Regardless of whether the donors are institutions or alums, the list of programs in Asian studies at Harvard that might interest them is substantial. The Fairbank Center, the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, the Korea Institute, the Harvard-Yenching Library, the East Asian Legal Studies Program and the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations are but a few.

Rudenstine wrote in an introduction to the first issue of the Asia Pacific Review last winter, "Students and scholars from East Asia have been coming to Harvard for more than a century, and never has the relationship been closer than it is today."

Back at Home

As the Development Office pursues a share of the wealth, connections between Harvard and Asia are growing stronger.

In the last few months, high-ranking Chinese education officials have met with Rudenstine, and the Graduate School of Education (GSE) hired as a professor an expert on Chinese primary and secondary school.

And this is just the beginning.

"We're at the early stages," says Jerome T. Murphy, dean of GSE. The focus on China and education will continue to expand, he says.

In the fall, Harvard plans to open an outpost in Hong Kong that will serve as a central resource for University activity in the area--activity that has skyrocketed in recent years as more Faculty research has been considered in the area.

Last week, Dean of the Graduate School of Design Peter G. Rowe was in China; earlier in the semester Dean of the Business School Kim B. Clark made his rounds in the region.

And students are catching the Asia buzz as well. Between 1985 and 1995, the number of East Asian studies concentrators quintuple from 30 to more than 150.

But the capstone of these efforts is the new Asia Center, headed by Vogel. This center coordinates the focal points of Asian study already in existence while fostering comparative work.

According to Vogel, it will also promote research on South and Southeast Asia, which he says has been lacking.

The University refers to it as "the centerpiece of Harvard's Asian initiatives in The University Campaign"--linking academic study with the pursuit of Asian funds.

Crossing Borders Without Crossing Lines

But fundraising in the East follows different mores from domestic efforts.