{"id":1,"date":"2015-05-12T08:35:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T08:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/?p=1"},"modified":"2015-06-05T20:22:56","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T03:22:56","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/2015\/05\/12\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Intro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi there! My name is Timothy Choi and I have just wrapped up my third year of studies at the University of British Columbia with a double major in piano performance and English Literature. I am doing this blog as partial fulfillment of the course requirements for English 470, Canadian Studies. In this course we will uncover the ways in which we can intervene in the development and attitudes surrounding Canadian literature, while analyzing the ways in which stories are told as well as which stories we hear and do not hear.<\/p>\n

I will be honest; the sole reason why I am taking Canadian Studies is because it is mandatory for the completion of my English Literature major requirements. I have not read many works by Canadian authors, and I had done so only because it was required of me in one of my first year classes. It isn\u2019t that I hold anything against Canadian literature; it\u2019s just that there is nothing particular that strikes me as interesting about what people have to say about Canada. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s not as though I haven\u2019t tried. In fact, I think I have tried harder than most people in this country to make sense of Canadian identity and to expose myself to all the experiences this country has to offer in hopes of uncovering its core attributes. When I was 15, I participated in Encounters with Canada<\/a>, a program that allows youth to connect and meet from all across Canada in Ottawa for a week to learn and discuss a specific theme (my week was International Affairs). In the summer before entering university, I participated in the Explore<\/a> program, where I spent five beautiful weeks in Jonquiere, Quebec learning French in the intensely Francophone environment. Both attempts at understanding Canadian identity more or less failed for me, but this summer I will embark on my third (and perhaps most ambitious) attempt. Paired with what I will learn and experience from this course, I will spend five weeks in Moncton with Explore and use this opportunity to experience the culture of the Maritime provinces. Following the end of the program in August, I will take a coast-to-coast train<\/a> ride back to Vancouver, stopping in major cities along the way and passing through the varied and spectacular landscapes Canada has to offer. If I don\u2019t feel any more Canadian after this summer, I don\u2019t think anything could change me.<\/p>\n

\"Canadian<\/a>

Stories of nationhood: fables to beguile young men to their early graves?<\/p><\/div>\n

I am constantly skeptical towards the ideas that justify nationalism, and my background no doubt has something to do with this belief. Born a British citizen while Hong Kong was still a colony of the UK and never having received a Chinese passport, I became a Canadian citizen when I moved to Vancouver at age seven. Nationality seems to me like a mere title; when I visited UK for the first time last summer<\/a>, it certainly did not feel like home, even though on paper I am, before I was ever anything else, a citizen of the UK. Even more odd and ironic is the fact that I am an ethnic Han Chinese who is not recognized as such on paper, even though anyone who looks at me can see that I am Chinese. The political reality of Canada feels to me like another remnant of colonialism from one and a half centuries ago. The fact that we continue to create stories for ourselves about how we are one nation feels to me like we are trying to preserve the legacy\u00a0of colonialism, while failing or unwilling to acknowledge that our country is simply too diverse and dissimilar to justify or even validate the existence of a national identity. I already foresee myself playing the role of devil\u2019s advocate in the class discussions, but I think it will enrich my understanding of what is Canada and challenge the beliefs of my peers, so we will all get something good out of my cynicism. I look forward to some lively and stimulating debates from my classmates!<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WORKS CITED<\/p>\n

Choi, Timothy. “Timothy goes to Europe”.\u00a0Timothy9<\/em>. Travellerspoint. N.p. 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 May 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

Choi, Timothy. “Tyne Cot.” 2014. JPEG.<\/p>\n

“Explore”\u00a0Explore.<\/em>\u00a0N.p.\u00a0<\/em>n. d. Web. 14 May 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Home”\u00a0Encounters with Canada.<\/em>\u00a0N.p. n.d. Web. 14 May 2015.<\/p>\n

“Toronto-Vancouver Train” \u00a0Via Rail. <\/em>N.p.\u00a0n.d. Web. 14 May 2015.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi there! My name is Timothy Choi and I have just wrapped up my third year of studies at the University of British Columbia with a double major in piano performance and English Literature. I am doing this blog as partial fulfillment of the course requirements for English 470, Canadian Studies. In this course we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31833,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31833"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/coasttocoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}