoxin School in Xian China,
staying with host families in Brookline. Five of the students were from BHS. They
were studying Chinese and in the spring 2014 semester they went to China with
their Chinese student friends and lived with their host families in China.
In March 2014 the Boston Chinatown Community Center (BCNC) annual
Chinese New Year banquet was held at the Empire Garden Restaurant in
Chinatown. The Rosenberg Institute endorses their activities, which are widely
recognized in the Boston area. A delegation from Suffolk including Dr. Suleski
attended their annual banquet. They have provided internship opportunities for
Suffolk students, and in the past have hired Suffolk students for their staff.
Middlesex Community College is an outstanding community college located in
Lowell, MA. They are particularly active in bringing programs about Asia to their
campus. On a number of occasions they have asked the Rosenberg Institute to help
publicize their activities, and Dr. Suleski was pleased to assist. They have helped
spread the word about the Suffolk and the Rosenberg Institute into the Lowell area.
Suffolk regularly received transfer students from Middlesex Community College.
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Contractual Matters
The Rosenberg Institute and its programs are all conducted according to the Terms
of Agreement signed in July 2007 between Mr. Richard M. Rosenberg and Suffolk
University. This Report is submitted in accordance with the original Terms of
Agreement.
The Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series is conducted according to the Terms of
Agreement as signed in July 2007 and as modified by the Memorandum by Dean
Greenberg agreed to in Fall 2008, which provided for individual lectures to be
offered on campus throughout the academic year.
During the 2013-2014 academic year being reported here Suffolk again withdrew
money from the earnings of the endowment fund to cover the Institute’s operating
budget. Suffolk University has been careful to honor the specific terms listed in the
original agreement with Barbara and Richard M. Rosenberg, and in fact has gone
beyond the original terms by hiring Dr. Suleski as a full –time (rather than as a
part-time) administrator. Suffolk has also made available an office for the Institute,
the support services of Suffolk, such as media and communications assistance,
student work-study help, etc.
The Rosenberg Institute cooperates with the Asian Studies Program, which is a
student-focused program of academic study and activities centering on Asia. This
cooperation allows the activities of the Rosenberg Institute to reach the widest
possible audience of students and faculty on campus. The activities of the Asian
Studies Program were covered entirely by Suffolk University funds. In addition,
the Rosenberg Institute cooperated in the 2013-2014 academic year with oncampus student-oriented programs such as the Study Abroad Office, the Career
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Services Office, the Diversity Office, and the Department of Communication and
Journalism.
End July 2014
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at Suffolk University
Annual Report for 2013-2014
Ronald Suleski, PhD, Director
Overview
The Rosenberg Institute continues to be the beacon for Asian Studies at
Suffolk. Members of the Suffolk community and of the general public in the
New England area equate Suffolk’s Asian Studies initiatives with the
Rosenberg Institute, a point that has been made to the Director many times.
Our very well-received Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series was the most active
of the Institute offerings.
In the past academic year the Rosenberg Institute successfully mobilized
support from several on and off campus organizations. Each organization
contributed their own energies and talents and funds to programs that were
co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute. In this way we take advantage of the
synergies of working with like-minded groups, and we save on the costs to
Suffolk for our events.
The active on-campus unit was the Asian Studies Program. This is aimed at
undergraduate students who want to add an in-depth knowledge of Asia and
an Asian language to their skill set. They may declare either an Asian Studies
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Major, double major (with another discipline such as Economics, History,
Philosophy, etc.), or as a Minor field. Students must meet the credit and
course requirements set by the program, and they must pass a final pregraduation assessment by a panel of members of the Program.
One of the active off-campus bodies this academic year was a member of our
community outreach partners, the Chinese Historical Society of New England
(CHSNE). A number of Suffolk faculty and staff are present or past members
of CHSNE. Suffolk students often have internships, both paid and unpaid,
with this organization as part of their training program in Asian Studies.
In the 2013-2014 academic year both of these organizations held several
programs of interest to Suffolk and to the general public as well. The
Rosenberg Institute assisted in publicizing the events and drawing in an
audience. As a result, at each of these events Suffolk students and staff were
joined by members of the general public, reinforcing the image of Suffolk as
an educational institution deeply rooted in the Boston community and making
its resources available to the general public.
Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series
The “core” of our activities continues to be the Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series.
