Category: Life

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Events Life Reference Questions What others are saying

A Hot Red Week

Reference requests rushed in last week. Asian Studies’ new year party attracted many people. I could only stood at the back for a short time. A white student asked for some ghost stories from Ming so he could compare with Liao Zhai. I just assumed he wanted English translation, until he confirmed that he really wanted to read the original scripts from China. I am glad to see the growth of non-heritage students at the party and the library.

Worked on Saturday and still receiving “happy New year” greetings in Engling-Cantonese and other languages. One Chinese student complained about hearing “kung hei fat choy” so often this time of the year, and it shouldn’t be considered as typical Chinese new year greetings. Sigh, what can I say?

Hard to believe that our students want to perform Peking Opera in English. Translated scripts, costumes, make-up, lots for them to learn before they can put up a show, but they are keen on real Jingju. Our traditional script translations are too old, but we do have a few. Thanks to Ye Ding’s personal experience and referral. Dr. Elizebath Wichman-Walzac, Chair of Theater Department of University of Hawaii, seems to be the pioneer in performing Jingju in English in North America. From 1985 onwards, she translated, directed and performed one Jingju play every four years. The famous ones such as Phoenix Returns to Nest (the script was published), Jade Hall of Spring, Judge Bao, The Yang Family Generals, etc. She directed remarkable performances. Wonder if she has published her script translations.

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Experience Life Professional Development

温哥华的冬天

本来这里的冬天就不冷，而今年尤其如此。 阳光灿烂的日子很多。但是又有几位同行朋友离开。沁沁已经荣获西安大略大学的职位，朱磊乔迁硅谷，黄祺也将告别温哥华。假期忙着给他们送行，心中难免有些失落。但是，我们不都随着工作四海为家吗？收到他们的来信或者电话，语气中已经没有了最初的惆怅。 龙年将至，祝那些在温哥华相识相知的朋友们过得更好!

下班时月光下的校园

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Experience Life

Hua Mulan’s Home Town, 11/04/2011

Thanks to Wuhan Library’s arrangement, we left skyscrapers and heavy traffic behind us, drove into a village–Da Yu Wan (大余湾）. The retired library head, Mr. Yu, in Huangpi, Hubei Province, entertained us proudly with his own rhymes about his and Mulan’s hometown. It’s a well-known historical place with a mountain, a river and a lake all named after Mulan. On the top of the Mulan Mountain, stands Mulan’s shrine. People around the world come here to worship this legendary figure. Besides Mulan, many people from this village became scholars, goverment officials in different dynasties or regimes.


Mr. Yu showed us dozens of residents from Ming and Qing. They are all connected, and we could walk through different households for the entire block. From Mr’s Yu’s talks and poems, I could sense the influence of Mulan. He refused all the rewards and retired to his hometown just like Mulan did a thousand years ago. He volunteered on restoring his village to previous settings from his childhood memory.

Mr. Yu stands in front of the Ming Dynasty walls.
On the way, we saw some constructions and old ponds cleanning. Some new paint covered the slogans of cultural revoluation period. I came at the right time, still got to see the marks left by time and the wars in the past 600 years.
Our group caught attention of villagers. This 86 year-old invited us for tea, and told us that young people are quite cosmopolitan nowadays. Lots of them are working in cities and even in the US or Japan. I stopped and sat by this lonely old man, listened to his stories.

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Events Experience Libraries in China Life News & Announcement

Donation to the Orphanage, 10/11/2011

First thing we did in China was to visit this orphanage in Fangshan District of Beijing city. Respresenting the Society, along with our vendor, Ms. Zhang Ying’s company, we donated new books to the lovely children and their loving care givers.

Helen in the baby room reminded me about our Helen (Kim)'s plan.
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Events Experience Instructions Libraries in China Life News & Announcement Professional Development

怀念黄宗忠教授

武汉市馆的开幕式上，陈传夫突然低声说， 黄老师走了。 培训的事就在眼前， 各位领导还在讲话， 我却忍不住走出了报告厅。徐鸿和我在厦门黄老生日那天想打电话祝寿，可是很晚都没人接电话。刚到武汉就听到噩耗，走廊里魏主任看出了我的异常，我说只是需要安静地怀念一下我的老师。

我高考那年是黄老师代表武大到北京招生的。受〈女大学生宿舍〉的影响一心想上武大，第一志愿新闻系，第二才是图书馆系。高考成绩比我想像的高出不少，满以为这辈子会当上记者，不料到了武汉， 出席的是图书馆的迎新会。 黄老师找到我， 说是他看到我的成绩，主动把我录取到图书馆专业。新闻系刚成立，无法与图书馆系相提并论。我当时实在不能理解这一生就如此注定了。现在想来，黄老师的决策和教诲至关重要。遗憾的是我不能参加他的葬礼，但是我回来了，是反馈培育过我的导师和我度过4年青春岁月的城市。 黄老师，您的话都应验了。 我以身为您的学生为荣，我知道您也为我骄傲!

