何总讲那过去的故事。如今已是跨行业，跨地区的亿元产业集团。又一家白手起家的知识型企业。我十年来目睹了它的成长。
Michael Meng on Yale Library and China[/caption]
I was among the 6 large East Asian Libraries’ reps presenting on our libraries. I have discovered some amazing new directions from my counterparts. I need to revise my PPT for the next step. More questions from both UBCV and UBCO in my mailbox, that deserves action first.
The Manchuria Workshop was hosted by our own Norman Smith at the IAR co sponsored by the CCR. I helped Norman when I first started at UBC, with his research on women writers and the Japanese occupation. Glad to know he made that project into the first book in English on women’s history in twentieth-century Manchuria. More impressive was that he has published two more books.
I was glad to see Prof. Sun from St. Mary’s and David Luesink, who is moving on to U. of Pittsburgh in August, and asked me to introduce him to Haihui. I enjoyed the chat with Victor from Harvard and CJ from Yale. Their Mandarin is equally fluent as their English. They have been working with a large amount of archives from China, Japan, Russia, and even resources from Korea. I will trace some archives in June from various institutions in Beijing for 4 requests from our PoliSci and History Ph.Ds.
11月9日的飞机居然准点到达白云机场。在咖啡座等了树勇片刻，欣赏着窗外繁茂的草木。
晚饭时分，广州外商酒店的大堂被这帮老朋友的reunion渲染得其热无比。虽然每年都在美国见Soren，但他和沈津老师一样，到国内工作，这次在广州有机会向他请教实在难得。
大师兄一见面就高喊，“比北京好多了吧？！” 我忍不住大笑，想起他几天前穿衬衫在北京大雪中奔跑的情形。他还是怀念春天在温哥华的聚会。遇到不少港台的同仁，都对敝校环境津津乐道，让我有了想家的感觉。
在这岁末冬初的季节，漫步在中山大学的校园。除了闹中取静的图书馆的书香，还有各种岭南花草暗香浮动。深深地呼吸，我告诫自己要好好地学习和感受。
We saw this winter’s first snow in Beijing and it didn’t stop people from attending the PKU conference. More people showed up at the Opening than expected despite the slushy road condition. Mary Lee Kennedy and Ingrid’s speeches were quite impressive.
Catherine Quinlan, our former UL, and now at USC, was presenting on her current library in a super fast pace. Zhijia was humble as usual. Her experience and tips of working with the National Central Library in Taiwan are quite useful for our projects, such as: to get the conservation money ready before they started their rare book digitization.
Heavy fog at Beijing airport delayed my flight. When we landed in Narita, it was packed. Foreingers are required to take finger prints and photos, which slowed down further. On the way to Ueno, it was getting dark. It took me entire Saturday for this short flight.
Rachel picked me up on Sunday morning and took me to the National Museum. Its arrangment is very friendly, many buildings and smaller rooms with a beautiful garden. We spent hours there and didn’t feel tired at all. There’s special exhibit on Chinese ancient empires. Many rooms’ introduction stated the influence of China and Korea. Very low profile attitude, but the exhibits themselves present us the adaptive creativity of Japanese people.
On our way to meet Dr. Lo’s and Paul Kelly, we stepped into this bookstore, packed like in the Narita airport.
Never looked back until the LDO pushed me a few times. Vivienne followed up over the phone and asked for some rough numbers and dates. Then I am suprised by how many friends I have made globally and how much I have learnt from those activities. If the Collaborative Virtual Reference is considered as the fun start, then winning the BC Scholars to China and TLEF Fund has gained me financial support to reach out and wide. When I tried to slow down now, more and more invitations are rushing in. Our library users benefit the most and above all, I enjoyed all those long jurneys. 读完卷书不如行万里路,行万里路不如阅人无数，阅人无数不如名师指路，名师指路不如自己去悟. Glad I have experienced all these, and now just follow my own heart and select those work I like the best.
Chris wrote from Australia on TARUMOTO Teruo’s 樽本照雄 新編增補清末民初小説目錄, which can be made into a value-added project by librarians. I am glad Harvard colleagues share the same interest. Tarumoto sensei reminds me about those independent scholars at the Conference two weeks ago.
Rudy Chiang’s presentation on BC salmon canneries was fascinating. I figured he must have come up with those questions from his own work as fish quality specialist, like “Who were those 76 Chinese fishermen recorded in New Westminster’s 1881 Census?” “What’s the dollar amount of 1904 canned salmon pack from the Chinese and First Nations crew (1.7 million)?” I could sense his excitement from his findings.
Maurice Guibord’s project on transformations of landscape, architecture and burial practices in local cemeteries is quite different from UBC folks’ projects. He sounded even more exciting when the attendee lady from Cuba asked him question in Spanish. I had a pleasant chat with him at lunch time, and he left after lunch for his Francophone Historical Society event.
It is time to have some reflection on the conference, which now seems to go down in history.
Finally, warm weather came, and good friends are leaving. It’s our lost and Sillicon Valley’s gain! At the party, I was reminded about the readership of this blog. So, I am back here to say good-bye.
We are touched by you love birds and enjoyed our friendship. We are happy for your career development. Enjoy the sun, the new house and stay in touch!
The campus is so quiet on this rainy Monday, as if I could hear the petals falling off the magnolia trees by IKBLC. Solving a mystery of a series with messy bib records as soon as I walked into the library, turned out it’s a call-back set from Surrey storage. This reminds me several recent reference requests, the Three-year Plan and a new in-depth research season.
Just confirmed with Katherine on new Forestry students’ orientation in July, still owe Bronwen the DigitalProjectApproval forms this week, and would love to develop my online course when Caroline is here to help.
Dr. Cheng, Prof. Gu and Patrick are still waiting for my part. More urgent research tasks are our book charpter for SCSL and the PPT for WCILCOS conferecne, although I don’t understand why we need to submit the PPT, since our whole papers are already on files. With this much workload, not sure if I can get away for Shangri La and Guilin this summer, although I miss the harmonious beauty in these two places.