These are the most distinguished of our speakers who make a presentation on
campus and are available to meet with interested faculty and students before or
after their public lecture. It is the centerpiece of our programs, around which we
build our other activities. We had seven speakers in our Series this past academic
year.
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We were able to secure The Poetry Center, housed within the Mildred F. Sawyer
Library, as the venue for all of our talks given as part of this Series. The speakers
in several cases were international visitors (whose travel costs were paid by other
organizations). In each case we had a full house, often with over fifty audience
members per talk. In two cases, the diplomatic offices in Boston of Korea and
Taiwan generously made the speakers available to Suffolk and reported back to
their home governments on our favorable cooperation.
Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series
Fall 2013
The Chinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us About America. 排華法案
Dr. Ben Railton. He is Associate Professor of English Studies and Coordinator of
American Studies at Fitchburg State University. His new book, the title of his talk,
highlights how remembering the Chinese Exclusion Act can help us as we consider
the issues of legal/illegal immigration and American diversity. The inspiring
American stories we discovered shifted our understanding of American identity
and communities, past and present. Co-sponsored with the American Studies
Minor Program of the History Department and the Asian Studies Program.
September 2013.
Between Integration and Coexistence: US and Chinese Strategies of World Order. 中
美外交之將來. Dr. Liselotte Odgaard is Associate Professor at the Royal Danish
Defence College. Her areas of expertise include International Relations, AsiaPacific Security and China Studies. She has published China and Coexistence:
Beijing’s National Security Strategy for the 21st Century (Woodrow Wilson
Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012). September 2013.
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Asian and Asian-American Studies: Challenges and Opportunities. Dr. Peter
Nien-chu Kiang (江念祖), Director of the Asian-American Studies Program at
UMass Boston. He has been helping Asian immigrants into New England to build
successful lives for them and their families. He brings both intellectual and streetsmart knowledge to this topic. October 2013.
"The Korean Peninsula: Challenge & Opportunity 韓國朝鮮將來如何
Kangho Park , Consul-General of the Republic of Korea in Boston. This area
of the world has again been in the news a lot in the 2013-2014 academic year. It
sometimes appears the North Korean leader Kim Jongun wants to start a war. Late
in 2013 President Obama moved in US ships and missiles, Japan went on alert, and
Chinese President Xi Jinping slapped the hand of North Korea and said “Stop this
now!” November 2013.
Spring 2014
Democracy in Taiwan and Mainland China 民主主義在台灣在中國. Dr.
David J. Lorenzo, National Chengchi University, Taipei. Dr. Lorenzo discussed
his exciting new book that explains how Chinese leaders have felt about the idea of
democracy in the twentieth century. He looked at several famous Chinese leaders,
including Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Ching-kuo, not forgetting
Wen Jiabao and various contemporary democracy advocates both inside and
outside the CCP. This book tells us that a more orderly form of democratic
interaction, usually coupled with heavy government “guidance,” has been preferred.
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Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies and the Taipei
Economic and Cultural Office in Boston. February 2014.
Australian-Asian Co-productions: A case study of ABC-HBO Asia
partnership. Dr. Robert DeFillippi, Suffolk University, spoke about how many
Asian producers of film and TV do not like the American Hollywood model of
global production. The Asians want to focus on local themes relevant to their own
societies, and they want to focus on programming for younger viewers. The Asian
producers want to work with Asian creative talent to bring the films and dramas to
market. Professor DeFillippi has been working most recently in Australia, Japan,
and Indonesia on his research. Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute for East
Asian Studies and the Department of Communication and Journalism. March 2014.
Media in China: more unintended consequences? 傳播? 中國? 結果? Dr.
Marcus Breen, Bond University, Queensland, Australia. This presentation
highlighted issues that confront Chinese society because of the Internet. For
example, the newly informed Chinese masses are demanding access to improved
living conditions and sometimes riot, which is an indicator of how the Internet may
empower the masses against the state, even while the official state line is that the
masses should be empowered. Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute for East
Asian Studies and the Department of Communication and Journalism. March 2014.
The final two talks in the Institute Scholar Series were co-sponsored with the
Department of Communication and Journalism, being of special interest to students
in the department. Those were the talks listed above by Dr Fellippi and Dr. Breen.
Many of the audience members for those talks were students in Communication
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and Journalism courses. Professor Micky Lee’s help was instrumental in
organizing these two talks.