Categories
Events Experience Life Recent Career Postings What others are saying

Launch a Career, where?

Last night’s event lasted much longer than it was scheduled. I was impressed by our international students who all spoke fluent English, experienced the globalization and about to launch their career world-wide. The French guy raised the good question on how to make his experience in Canada transferable. Chatted with a few students from Ukriane, who told me the common value of Ukrianian and Chinese culture. The hard-working girls from India and Japan in Forestry wonder about SLAIS program, and the sweet young guy from Thailand told me how much his sister enjoys working for the Indian software industry…

The Chinese students reminded me my own humble start. As of advice, I told them we all need to learn about ourselves first, and know what we really want to do, so we can land a career that will make us shine and enjoy working. While we try to cope with the study and learn the local culture and game rules, we should never lose our connections with our home town, where our strength came from the first place. I wasn’t surprised to hear their parents’ influence in their career choice. They already took their first step and came this far. I am really glad to see they have the help and support at the early stage at UBC.

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Life

What a life!

Zhang Ying (颖) has lost her fight with cancer. I am so shocking and sad loosing this young professional friend. She not only helped us and our users with publications from China, was the first one providing us with MARC records, taught us the publishing trends, but also influenced us with her passion for life and work. During my last trip to Beijing, I didn’t visit CNPIEC for I heard she’s going through some treatment in the hospital. I emailed her instead and received a cheerful reply as usual. I was relieved then but so saddened now. Ying lived a cherished life. She even led her last year with courage, peace and inspiration. I was so moved that she brought our Chinese librarians so close to each other even after she left us. I saw most email replies about contribution to her family, the record high in our list’s history. Her big smile will be always with me!

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Life

Comrade Zhang

Picture 067I was at the busy ref desk when I saw his smiling face. He proudly brought me his West Canada Weekly. This is the first time I saw Xiaomeng after he graduated. 略显消瘦的小萌自己创业，义无反顾地离开了我们的行业。他在闯荡中已经对温哥华内外的政商两界非常了解。春节前能见到这位老弟很高兴，而且今后本地媒体又多了自己人。我马上对他说，亚洲馆50周年的广告问题就由他解决了。年轻就是本钱呀！

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Experience Life Professional Development

Best Chinese New Year Gift!

While I try hard to recover from the nasty flu, I had a terrible car accident over the weekend. My new SUV is not drivable! The old gentleman who hits my car seems to be ok, and lucky enough I am OK.

I felt sorry and guilty for not getting together with the local librarian friends this year. 8 American friends are coming this week for the Olympics and stay in our house. When I feel a bit under depression and stress, Mindy’s greeting popped in and brighten up my weekend, so pasting here as a new year greeting to all of us. Way to go, Mindy!

Here is an early Happy Chinese New Year greeting to you! Ever since my LIS study years, I’ve always looked upon you as my mentor for librarianship, so I’d like to send you some updates about my work here at UCF. 2009 was quite a blessed year for me. I was nominated for the Excellence Librarianship award in my university and was selected after winning the most votes among the library faculty. It’s quite an honor and encouragement for a junior level librarian like me, since the awardees (one for each year since 1984) in other years are all veteran librarians with at least more than 10-15 years’ professional experience. Plus, the monetary side is also pretty attractive :>. The award will be presented in this April. As to services, I’m honored to be appointed to the upcoming chair for the FLA Continuing Committee and the Vice President/President-elect for the CALA SE Chapter.

Categories
Experience Life

Big Sisters

IMG_8747[1] ASIST年会把武汉大学的学姐们带来了温哥华。机场迎接了徐鸿和胡承仁大姐，到家她俩惊喜地发现校友先生。我们四个晚餐吃得很忙，聊的都是珞珈山下的故事，以及遍布全球的校友们。忙碌的工作和家务曾经有割裂过去的感觉，相聚唤醒了那段铭刻心底的青春岁月。
当年，黄宗中老师到北京招生，看到我第二志愿是图书馆系，就大笔一挥改变了我的一生。当他在迎新大会上告诉我实情的时候，他注意到了我的眼泪吗？现在回想起他的湖南普通话很亲切。如果不是他，我会有华大的奖学金吗？会享受参考咨询的辉煌年代吗？我现在会…?

周末载徐鸿周游大温，虽然不免会谈到工作，但更多的是人生。人到中年，走南闯北，人生历练足够写出长篇，不变的是在武大校园里就已造就的价值观。没有必要反问自己，“假如重新来过”云云。

Hong‘s still in town, Jane came from Texas, asking me to meet in Hyatt, ASIST’s conference site. Heather is coming this weekend from Montreal. Maybe, Danny the next. Good to know so many good friends. Lingbo just sent me something sweet, as if she knew what I’ve been up to:

GOOD FRIENDS ARE LIKE STARS.

YOU DON’T ALWAYS SEE THEM,

BUT YOU ALWAYS KNOW THEY ARE THERE!

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