Harvard-Asia: Ties deep and broad
First in a series about Harvard’s deep connections with Asia. On April 11, 1925, a portable phonograph began blaring the Italian opera “Rigoletto” through the dusty village of Ch’ing-shui, China, prompting curious listeners to pour into the streets and onto nearby rooftops. Botanist Joseph Rock had brought the phonograph on his three-year collecting expedition for Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and the Museum of Comparative Zoology. In mounting his simple concert, Rock was adding in a small way to Harvard’s nascent educational exchange with Asia, which had begun in 1879 when scholar Ko K’un-hua became the first instructor to teach Chinese at Harvard. Over the last century, the connections between Harvard and Asia have grown from such early trickles to a broad torrent of ideas, information, and people. Harvard now exchanges students and scholars with dozens of Asian nations, including three of the world’s four most populous: China, India, and Indonesia. Harvard conducts research across...