Special Public Event: The China Town Hall Meeting
The China Town Hall Meeting, 中美關係 最近報告 featured a discussion
with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. This was the seventh annual
meeting and the fourth held at Suffolk. Secretary Albright spoke to us via a live
webcast from Washington, DC. We gathered in The Suffolk Law School at
6:15pm (the webcast from Washington, DC began at 7:00pm). The speaker
brought in by the National Committee was Associate Professor Vanessa Fong
from Amherst College. She was an engaging speaker who stimulated the audience
to ask many questions and the audience was extremely pleased with her talk.
The meeting was sponsored in Boston by the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian
Studies at Suffolk and WorldBoston, in conjunction with the National Committee
on United States-China Relations (New York). These National committee events
are underwritten by the Starr Foundation. October 2013.
Asian Studies Program
The activities of the Asian Studies Program promote an interest in Asia on the
campus and encourage interested students to select an Asian Studies major or
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minor. Students from other campuses in the area attended these events, though the
majority were Suffolk students. This past academic year, several of the lectures in
the Institute Scholar Series received assistance from the Asian Studies Program,
among them the talks by Dr. Railton and Dr. Kiang.
In addition, the Asian studies Program sponsored the following talks, which were
also assisted and promoted by the Rosenberg Institute.
Asian Studies Program Open House. Suffolk students who were in China,
Korea, and Japan this past year showed slides about their adventures. Suffolk
faculty talked about the Asia-related courses to be offered in the spring 2014
semester. Asian food was served! Sponsored by the Asian Studies Program and
the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies. October 2013.
Careers in Asia 在亞洲工作. The Careers Office at Suffolk University
presented a speaker who had experience working in Asia. Students interested in a
career working in Asia asked questions and talked about their plans. Co-sponsored
by the Asian Studies Program and the Rosenberg Institute and the Careers Office
of Suffolk University. October 2013.
Destination Tibet: Visit to the Roof of the World. 西藏 西藏. Our intrepid
colleague Professor Jonathan Haughton spent summer 2013 teaching in
Shanghai, then took a trip to Tibet. He coped with the high altitude and the
tensions between Chinese and Tibetans. He showed the astounding slides he took
and talked about what he saw, setting his comments in an historical context. He has
been traveling in Asia for decades, so gave an informed commentary. Cosponsored by the Asian Studies Program and the Rosenberg Institute. November
2013.
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Women, Career and Education in Modern China. We asked three female
professors at Suffolk, each with a Chinese cultural background, to speak to us
about their female perspectives on education and travel to America. The speakers
were Micky Lee from Communication and Journalism; Kate Li from Information
Systems and Operations Management, and Susan Wang, Visiting Scholar from
China. Co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute and the Asian Studies Program.
February 2014.
Nowruz, a spring festival of Persian origin that has been celebrated for over
3,000 years. This traditional Persian (Iranian) New Year celebration was explained
by visiting scholar Mahdi Farhani Monfared from the Department of History.
The audience also enjoyed some Persian food and pastries baked by Dr.
Monfared’s wife as well as the colorful power point talk about the antecedents of
the celebration. March 2014.
Cooperation with Other Organizations
Year of the Horse 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration 馬到成功. In
addition to a talent show performed by Chinese students in Boston, the evening
ended with a full course Chinese meal catered in the student cafeteria in the
Donahue Building. President and Mrs. McCarthy joined other faculty, staff and
students from Suffolk at this gala event. The activities were organized by the
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undergraduate Chinese Student Association and the Taiwan Student Association.
The Welsh Theater on campus, holding 250 persons, was sold out for the event.
(Dr. Suleski is faculty advisor to the Chinese Student Association.) Co-sponsored
by the Rosenberg Institute and the International Student Office. February 2014.
Disappearing Chinatowns. Dr. Andrew Leong is co-author of a report prepared
by the Asian-American Legal Defense Fund. It examines the situation for
Chinatowns in New York City, Philadelphia and Boston. Our Chinatown in
Boston is a good example. The building owners are absentee families who don’t
live in the area. They are happy to sell their property to a developer who puts up
high-rise condos, which many of the workers and residents of Chinatown cannot
afford. The restaurants close and jobs are lost, so the workers and patrons move on
to other locations. The Chinatowns begin to disappear. We can see this happening
in Boston’s Chinatown, now being surrounded by buildings much higher than the
historic buildings of three or five stories. A meal of Chinese food was served. Cosponsored by Diversity Services, the Suffolk Asian-American Association, and the
Rosenberg Institute. April 2014.
