This is a historical story of collaboration across cultures that sparked massive impact. It is an apt prelude to a contemporary tale of building relationships over long periods of time to create a great cross-cultural collaborative effort to change the world. These multi-cultural partnerships are an opportunity for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to further develop internal support structures and to expand on education opportunities in entrepreneurship.
In the ancient Kingdom of Siam, a powerful and cosmopolitan city full of spectacular temples graced the meeting points of three rivers (the Pa Sak, the Lop Buri and the Chao Phraya). The presence of a tidal bore (1) at this conjunction made it seemingly impenetrable by the sea-going warships of other nations and thus the city grew complacent in the knowledge that it would never be attacked. Known as the city of Ayutthaya, it was the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan urban area and a centre of global diplomacy and commerce beginning in the 14th century (UNESCO, 2024). For over four hundred years, the city thrived under successive rulers. One of the most influential rulers of Ayutthaya, King Narai the Great, established diplomatic activities with foreign nations from the Middle East to Europe and created deep links with the court of Louis XIV in France (Strathern, 2019 p.1). It is believed this cross-cultural understanding and friendship enabled the city (and eventually all of Thailand) to avoid the European intervention and colonisation that happened to neighbouring nations (Britannica.com, 2024).
Over the course of the French-Siamese friendship established by King Narai, many gifts were exchanged, including a pair of intricately etched silver cannons that Narai gifted to the French court. Assumed to be purely decorative, they were stored in the Royal Furniture Depository. When the Parisians rioted against the royalty in 1789, they failed to find usable weapons in the Royal Arsenal but managed to salvage the decorative (but fully functional) cannons from the Furniture Depository (The Met Museum, 2024). Thus, during the storming of the Bastille it was a pair of Siamese cannons crafted in Ayutthaya that did much of the damage. As such, the success of the French Revolution and the subsequent democratic system of government that followed is directly linked to the collegiality and collaboration between two very different and distant cultures. This story is a means to show the power of unusual cross-cultural collaborations and how they can spark massive global impact.
The above story relates to my own personal narrative of linking people from vastly different backgrounds to support cross-cultural collaboration and impact. My journey started with a crazy idea and a shared purpose – to bring as many students as possible outside of their comfort zones to mingle with students from as many different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds as possible. The goal being to learn about the world and facilitate thought-provoking conversations on global issues to create prototypes that could eventually lead to world changing inventions. Funding for this endeavour was made possible by the Australian Government. This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the New Colombo Plan (NCP) Scholarship – a program set up by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to provide Australian students with opportunities for funded study in Asia-Pacific (Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2024). In early September 2024, I headed down to Australia’s Federal Capital (Canberra) to celebrate this significant milestone with DFAT administrators, Ministers, industry representatives, academics and professional staff from all over Australia. Over the years, I have run 12 programs under the NCP – bringing 300+ Australian students to Asia to work together with global student cohorts to create cross-cultural and transdisciplinary projects that address world challenges. These experiences have been life-changing for students, particularly those that had never left Australia and/or their home state. Many of those in my programs have described these opportunities as indelibly shaping a new world view for them and have been the most enriching experiences of their undergraduate degree.
With QUT Scholars at the 10 Years Celebration of the New Colombo Plan Scholarship in Canberra, Australia
One of our most recent iterations of the program was undertaken in the first half of June 2024. My QUT colleagues and I, along with additional colleagues from institutions in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE and Taiwan, shepherded 108 design and health students from four Australian universities (University of Technology Sydney, Queensland University of Technology, University of Canberra and Monash University), one institution each from Dubai (Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences), Taiwan (Tatung University), Malaysia (Taylor’s), and Singapore (Nanyang Polytechnic). We created and led a symposium entitled Design for Change: Sustainability in Healthcare with presentations by global experts from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, UK, Taiwan and UAE at Taylor’s University in Malaysia for students to attend and participate in on 11 June 2024. Students then travelled from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore by coach – watching as the lush jungle of Malaysia melted into the glittering urban landscape of Singapore. At Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore, students joined cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary teams and visited hospitals and care homes to observe the challenges and opportunities in these spaces. Over the course of a five-day design sprint, students worked to create new sustainable solutions for the healthcare challenges they observed. The tour educated students and enabled them to create solutions that would address the UN Sustainability Goals 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 8 (Climate Action) (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2024). Students were challenged, not only to look at SDGs in relation to the healthcare system from a multidisciplinary perspective, but to form a deeper understanding of the cultural backgrounds of the populations explored to create inclusive and universal tools that work within and across cultural boundaries. A final exhibition of student projects took place on 21 June 2024 at Raffles House in Fort Canning Park in Singapore, a historic and environmentally significant site, overlooking Marina Bay.
It can be a herculean task to get such a large and diverse group to work together and at times our cross-disciplinary group of teachers were stretched to our limit trying to inspire, support and move the students forward. Group members were tired and stressed trying to get all their work done in an intensive design sprint that lasted just five days. There were misunderstandings and issues with group dynamics which led to tears and frustrations. Despite the challenges, this colossal task has rendered something magical - all groups came together to create innovative solutions to the challenge posed and ultimately have learned the power of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
By working together, travelling together and eating together daily; students learned from each other - carried the same burdens, shared in the same ups and downs and became a community. As a result, they have made friends for life and are now equipped with the knowledge and global network to innovate and solve our pressing global challenges. A truly sustainable future can only be achieved when we all work together and HEIs have the responsibility to achieve standards that support educators and students, such as creating strong internal support structures and educational opportunities, to come up with entrepreneurial solutions to social problems.
End notes:
1. A phenomenon in which the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay's current (UNESCO, 2024).
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2024), “New Colombo Plan,” https://www.dfat.gov.au/people-to-people/new-colombo-plan Accessed 22 Septmeber 2024.
Britannica.com (2024), ‘Narai, King of Siam,’ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Narai Accessed 22 September 2024.
Strathern, Alan (2019) “Tensions and Experimentations of King Narai and his response to Missionary overatures in the 1680s,” Oxford University Research Archive, https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7c5abf1e-6f29-47e3-b2aa-c383d96a8438/files/m0d914eece690cf947ae6ed5ea341cb12 Accessed 22 September 2024.
The Met Museum (2024), “Cannon: Siamese” MetMuseum.org, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/699578 Accessed 22 September 2024.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2024) “The 17 Sustainability Goals,” https://sdgs.un.org/goals Accessed 22 September 2024.
UNESCO (2024) “Historic City of Ayutthaya,” UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/576 Accessed 22 September 2024.
.
Images courtesy of the author.