A Message from the Director
In a small but encouraging development, earlier this year the US Mint announced a new series of quarters celebrating extraordinary women would include an Asian American – the movie star and activist Anna May Wong. On that quarter, as on all American currency, will also appear the words “e pluribus unum (“from many, one”). That Latin phrase, for many years the official and now the nation’s unofficial motto, was adopted and placed on the Great Seal of the United States in 1776. It described the ideal of the nascent nation succinctly 13 separate colonies (coincidentally the same number of letters in the phrase) were uniting to form one nation. Historians have proposed various possible sources for the phrase. One is philosophic: a statement by the Roman philosopher Cicero that shared values and friendship create “one [entity] from many people.” A less philosophic and more likely source is a first century CE poem about cooking – specifically, instructions for making a garlic, herb and cheese sauce. The poet writes that the right color (and by implication, taste) for the sauce is achieved by blending multiple ingredients (color est e pluribus unus). I prefer, appropriately enough, a mixture of both possibilities. The latter invites us to think of America less as a “melting pot” and more as a recipe. Just as recipes change over time, the United States is an evolving blend of multiple people, and cultures that is always open to improvement and new ingredients. The former origin reminds us also that the essential ingredient of a democratic culture is the willingness to view others as friends rather than competitors or, worse, adversaries. The world may be in part an arena of competition, but it also can be a theater for the creation and performance of inspiring art. Asia Is more than a “market” for business opportunities. It is a source of intellectual, artistic, and cultural energy. Let us embrace our Fusion Culture as we do Fusion Cuisine, welcoming new ideas, different perspectives and unfamiliar customs as needed ingredients to prevent us from bland certainty. The Center for Asian Studies will do our part by providing an environment of optimistic and insistent learning On behalf of the staff, faculty and allied members of the Center, I wish you an adventurous year (and life) rich in new knowledge, experiences and insights.
Speaking of currency…The Center relies on your support to provide educational and cultural programs that range from lectures by internationally renowned scholars to a summer camp for children, research support for faculty members to study-in-Asian opportunities for students, artistic performances to community courses in Asian languages. Please include an investment in global understanding among your end-of-year donations:
Mike Peng
Throughout the Fall 2022 semester, CAS Faculty Board Member, Dr. Mike Peng, has made the following publications:
BOOK
Peng, Mike W. (2022). Global Strategy, 5th edition. Boston: Cengage Learning.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Aguinis, Herman, David B. Audretsch, Caroline Flammer, Klaus E. Meyer, Mike W. Peng, and David J. Teece (2022). Bringing the manager back into management scholarship. Journal of Management, 48 (7): 1949–1857.
Wang, Joyce C., Jingtao Yi, Xiuping Zhang, and Mike W. Peng (2022). Pyramidal ownership and SOE innovation. Journal of Management Studies, 59 (7): 1839–1868.
Li, Jing, Daniel Shapiro, Mike W. Peng, and Anastasia Ufimtseva (2022). Corporate diplomacy in the age of U.S.-China rivalry. Academy of Management Perspectives, 36 (4): 1007–1032.
Su, Zhongfeng, Chenfeng Wang, and Mike W. Peng (2022). Intellectual property rights protection and total factor productivity. International Business Review, 31: 101956.
Tan, Hao, Mike W. Peng, and Craig D. Macaulay (2022). International spatial distribution of multinational corporations. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 87 (1): 27–44.
Young, Michael N., Garry D. Bruton, Mike W. Peng, and Xiaoyu Yu (2022). U.S. corporations are from Mars, Chinese corporations are from Venus. Business Horizons, 65: 505–517.
Thomas Riccio
Affiliated faculty member Thomas Riccio is a man who unites many talents and achievements into extraordinary works that transcend conventional categories. He is a multimedia artist and a scholar, creator/director of more than 100 theatrical performances and cultural anthropologist who has integrated conducted research and performances – to list only Asia-related examples - in Korea, India, Nepal, and China. Professor of Visual and Performing Arts and Director of the Theatre program at UTD, he is also Visiting Professor of Ethnography at Jishou University (China). His most recent publication reflects his ability to combine performance with scholarship: “Zhuiniu Water Buffalo Ritual of the Miao: Cultural Narrative Performed” appears in the book Religion and Cultural Performance in Chinese Literature and Theatre, ed. Xiaohuan Zhao (2022).
Center for Asian Studies at UTD
Email: asianstudies@utdallas.edu
Website: https://asianstudies.utdallas.edu/
Location: 800 West Campbell Road, JO 5.504, Richardson, TX, USA
Phone: (972) 883-2798
Facebook: facebook.com/AsianStudiesUTDallas
Twitter: @cas_utd