The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo. Author
Scott Seligman talked about his new book . The book tells the story of an early
advocate for the Chinese communities in the United States in the late 1800s. Held
at the Kwong Kow Chinese School Auditorium, 87 Tyler Street in Boston
Chinatown, with many members of the local Chinese community present. This talk
was organized by the Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) and
co-sponsored by: The MA Cultural Council, the Asian Resource Workshop, the
Wong Family Benevolent Association, the Asian Studies Program at Suffolk
University, and the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies. April 2014.
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The first Boston screening of The Iron Road was shown at Suffolk’s Modern
Theatre. A story about the Canadian transcontinental railroad, the exploitation of
workers, the danger, the anti-Chinese feelings, plus a romantic drama. It was part
of the Boston Asian-American Film Festival (AARW), and was co-sponsored by
the Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) and the Rosenberg
Institute for East Asian Studies at Suffolk, along with Bridgewater State University.
All Suffolk-affiliated people were admitted free.
Sending Suffolk Students to Asia
Among the goals of the Rosenberg Institute at Suffolk is to encourage students to
travel for study abroad in Asia. As part of this effort a generous gift from our
benefactor Mr. Richard M. Rosenberg in the fall of 2013 allowed us to establish
the Richard M. Rosenberg Asian Studies Scholarship early in 2014.
To be eligible for consideration, applicants need to be a fulltime Suffolk student,
with a GPA of 3.0 or above, having declared a Major or Minor in Asian Studies.
Applicants submit a resume and a short essay of about 500 words, stating their
academic interests and plan of study abroad.
The first student, Hannah Lyn Duhaime was awarded a scholarship of $2,000 to
assist her in the spring 2014 semester in Kyoto on the campus of our partner school
Ristumeikan University. Hannah has maintained a GPA of 3.85 and is majoring in
Advertising with a Minor in Asian Studies.
Suffolk continues to send its students to study in Asia, often for a single
semester. In the 2012-2013 academic year we had four students studying in China;
five students studying in Japan, and four students who went to Korea. The
students in China received scholarships from the Fulbright Program. The students
in Japan were at our partner school Sophia University in Tokyo and after returning
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to the Suffolk campus they organized a Japan Student Association which in the
2013-2014 academic year held a number of activities at which Japanese was the
language of communication. The students in Korea each received a scholarship
from the Jongha Scholarship Foundation organized by KCC Corporation in Seoul.
Dr. Henry Kim of the Economics Department assisted Dr. Suleski and Dr. Zheng
in these programs.
Rosenberg Institute Hosts visiting Scholar from China.
In the 2013-2014 academic year, the Rosenberg Institute welcomed Dr. Liu Xiaoli
劉曉麗 as a visiting scholar for a one year appointment. The invitation letter was
issued by Dean Greenberg and Dr. Liu was invited to be housed in the Department
of History by department chair Dr. Robert Allison.
Dr. Liu is a specialist on the recovered literature of the Manchukuo. This was a
puppet state set up by the Japanese from 1932 to 1945 when they occupied
Northeast China. Its traces are highly visible in northeast China still today: the
major rail lines run on beds laid out by the Japanese; striking buildings put up on
those days are used today for hotels, banks, and hospitals; large-scale coal mining
operations expanded by the Japanese are still in use today.
Dr. Liu has been rediscovering literature produced during that period, stories and
essays about the life and times of Manchukuo that had disappeared from public
notice for nearly seventy years. When Manchukuo suddenly collapsed at the end of
the war, most of the literature written in Chinese and in Japanese was “lost,”
because it had appeared serialized in newspapers and magazines. But few libraries
had collected the newspapers or magazines. Through careful research of library
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holdings and used book markets, Dr. Liu has been able to retrieve and “re-create”
much of this literature, which will appear in Chinese in a series of thirty-five
volumes edited by Dr. Liu. Since Manchuria is also a specialization of Dr. Suleski,
Dr. Liu wanted to be based at Suffolk.
