Category Archives: Events

Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lecture – Leung Ping-Kwan

Wat Lecture 2011The Department of Asian Studies is pleased to invite you to attend the 2011-12 Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lecture and its associated activities.

Transformative Identities: Literary Adaptation and Cultural Negotiation in Hong Kong Cinema of the 1950s
Leung Ping-Kwan
Chair Professor of Comparative Literature, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Wednesday, October 5, 7-9pm (reception starts 6pm)
Auditorium, Asian Centre

EVENTS IN CONJUNCTION

Research Seminar: “The Second Writing Career of Eileen Chang”
Monday, October 3, 4-6pm, Room 604 Asian Centre

October Harvest: Chinese and English Poetry Recital (Oct 6)
Thursday, October 6, 3-5pm, Dodson Room, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

Workshop: “Intersecting Critical & Creative Practices in Academia”
Friday, October 7, 3-5:30pm, Room 2200, Harbour Centre, SFU

For more details, please visit http://www.asia.ubc.ca/watlecture/2011leung.

Mingle @ Asian Library

Mingle @ Asian LibraryCome and join us on September 28th in our 2011 orientation event! In a relaxed atmosphere, grab a cup of coffee, chat with our friendly librarians on anything you want to know about the Library.  You can also check out the new look of our website and our first orientation video.  If you think you know Asian Library pretty well already, challenge yourself with the library games and you will win a prize! So drop by anytime between 3:00 and 6:00pm and say hi to us!

WCILCOS 2012 Conference: Chinese Through the Americas

University of British Columbia’s Asian Library is pleased to announce that, in cooperation with the Ohio University Libraries, it will host the 5th WCILCOS International Conference of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies on Chinese through the Americas. The event will be held May 16th to 19th, 2012 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

The conference now seeks roundtable, panel and paper proposals as well as poster presentations. Please visit http://wcilcos.library.ubc.ca for details.

New Westminster Multicultural Festival (May 21)

UBC Asian Library and the CHRP program will join the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS) this Saturday (May 21) at the New Westminster Multicultural Festival.

From 12 noon to 5:30pm, visit our booths at the Fraser River Discovery Centre, say hi to our friendly Indic Librarian and Chinese Language Community Archivist, or watch a few educational short films at the theater.   Learn more about the Asian heritage and culture through the interactive games and demonstrations.  You’ll also find music performances, fashion shows and other fun proprams  at the River Market and Hyack Square.  For more information, please visit VAHMS website at http://vahms.org/2011/04/new-westminster-multicultural-festival/

Asian Library Open House 2011: Spring Book Sale

Spring is back, so is our popular annual book sale! As the part II of Asian Library Open House 2011, this book sale carries new, used, and hard-to-find books and magazines in different Asian languages (mainly Chinese and Korean) and some in English.  Prices range from 10 cents to $5 but most of them are 50 cents only!   You should find books you like!  Bring a tote bag with you.  ALL ITEMS CASH and CARRY.

Same day at Asian Centre:

IDENTIVERSE: Group Exhibition of UBC 3rd Year Painting & 4th Year Art Theory – Some of the exhibit shown in our Open House Part I continues to be on display on the upper floor of the Library.

Vancouver Mokuyokai’s 27th Annual Ohanami
(Cherry Blossom Viewing Festival)

Celebrate spring under the cherry blossoms with a tea ceremony, garden tour, haiku writing, kamishibai (Japanese storytelling), origami, yukata-dressing, Japanese food and traditional music at UBC Nitobe Garden, an authentic Japanese garden illuminated by lantern-light for this special event. At 6pm, ring the Pacific Bell outside UBC Asian Centre and send your prayers to those affected by Japan earthquake. For details please visit Vancouver Mokuyokai Society’s website.

Eleanor’ Message

Message from Eleanor Yuen
Head, Asian Library
University
of British Columbia

This year, we are celebrating our 50th birthday truly at another new era of knowledge creation and curation.

