My passion is bridging diverse cultures, using vehicles such as art, design, science and education. Born in China and watching the world from a TV set as a child in the 1980s, I was fascinated by the wonders of civilizations around the globe. Driven by curiosity, I went on to pursue higher education in different parts of the world, receiving a PhD from New York University’s Stern School of Business. The many late nights’ study at libraries in Shanghai, Toronto, Manhattan, and Italy, reading, writing, and having imagined conversations with the greatest minds in history turned out to be one of my most cherished memories. I realized that the subjects I research, design, art, technology, cognition, management, and policy, were themes that could bring humanity together to tackle our common challenges. I became a university professor; my teaching experience includes Ivey Business School in Canada, New York University and Cornell University in the USA, and executive programs in Italy, Denmark, Finland, and China; my work experience includes IBM in New York and STAR, now part of Disney, in Hong Kong; my advisory clients include multinational corporations such as Deloitte, governments, and not-for-profits worldwide; I was fortunate to receive Poets&Quants’ “40 Most Outstanding Business School Professors Under 40” recognition. Every year, I spend time with family and friends in Italy, where I am constantly inspired by her art, design, creativity, and culture.
How to receive hundreds of millions views on social media over night, build a foundation for sustained commercial success, and, more importantly, send a positive message of equity, diversity, and excellence to society? Prada might have just found an elegant solution, in China.
Queens Wear Prada
The Women’s Football World Cup will kick off in Australia and New Zealand in July. When the Chinese national team, a major contender and a former Olympic silver medalist, landed in the airport of Adelaide, the entire team, from the head coach, a former football star in China herself, to the players, showed up in tailored white...
In the previous article " Opera, which challenges in the digital era ", I discussed the many and multifaceted challenges opera faces in the digital era. What could be the solutions?
One solution, in fact, emerged from the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Also known as La Scala, the famed opera house, since its inauguration in 1778, has been the cradle, and pinnacle, of many of the most influential operas in history.
On February 14, 2023, in La Scala's over 200 years' history, for the first time, an opera, Giuseppe Verdi's I Vespri siciliani, was streamed live to audience worldwide through the opera house's online platform,...
Opera was my initial introduction to Italy. I vividly remember as a wide-eyed child in the 1980s’ China, worlds apart from Italy, on Sunday mornings, I woke up in birds chirping, gentle sunlight, and, opera songs, played by my parents from our cassette boombox. Fascinated and enchanted, I would close my eyes and imagine: the great concert halls, and the stories, lives, and cultures inside operas, week after week, month after month. Then I blinked, time flew, loved ones aged, world changed beyond recognition.
Years later I traveled to New York to study, where I visited Lincoln Center for the first time, home of the...