Dr. Liu was given an Outstanding Young Scholar award by the Chinese Ministry
of Education in 2009. She teaches at East China Normal University in Shanghai,
one of China’s outstanding schools. Her expenses at Suffolk were completely
covered by the Chinese government.
Suffolk and Harvard Co-sponsor a one-day workshop on the importance of
Manchukuo.
In this case, the Rosenberg Institute joined with the Weatherhead Center for
International Affairs at Harvard to put on the workshop which featured several
well-known scholars in the field, plus graduate students from Harvard and Yale. Dr.
Liu Xiaoli made a presentation about her research, and Dr. Suleski chaired a panel
of experts. The workshop was titled The Making and Unmaking of Manchukuo.
It took place on the Harvard campus in April 2014. Scholars from Suffolk also
attended. The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard, Dr. Suleski’s
previous employer, also joined to provide funds for the gathering and the current
Center Director Dr. Mark Elliott, chaired the workshop.
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Heaven the Equalizer. Rosenberg Institute Sponsored an Exhibition of
Chinese Paintings. See poster below.
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In April and May 2014, the Rosenberg Institute joined with the Mildred F. Sawyer
Library to sponsor an exhibition of paintings by shanghai artist Li Linxiang 李林
祥. The exhibition was titled Heaven the Equalizer (tiangou 天鈎). Li uses
traditional rice paper, inks and brushes, but his creations tend to be very symbolic,
prompting an intellectual response from the viewer. The five creations hung in the
large display cabinet at the entrance to the Sawyer Library were all mounted on
traditional-style scrolls. Li has exhibited in Canada, Europe and Australia, but this
was his first exhibition in the United States.
An Opening Reception was held in April 2914, at which many of the top officers
of Suffolk were present to congratulate the artist. Among these were President
James McCarthy, Interim Provost Bernard Keenan, Vice-Provost Jeffry Pokorak,
Dean Kenneth Greenberg, History Chair Robert Allison, Library Director Sharon
Britten, and Dr. Suleski of the Rosenberg Institute. Artist Li presented a traditional
style scroll of mountains and rivers to the Rosenberg Institute. The scroll was
accepted on behalf of the Institute by President McCarthy, and it is now on loan
hanging in the president’s office. (Artist Li Linxiang is the husband of our visiting
scholar Liu Xiaoli, so he paid his own expenses to Boston since his purpose was to
visit his wife and daughter for two months.) A news story about the opening
reception was put on the front page of the Suffolk University Homepage. A photo
from the opening Reception is below.
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Photo shows left to right: Dean Greenberg, Interim Provost Keenan,
President McCarthy, Vice-Provost Pokorak, Artist Li Linxiang, History
Chair Allison, Institute Director Suleski, Library Director Britton.
Visitors to the Rosenberg Institute in 2013-2014
Dr. Suleski is always pleased to welcome professional visitors to the Institute,
where they learn about our programs and also relate the projects they are working
on. They offer advice about possible projects and directions we might take. In no
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small measure, they help to spread the word about the active programs of the
Rosenberg Institute to their own institutions.
Arthur J. Coury. Dr. Coury is a specialist in the fields of biomedical research and
bioengineering. He has had a distinguished career with many publications and
patents. He has been appointed a visiting professor at Sichuan University in
Chengdu China, and he had various questions about dealing with his Chinese
colleagues and government entities. July 2013.
Bert Stern. Dr. Stern taught English and creative writing at Wabash College for
nearly forty years. He also taught at Peking University in the 1980s, where he met
the then elderly Robert Winter, an American who was in China from the 1920s
until his death in the 1980s. Not a communist, not a political radical, Winter was a
vigorous man of strong opinions and a strong sense of adventure. Dr. Stern has
written a book about Winter. We discussed the materials he used and aspects of the
editing yet to be done. July 2013.
Tanaka Shigeko 田中惠子. Mrs. Tanaka is a Vice-President of the Asiatic Society
of Japan. She is also a specialist in the history of Hizen 肥前 porcelain produced in
Japan and exported in the middle of the 1600s. Her research has uncovered how
these objects made their way to Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and England, where they
are now held by museums and private collectors. We discussed her visit to Boston
to inspect pottery collections in New England. August 2013.
