From Mao to Now: Reflections on Canada-China Relations Since 1970
In September of 1970, Professor Jan Walls started teaching Chinese language and literature at UBC. Soon after, Canada and China established diplomatic relations, and began their first official student and scholar exchange programs. As the featured lecturer for 2019, Professor Walls will discuss his 40-year involvement with Canada-China educational and cultural relations which includes a secondment to the Canadian Embassy, his roles in the founding of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, SFU's David Lam Centre for International Communication, and more.
Following the talk, we will also consider contemporary issues related to China's relationship with Canada. Dr. Diana Lary, Professor Emerita from UBC History, will provide a guest response. The Q&A will be facilitated by Dr. Henry Yu (CCHSBC Board of Directors).
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Time: 7:00PM - 8:30PM
Location: Alice McKay Room, Central Library (VPL), 350 West Georgia Street
Click here to download the poster.
No registration required, but you can join our Facebook event here.
This event is the third session of CCHSBC's annual Paul and Eileen Lin Commemorative Lecture series, and a partnership between the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC and the Vancouver Public Library.
Following the talk, we will also consider contemporary issues related to China's relationship with Canada. Dr. Diana Lary, Professor Emerita from UBC History, will provide a guest response. The Q&A will be facilitated by Dr. Henry Yu (CCHSBC Board of Directors).
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Time: 7:00PM - 8:30PM
Location: Alice McKay Room, Central Library (VPL), 350 West Georgia Street
Click here to download the poster.
No registration required, but you can join our Facebook event here.
This event is the third session of CCHSBC's annual Paul and Eileen Lin Commemorative Lecture series, and a partnership between the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC and the Vancouver Public Library.
Speaker
Jan Walls, one of the founding directors of the CCHSBC fifteen years ago, and a supporter of the Soong Ching Ling Children’s Foundation of Canada in the 1980s, came to Vancouver in September 1970 to teach Chinese language and literature in the Asian Studies Department at the University of British Columbia. One month later, Canada and China established diplomatic relations, and within a couple of years Canada and China began their first official student and scholar exchange programs.
Jan was involved in the hosting of the first Chinese graduate students to come to UBC, and was involved in subsequent academic and cultural exchanges up to and beyond his retirement in 2006. In the early 1970s, before subsequent large-scale cultural exchanges were permitted, Vancouver’s people-to-people exchanges with the PRC were carried out through the local Canada-China Friendship Association. As a member of their board of directors, Jan was involved in organizing such non-governmental exchange activities. He attended monthly board meetings in the back room of Wally Lee’s China Arts and Crafts store on East Hastings Street.
Jan moved to the University of Victoria in 1978 to be the founding Director of the Centre for Pacific and Oriental Studies, which has since grown into today’s Department of Pacific & Asian Studies. The following year, Canada and China signed a bilateral agreement on academic exchanges that included a visiting-scholars program and encouraged new linkage agreements for the exchange of degree students and research scholars as organized by universities and colleges in both countries. This opened the flood gates for academic exchanges. More than 2,000 Chinese academics visited Canada between 1979 and 1983, and from 1971 to 1983, as many as 400 Canadian students went to China for academic purposes, about half of them through the formal Canada-China Student Exchange Agreement. By 1983, twenty-four Canadian universities had or were negotiating bilateral exchanges with Chinese counterparts. In the spring of 1981, Jan worked with UVic President Howard Petch to arrange the conferring of an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree on Soong Ching Ling (aka Madame Sun Yat-Sen), which took place in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
In addition to his involvement in the above activities, Jan was seconded for two years from UVic to the Canadian Embassy as First Secretary for Cultural and Scientific Affairs, active in the founding of both the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (1985 to 1987) and SFU’s David Lam Centre for International Communication, and involved in Canada's CIDA and IDRC-supported academic and community development projects in China.
Jan was involved in the hosting of the first Chinese graduate students to come to UBC, and was involved in subsequent academic and cultural exchanges up to and beyond his retirement in 2006. In the early 1970s, before subsequent large-scale cultural exchanges were permitted, Vancouver’s people-to-people exchanges with the PRC were carried out through the local Canada-China Friendship Association. As a member of their board of directors, Jan was involved in organizing such non-governmental exchange activities. He attended monthly board meetings in the back room of Wally Lee’s China Arts and Crafts store on East Hastings Street.
Jan moved to the University of Victoria in 1978 to be the founding Director of the Centre for Pacific and Oriental Studies, which has since grown into today’s Department of Pacific & Asian Studies. The following year, Canada and China signed a bilateral agreement on academic exchanges that included a visiting-scholars program and encouraged new linkage agreements for the exchange of degree students and research scholars as organized by universities and colleges in both countries. This opened the flood gates for academic exchanges. More than 2,000 Chinese academics visited Canada between 1979 and 1983, and from 1971 to 1983, as many as 400 Canadian students went to China for academic purposes, about half of them through the formal Canada-China Student Exchange Agreement. By 1983, twenty-four Canadian universities had or were negotiating bilateral exchanges with Chinese counterparts. In the spring of 1981, Jan worked with UVic President Howard Petch to arrange the conferring of an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree on Soong Ching Ling (aka Madame Sun Yat-Sen), which took place in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
In addition to his involvement in the above activities, Jan was seconded for two years from UVic to the Canadian Embassy as First Secretary for Cultural and Scientific Affairs, active in the founding of both the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (1985 to 1987) and SFU’s David Lam Centre for International Communication, and involved in Canada's CIDA and IDRC-supported academic and community development projects in China.
Respondent
Dr. Diana Lary is a Professor Emerita of History at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Lary specializes in Modern Chinese History and her current research interests include Chinese Migration (especially internal), Canada and Hong Kong connections, Chinese military, the impact of warfare on Chinese society; regionalism in China, focusing on Shandong and Guangxi provinces; the Zhuang people of southern China and colour symbolism in Chinese culture.
After Graduating from the University of London, Dr. Lary held many positions in addition to her teaching appointments, including: Director, Centre of Chinese Research, Institute of Asian Research, UBC; Co-Director, Canada & Hong Kong Project, Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, Toronto; General editor, UBC Press Series on Modern China; Research Associate, David See-chai Lam Centre, Simon Fraser University; External advisor, Hong Kong Culture project, University of Hong Kong; Researcher at the Asia Pacific Foundation.
Her recent publications include China’s Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2007), The Chinese State at the Borders (University of British Columbia Press, 2007) and The Chinese People at War (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Her upcoming publication is a general study of Chinese migration.
After Graduating from the University of London, Dr. Lary held many positions in addition to her teaching appointments, including: Director, Centre of Chinese Research, Institute of Asian Research, UBC; Co-Director, Canada & Hong Kong Project, Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, Toronto; General editor, UBC Press Series on Modern China; Research Associate, David See-chai Lam Centre, Simon Fraser University; External advisor, Hong Kong Culture project, University of Hong Kong; Researcher at the Asia Pacific Foundation.
Her recent publications include China’s Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2007), The Chinese State at the Borders (University of British Columbia Press, 2007) and The Chinese People at War (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Her upcoming publication is a general study of Chinese migration.