Zheng He's Art of Collaboration: Understanding the Legendary Chinese Admiral from a Management Perspective

Acknowledgements

xxxv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to express my sincere thanks to Mr Wong Ah Long and Dr Tan Ta Sen for introducing me to Zheng He. Their request for me to do “some research on Zheng He” has allowed me to start my journey into a new area of work that is quite unlike what I usually do in mathematical modelling research. More importantly, their belief in me in doing this research has been most encouraging; never once did they waver in their confidence in me, even when I expressed to them on several occasions that this is not the usual type of research that I do and that I am too busy as an administrator in my NUS Business School to spend enough time on this project. Ah Long and Ta Sen: thank you for your belief in me and for constantly urging me on. And Ta Sen, thank you for giving me access to your personal library of materials on Zheng He. I also want to acknowledge my friend Lee Junior for his time and efforts in travelling to Malacca just to listen to me make my first presentation on Zheng He in July 2010. Lee has been most passionate about my work on Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration and he has shared many of his creative ideas to help propagate this message. Lee has also provided the original inspiration for the cover design for this book. Lee: thank you for your creativity, energy and belief in the Zheng He message of collaboration; thanks also for your confidence in my work. xxxvi Acknowledgements Laurie Er and James Tay of NEX (NUS Extension) have also been most supportive of my work. They also travelled to Malacca specially to listen to me. Also, they created the platform through NEX to allow me to make my first public presentation on Zheng He in Singapore back in March 2011. They believed in my work even though it was still work-in-progress then. Laurie and James: thanks for your support for me and your confidence in the Zheng He message as presented in this book. I must also acknowledge the tremendous help my NUS Business School undergraduate students have granted me in this Zheng He project. They include Chew Lusheng Grace, Yuan Yi, Chong Liyue, David Ng, Fong Ying Ying, Muhammad Aziz Ying, Muhammad Aziz Bin Salim, Leong Li Ting, Cui Chunhao, Alvin Lim and Macey Tan. Grace in particular has helped me in the original version of Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration; that version was presented at the Malacca conference and has been revised and expanded in the current version in Chapter 2. Yuan Yi has contributed largely and significantly in the Acts of Collaboration and the comparison between Zheng He’s AoC and Sun Zi’s AoW. Her contributions show up in Chapters 3 and 4. Yuan Yi has also been a major help in much of the translation work and access to Chinese literature. David interacted with me over Zheng He’s leadership; Ying Ying challenged me in thinking about Zheng He’s HRM; and Aziz helped me to appreciate Zheng He’s faith practices. All my students’ literature search, interpretation and discussion with me have been most helpful and enjoyable. Grace, David, Ying Ying and Aziz have since graduated; I am still privileged to be engaged in ongoing work with the rest. To my student team: a big thank you to each one of you; you have been my joy and will always be my pride. I also want to acknowledge the help of Dr Sim Chuin Peng, Principal Librarian at the NUS Chinese Library, and a continuing Acknowledgements xxxvii Ming Scholar himself in terms of his ongoing research. Dr Sim has helped my students and I in getting access to Chinese literature on Zheng He. He has also been most supportive of my work and has personally sent me specific references to Chinese literature on Zheng He in the area of HRM practices. Chuin Peng: thank you for your kind help; we must find the opportunity to work together on Zheng He. I want to thank my two sons Samuel and Daniel who have grown up to be two fabulous young men whom any father would be proud of. They have experienced a reduced interaction with me during this period of work on this book. But I know they understand my passion in this...