Dwight Clark. Mr. Clark is the founder of Volunteers in Asia, headquartered at
Stanford University. VIA exchanges university students between the United States,
Japan, Singapore, Burma, and Taiwan. The group is now celebrating their 50th
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anniversary, and all activities continue. We discussed different models for sending
students abroad. October 2013.
Vanessa Fong. Dr. Fong teaches at Amherst College. She has published on
China’s One Child Policy, and the effects it has in psychological terms on both the
parents and their children, and how it influences decisions they make about their
child’s future. She was a speaker at our China Town Hall meeting held at the
Suffolk Law School. October 2013.
Richard M. Rosenberg. Mr. Rosenberg is our benefactor, who paid a day-long
visit to the Suffolk campus. While here, he was able to meet a number of the
students who had studied in Asia on programs arranged by the Rosenberg Institute.
He was in town to be inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. While on campus he met President McCarthy, Dean Greenberg, and
other campus leaders. October 2013.
Farhani Monfared. Dr. Monfared is an Iranian scholar currently teaching in the
History Department of Suffolk as part of the Scholar in Crises Program. He was
threatened for his political views in Iran, and is now being welcomed by American
universities under this program. We discussed the courses he is teaching about the
Mongol Empire, our Asian Studies program, and his plans for courses in the spring
2014 semester. November 2013.
Martin Alintuck. Mr. Alintuck has worked as an international executive in China
and Japan. He was in charge of the American Pavilion in Shanghai during the
recent World Expo in 2010. He is teaching at the Sawyer Business School this
semester. We had a lot of experiences to share about living and working in Asia.
November 2013.
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Zhou Xuanyun 周玄雲. Mr. Zhou is a Daoist Master (fashi 法士) who was
ordained in China in the Correct Way (zhengyi 正一) Branch. He has been living
in the States for the past four years. I raised many questions about contemporary
Daoist practices based on the ceremonies I have seen while traveling in China.
November 2013.
Ryan Shaffer. Mr. Shaffer is Associate Director of Programs at the Maureen and
Mike Mansfield Foundation, in the Washington, D.C. office. We discussed some
of the projects Mr. Shaffer is working on, including the US-Japan Nuclear
Working Group, along with the programs to educate government officials from the
United States about Japan, and the dialogues promoted between mid-career
scholars from the US and Japan on current issues facing both nations. February
2014.
Stanley Chen. Actually Mr. Chen did not come to the Institute, but I went to visit
him. He lives in a retirement community in Canton, MA and does not travel easily.
He comes from a very prominent family in China that for a number of generations
has been connected to the top leadership. He was interested in the work of the
Rosenberg Institute and wanted to meet me. He supports five students at UMASS
Boston with full scholarships. He said he’d like to speak with a friend to see if this
friend would be interested in helping Suffolk students. He was honored by BCNC,
one of our Institute outreach partners. February 2014.
Thay V Thao. Thay (pronounced Thai) took my Intro to Asian Studies course
when he was a freshman, and now he graduated in May 2014. He has become
active in the Alternative Spring Break programs run by Suffolk in which our
students and some faculty visit poor communities in the US or in Venezuela to re19
build homes etc. He plans to enter the Peace Corps in a year, but plans to take the
coming year by traveling to Asia to teach and learn about local customs. We met to
talk about possibilities and how he might go about locating a suitable job in Asia.
March 2014.
Peter Kornicki. Dr. Kornicki teaches at the University of Cambridge in England.
He is a specialist on Japanese literature and book publishing, particularly in the
pre-modern era. Dr. Suleski has published about manuscript culture in China
(hand-written materials widely used by the common people), so we had much to
talk about. Dr. Kornicki is visiting Harvard. March 2014.
Lu Keli 路克利. Dr. Lu is a professor at Renmin University (remin daxue 人民大
學) in Beijing and teaches about Chinese political history. He translated my Fifty
Year History of the Fairbank Center at Harvard into Chinese. He reported to me
that this has become a best-seller in China, having sold over 20,000 copies so far.
April 2014.
Asai Ryohei 浅井良平. Mr. Asai is an MBA graduate from Suffolk’s Business
School. He returned to Tokyo and is now working in IT support in marketing for
Sapporo Beer. He was an organizer of the Suffolk Asian Student’s Business Club
in the past, and their annual business conference received support from the
Rosenberg Institute. May 2014.