We know that it is imperative that we revisit our roles, re-configure our service model and repurpose our facilities. From the inception with the amassing of Chinese and Japanese classics in humanities to being the very place that users at UBC and beyond turn to for information on Asia, we have filled our shelves, physical and virtual with more than 580,000 items and delivered information on multiple platforms that is rich with databases, web sites, blogs, videos, images, audios and much more. We respond to users’ changing study habits and demands, face-to-face or online through social networks. Our commitments to the community run deep and we have been welcoming an exponential number of community members. We are privileged to call the beautiful Asian Centre home but we have yet to improve the functionalities of the space and the ambience of the library.

Our 2010 team of ten needs to champion the necessary transition from print to on-line collections and help patrons to adapt to the state-of-art information skills. Predictions about information trends and future technologies may always be fraught with uncertainty. While we are excited by the opportunities on the horizon, we also have to reposition ourselves for the burgeoning virtual world and the growing and diverse user communities that support and challenge us. It is no long satisfying to find strength in the supremacy of number. Rather, with the largest Asian collection in Canada in seven languages as the cornerstone of the library, we must stay forward-looking, courageous, agile and adaptable.

Together with our users, may we strive to bridge Asian culture with that of Canada and indeed North America and be a living library of Asian studies and research in the new era of information ecology.

Could we combine wisdom of the east
with the progress or “push” of the west in a Latin phase of 3 or 4 words
Sketch of UBC Crescent Frank Westbrook fonds, Box 1-17

Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
— All things are changing, and we are changing with them

Cheers to the three “r” s at the Asian Library!

Peter Ward Open Essay Contest

In celebration of the Asian Library’s 50th birthday, UBC Library is pleased to announce the Peter Ward Open Essay Contest.

The contest’s theme is “How has the Asian Library helped you achieve your goals?” It aims to challenge students and community users to review their experiences and contemplate the Asian Library’s future. Essay topics on collections, services, facilities, space and your vision of the Asian Library will be accepted.

The winning essayist will receive $500!

At the Asian Library, we strive to bridge Asian, Canadian and North American cultures so we are truly a living library of Asian studies and research. We respond to users’ changing study habits and demands, face-to-face or online. Our commitments to the community also run deep.

We are privileged to call the beautiful Asian Centre home – but we would like to improve the Library’s space and ambience. By sharing your experiences and ideas, you will be part of a milestone in the Asian Library’s development.

ESSAY ENTRY DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 20, 2010

Essay submissions will be judged by a panel of UBC faculty and librarians. Entrants are encouraged to use images, videos, sound files and other formats to illustrate their ideas.

Application Rules:

  1. The contest is open to all.
  2. All entries must be received (mail or electronic) on or before deadline date. Mail to:

Peter Ward Essay Contest
The Asian Library
1871 West Mall, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z2

OR submit by e-mail to asian.library@ubc.ca

  1. Submissions in any ONE of the following languages will be accepted: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Punjabi, Indonesian, English.
  2. All essays must be titled and signed, accompanied by an electronic file.
  3. Essays must contain a minimum of 1,000 words and no more than 1,500 words.
  4. Essays must be typed, double-spaced, on one-sided 8.5 x 11-inch paper.
  5. Student entries should include the name of the school or university the entrant is attending.
  6. All entries must include a cover sheet with the entrant’s legal name, mailing address, e-mail address if available and telephone number.
  7. The Asian Library retains the right to quote, publish or upload the essays in part or in entirety for administrative and educational purposes.
  8. All entries become the property of the Asian Library and will not be returned to the writers.

The winner will be notified by mail or e-mail and invited for the presentation of the award on March 5, 2010 at UBC.

UBC Asia Voila ! 2009

Come out to UBC’s beautiful northwest quadrant and enjoy some of the many Asia-related cultural resources on campus! to celebrate the Asian Heritage Month. This is the first-of-kind event in UBC which involves more than 10 University departments and units offering a one-day event to celebrate Asian Heritage Month.

Asia Voilà features traditional Asian dance and music performances, films, art and photo exhibitions, lectures on poetry chanting and calligraphy, guided library tours and workshops, an Asian languages round robin, a book sale, Nitobe Garden tours and more! Please visit the ASIA VOILA website for more info.