July 26, 2004 University of Pittsburgh Professor to Lecture on Traditional Chinese Wisdom and the Business World

Hsu Cho-Yun, professor of history and sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, will deliver a lecture titled "How Did the Chinese Manage Their State and Business Organizations and the Strategies of Operations?" at the Library of Congress at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 17, in room 119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. Sponsored jointly by the Library's Asian Division and the Office of Scholarly Programs, the lecture is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.

During his lecture, Hsu will teach entrepreneurs how to use traditional Chinese wisdom to promote business success. For example, he will illustrate how the master military strategists of the Three Kingdoms (220-265 A.D.) can teach modern companies the secrets of leadership, recruitment, risk-taking and prosperity.

A professor at the University of Pittsburgh for more than 30 years, Hsu currently holds the position of Special Distinguished Research Fellow at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He is the 2004 recipient of the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies, which recognizes his life-long dedication to the advancement of Asian Studies in the international arena.

As a visiting professor in China and Hong Kong, Hsu helped build academic bridges across the Pacific and promoted international understanding. The author of 40 books and 114 articles in Chinese and English, Hsu revolutionized the field of study on Chinese agrarian history with the publication of his pivotal works titled "The Han Agriculture" and "Ancient China in Transition."

Since 1989, Hsu has served as executive director of the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation's American Advisory Board through which he has been instrumental in promoting scholarship on China and Asia. His support of new teaching positions and research institutes, as well as pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships, has been essential to the creation of a new generation of scholars on both sides of the Pacific.