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Community Outreach Partners
In order to spread word of Suffolk and its Asian Studies programs throughout the
wider Boston and New England area, The Rosenberg Institute has identified
several local non-profit community-based organizations that deal with Asia. These
are designated as part of the Institute’s Community Outreach Partners. An
overview of these programs follows.
In September 2013, for the fourth year in a row, through the Rosenberg Institute,
Suffolk provided a welcoming meeting space to the Taiwan diplomatic office in
Boston, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), for their annual
gathering titled Taiwan Student Leaders in America 台灣留學生交流會.
Outstanding students from Taiwan studying the in United States were brought to
the Suffolk campus for a full day of exchanging ideas and experiences. The costs
were completely covered by TECO.
The Rosenberg Institute continues to endorse the Chinese Historical Society of
New England (CHSNE) as one of our community outreach partners. Suffolk
faculty serve on the board of this organization. The Society’s annual dinner was
held in September 2013 at the China Pearl Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown.
Suffolk faculty were invited to join the Rosenberg Institute table, where they met
many leaders of the Boston Chinatown community, including several whose
children attend Suffolk or have graduated from Suffolk.
Primary Source is a non-profit organization advocating for teaching about Asia in
the junior high and high school curriculum. They have achieved a notable success
in New England, which ranks as one of the best regions in the country in terms of
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offering courses and study units about Asia. The Rosenberg Institute endorses
Primary Source as one of our Community Outreach Partners.
In December 2013 Suffolk University and the Rosenberg Institute hosted 12
students and faculty from Brookline High School. They were welcomed by Dan
Wu from International Student Advising and Study Abroad, who is a graduate of
BHS. Ronald Suleski of the Rosenberg Institute also welcomed the students to our
campus. Suffolk Student Ambassadors then took everyone on a tour of the Suffolk
campus. Eight of these students were from the Gaoxin School in Xian China,
staying with host families in Brookline. Five of the students were from BHS. They
were studying Chinese and in the spring 2014 semester they went to China with
their Chinese student friends and lived with their host families in China.
In March 2014 the Boston Chinatown Community Center (BCNC) annual
Chinese New Year banquet was held at the Empire Garden Restaurant in
Chinatown. The Rosenberg Institute endorses their activities, which are widely
recognized in the Boston area. A delegation from Suffolk including Dr. Suleski
attended their annual banquet. They have provided internship opportunities for
Suffolk students, and in the past have hired Suffolk students for their staff.
Middlesex Community College is an outstanding community college located in
Lowell, MA. They are particularly active in bringing programs about Asia to their
campus. On a number of occasions they have asked the Rosenberg Institute to help
publicize their activities, and Dr. Suleski was pleased to assist. They have helped
spread the word about the Suffolk and the Rosenberg Institute into the Lowell area.
Suffolk regularly received transfer students from Middlesex Community College.
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Contractual Matters
The Rosenberg Institute and its programs are all conducted according to the Terms
of Agreement signed in July 2007 between Mr. Richard M. Rosenberg and Suffolk
University. This Report is submitted in accordance with the original Terms of
Agreement.
The Rosenberg Institute Scholar Series is conducted according to the Terms of
Agreement as signed in July 2007 and as modified by the Memorandum by Dean
Greenberg agreed to in Fall 2008, which provided for individual lectures to be
offered on campus throughout the academic year.
During the 2013-2014 academic year being reported here Suffolk again withdrew
money from the earnings of the endowment fund to cover the Institute’s operating
budget. Suffolk University has been careful to honor the specific terms listed in the
original agreement with Barbara and Richard M. Rosenberg, and in fact has gone
beyond the original terms by hiring Dr. Suleski as a full –time (rather than as a
part-time) administrator. Suffolk has also made available an office for the Institute,
the support services of Suffolk, such as media and communications assistance,
student work-study help, etc.
The Rosenberg Institute cooperates with the Asian Studies Program, which is a
student-focused program of academic study and activities centering on Asia. This
cooperation allows the activities of the Rosenberg Institute to reach the widest
possible audience of students and faculty on campus. The activities of the Asian
Studies Program were covered entirely by Suffolk University funds. In addition,
the Rosenberg Institute cooperated in the 2013-2014 academic year with oncampus student-oriented programs such as the Study Abroad Office, the Career
23
Services Office, the Diversity Office, and the Department of Communication and
Journalism.
End July 2014
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