Will.i.am America’s Newest China Ambassador

Gary Locke was recently confirmed as the new ambassador to China, but the U.S. State Department just announced that will.i.am will put on a benefit concert in Beijing to support President Obama’s 2009 “100,000 Strong” initiative – to encourage American students to study in China. Money raised will help fund scholarships to aid students to study abroad in China.

I was really surprised (but I guess I shouldn’t have been) to read on the 100,000 Strong Initiative’s website that:

Ten times more Chinese students come to the United States for educational programs than Americans who study in China, and 600 times more Chinese study the English language than Americans study Mandarin. This imbalance in knowledge can undermine strategic trust between the two countries. Redressing this imbalance in knowledge is essential to ensuring that Americans have the cultural understanding and language skills that underpin effective diplomacy and foreign policy. It will also enhance our students’ ability to succeed academically and professionally in the global economy.

Of course, China does have 4X the number of people than the U.S., but still … I don’t think it would be wrong to say with those kinds of statistics, that your average well educated Chinese probably has a better understanding of America than vice versa? No date has been set yet, but there will be other artist performing, most likely including Shunza, a Chinese-born, American-raised singer as well as Leehom Wang, a Rochester, N.Y.-born musician.

The first time I traveled abroad (beyond visiting relatives in Taiwan) was when I was in college when I spent three weeks on an all-expense paid trip to Japan courtesy of a study abroad program organized by the Nissan Motor Company to learn more about Japanese manufacturing and engineering. Even though I had read a lot about Japan and Asia, that trip was definitely was an eye opener for me. I think if more Americans studied or traveled abroad, we would definitely appreciate the differences amongst nations as well as many similarities amongst all people.

America has been historically blessed by two large oceans and friendly neighbors without worrying about foreign invasion and destruction on our mainland for the most part. English is the international language of business and the most popular second language in the world, so Americans can easily be isolated physically and mentally to what is going on with the rest of the world. So I’m definitely for anything that encourages Americans to study abroad. I think for a lot of fields – especially in business and government majors – this should be a requirement. China is already the second largest economy in the world, it’s time that more Americans learned more about China and Chinese!