The China Center’s Sping Lin and Ying-Ngoh T. Lin Visiting Scholars fellowship allowed Dr. Tracy Wang to sponsor the year-long visit of Dr. Jun Li from China’s Southwest University of Political Science and Law. Together, they have been researching family wealth management and family business governance in the U.S. compared to in China.
Dr. Wang, a professor of finance at the Carlson School of Management, sees the hosting of visiting scholars not only as a source of knowledge exchange but also as a way to mitigate some of the growing tension between the U.S. and China.
“During a time like this, it feels like there’s going to be a rapidly growing divide between the West and the East,” Dr. Wang said. “I think that this is the time that building a bridge is particularly important. Collaborating with Chinese scholars helps me continue to build this connection between East and West.”
Dr. Wang and Dr. Li are working to build a nonprofit social media platform to help facilitate the exchange of knowledge regarding these topics between the East and West. The researchers are inviting experts from around the world to contribute to the platform, which will offer articles in both English and Chinese free of charge to readers. They already have experts lined up from the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong.
“This is different from the course we had originally planned to create, but especially during a pandemic, this can be a way to start our education initiative,” Dr. Wang said.
The two researchers believe this platform will lead to long-term collaboration. For now, they are focusing on getting the system launched and writing some articles for the Chinese business community. Eventually, they hope to publish academic papers about the platform and its effects.
For Dr. Li, the time in Minnesota has been encouraging for his research.
“I hope to introduce parts of [the U.S. inheritance system] into China and help us improve the whole process,” he said.