Chinese Canadian Library Weblog

Receiving several questions on Chinese databases. Our graduate students are very confused. They would assume if a serial title is covered, all its issues and full-text articles would be available. When we ran into so many unavailable ones this week, I could sense the frustration from our students, but the vendors could easily say “NO”. 郁闷！

On another hand, if our ILL lends so many articles out, could they help bring some in? What really frustrates me is these databases don’t give page numbers, so the ILL online form wouldn’t take the requests. Will need help from Mr. Winter, and alert users on the information pages.

True Hero Color of Dr. Li Guoqing and Dr. Cheng Huanwen

Southern beauty--Dr. Jiang Shuyong and Dr. Chen Qi

Entertaining old friends at Spanish Bank Beaches 不亦乐乎？
No time to debrief WCILCOS and already busy for accumulated reference requests, follow-up referrals and this ALADN conference.

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.

Professor Kellee Tsai from Johns Hopkins was invited to Political Science as a distinguished speaker. Lots of my friends attended Johns Hopkins Nanjing Centre. Prof. Tsai’s talk was held in Buchanan Penthouse in the unusually warm and bright Friday afternoon. She compared migration and diaspora capital flows in China and India, which she thinks should be incorporated into explainations of development. Prof. Tsai proposed to reconsider conventional capital in the two countries. She used the stats of 56 millions of Chinese residing in 120 countries and regions, which is pretty close to the Chinese official number–45 millions in the past 30 years, just difference time span. She explained that the number is more general and diasporas more refers to network. She made a joke of herself as not networked, alone and from New Jersey.

I wasn’t suprised to see many familiar faces at the talk. Reference requests from PolSci are increasing, and now with a list of new book purchasing request. I can’t wait to read Prof’s Tsai’s two most cited books in her field. Hope to see her new book soon.

My regular Thursday TS work was interrupted, and I had to return to Asian. Peking U. Library Director, Dr. Zhu Qiang, just arrived in town for Ingrid’s Presidential program. Shakeela came to Asian Library first to arrange for another group of VIP visitors. I picked enough rare objects from the vault right before Dr. Zhu showed up accompanied by Alvan and Jo Anne.

I met Dr. Zhu last Oct. in Xiamen. He only spent three days here. He asked about current teaching and research in China Studies, and he knows some profs at UBC. The upper floor didn’t impress him much, and he requested to see the special collection right away. He pointed out that our Puban Collection cataloguing is incomplete. PKU has a scientific lab that can test the age of ancient rarebooks. He even invited me to PKU. 朱馆虽然话不多，但是颇有气场。

Really exited reading Benjamin’s final paper and receiving more in-depth research questions. Glad to receive the rare items from UCSD, U of Chicago and China for Jonnathan, Noa and Gary. Cherry blossoms are late this year, so are the final weeks.

Good relaxation activity -- snow owl watching

This program was nearby. I skipped lunch and tried to attend, but was almost stopped by a reference request on the way out. I felt guilty saying “no”, but did and rushed out. Besides the methods of relaxation, learning to say “no” really struck me.

Quite often, I skip lunch or spend too much time on non-UBC users’ requests, because I thought we are the last stop in this country for the information they seek. Today, I had three-class visit with last minute notice. I agreed to take care of them, because I was away and then sick, and so this is the last chance. I am glad I did and still feeling high now by answering their questions. Good students!

Just received Jonathan’s confirmation of receiving the rare movie DVD from UCSD Library. Still searching for the rare early 20th Century’s Shanghai journals for Gary. I am glad I don’t have to say “no” to our own folks thanks to my world-wide pro connections.

This year’s CEAL conference focused on the TS restructure, and we at UBC have been there and have done it. Keynote speech by Prof. Dai Jinhua, Friendship with my fellow CEAL members and ROM visit are some highlights of the trip.

Thanks to Stephen’s invitation and arrangement, I was able to skip the official visit to UT and ROM on the 15th, and made it to the keynote. We arrived in the Grand Ballroom earlier to occupy the front seats. Gail Hershatter, the president of the association greeted Haihui and chatted about the necessity of the English version of her book. Zhong Jing had an exciting catch-up with her Peking U prof. Dai. I only read Dai’s writing on Chinese cinema for the MAPPS. She’s tall, has a firm voice, which makes her speech more poweful. Instead of movie or popular culture critic, she criticized both communism and developmental capitalism in the post cold-war era. She tried to redefine current nature of the Chinese society, its class structure and a new global position.

Haihui has gained all my respect from previous years’ workshops and conference. No matter how intensive the programs are, she always makes time talking and encouraging me with her insights and ideas as a historian. I have found the book she recommended in Koerner: The Warmth of Other Suns.

The Royal Ontorio Museum special visit from its back door was once in a life time experience. We were amazed by Dr. Shen’s intro–over 30,000 objects from imperial China, and only less than 10% is on current display. Over 8,000 people visit the museum everyday during the spring break. We spent a whole afternoon there and were still excited at dinner time reflecting on our visit. Like those stories behind the artifacts and our rare books, there is a fate in everything, so is in our friendship. Feel lucky among my kind and knowledgeable CEAL fellows. Stephen is especially helpful with the Council and Society’s official programs and our small group annual tradition. No regret on this trip. When I rushed through the city centre blocks between meetings, I saw the CN Tower behind some skyscrapers, but had no time to pay a visit. Caught my evening flight with very sleepy eyes. Is it the jet lag? or the bright sunset in Toronto?

The flight convinced me how large Canada is. It was late, but I am glad that the pilot didn’t take sick leave. Caught the airport express and arrived at Sheraton around midnight.

Wonder if that is the old City Hall outside of our hotel room window

Our room on the 17th floor faces the City Hall, the landmark building opened in 1965, and the only one I can recognize during this first visit. I am sure Stephen will fill my knowledge gap on his city and entertain us with great programs.