Category: What others are saying
Dr. Bailey brought us the lovely poinsettia!
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.
First meeting is going around the table to introduce the 12 largest East Asian Library’s rare book collections. 
Ours ranks the top no.5 in size after LC, Harvard, Princeton and Berkeley, but are in the worst condition. Although a few other libraries haven’t finished their rare book cataloguing, such as LC and UW, they have digitized the rare titles. Just saw Rob’s email on the tested titles, that I can show the colleagues here in Beijing. Thanks Rob and to all your folks!
The Grant proposal was the only thing on my mind for over a week. Finally, I could left it with UW colleagues. Replied all messages by 6:45 pm, and felt like I need something to refresh my mind this Friday. Chris‘ talk at RPL was perfect! Not too academic, and very refreshing! 
He brought the audience back to 100 years ago on Chinese comic cultures. Unlike our common impression of that historical time, the print media was full of jokes and funny stories. I was especially impressed by the 1928 story of Female Toys, very funny. As Chris said, 80 years ago, the word humour made its way to China, but Chinese writers, like Han Yu, Wu Jianren talked about it in different ways before.
Glad to experience the wonderful program at my own community library, and found out a series of Chinese literature programs have been scheduled by Wendy. More UBC folks are coming to Richmond. I can’t make to another Chris‘ talk next week, but, Alison and our Chris will be back in April on Mo Yan. Rea (老雷） used mandarin through out the entire talk, and he made the audience wonder if he was half Chinese. He even made a couple of jokes afterwards with me and his students in Mandarin. Good sense of Humour!
The 10th year, and a couple of new changes: some mature students in 100 level Chinese language courses and they made the best performers. Preschool kids in the neighbourhood came and turned out to be the best audience. Yves, representing IAR, attended the event and gave speech in Chinese. Next year, the Asian Library should really work with the two departments from the very beginning. Some things never change at this annual event: our happy students and instructors. I am very proud of them making the largest program outside of China so strong and the lunar new year celebration so attractive.
Categories
Super Busy New Term
Before I unlock the door, Wu Meng and some other students are already waiting. Prof. Rea quickly caught me by the entrance, and asked questions right after he greeted me with a few words of new year blessings. Emails are rushing in with all kinds of requests. Walked with Alison on the way to TS, She was questioning about Long Yingtai’s documentary. I can’t simply turn our users away by telling them we are running out of the book budget… All reminds me it’s going to be a super fast-paced term.
I enjoyed learning from this Symposium held at the Sun Yat-sen U. Libraries. Just received the email on finalizing my paper to be included in the proceeding. Although
I understand the connection to Guangzhou, I was suprised by how many people approached me on collaboration proposals. I remember the complement of Mr. Yao Boyue from Peking U. and Prof. Lu Jintang from Taiwan U.
I made many new friends and feel lucky meeting those experts I only met in the virtual space before. Prof. Pan Jianguo, Mr. Wei Li, Ms. Li Yonghui, etc. I was happy to renew our friendship and learning from the mentors. Mr. Shen Jin, happily moved on from Harvard, he was very busy as the organizer. I was humbled by his closing remarks as my presentation “brought the attendees new knowledge”. Kept Soren waiting for the Li Erqiao’s manuscript and lots of interests in our collection, such as manuscripts and seals. Will try to email them this weekend.
Very impressed by the following presenters: Prof. Wang Guoliang from Taiwan U. on Qian Qianyi’s collection, Princeton’s Dr. Ma on Hong Yu Lou, Dr. Wang Lei from SYS U. on their Huizhou contract documents, NLC’s Li Jining, etc.
Stayed behind in Beijing for UBC access privelage and new requirements for vendors.
Presenting at CASS , suprisingly with new discovery and project proposals. Xu Huan at PKU and Joe from Apabi also asked for meetings, but it didn’t work out due to time restraints. Students and young librarians started sending me follow-up questions from Japan and Beijing. They and ref questions from home kept me busy working from hotel rooms.
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.