Assignment 1:1

Following the instructions in this lesson, set up your blog and write a short introduction (300 – 400 words) that includes at least two hyperlinks and a visual. This introduction should, 1) welcome your readers, 2) include a brief description of the course, and 3) some commentary on your expectations for this course of studies.

Hello Everyone! My name is Junyi Wu but you can call me Patrick if you want. I came to live in Vancouver last year and have since been engaged in the studies in UBC working towards my degree in Education. Other than fulfilling the English credits as the prerequisite of the teacher education programme, my selection of this course is mainly to do with my multi-cultural background and experience.

I come from Guangzhou, or Canton, the historic status of which chartered as the only Chinese port for overseas trade (1757-1842) has made it a distinguished intersection of Western and Oriental culture as the European and Arabian and Persian traders settling in. Known as the “cradle” of the Chinese modern revolution, Guangzhou also saw the departure of the country from its last imperial dynasty (of the Qing from 1644-1912) making its way through to the first ever modern nation-state in the mythical five thousand years of Chinese history (Sigel 283). Along with those critical historical events, there emerges the distinctive Cantonese culture which impacts the development of contemporary Cantonese literature. Such a multi-cultural background of mine enables me to develop an initial understanding of ENGL470 which is, in a way, to investigate how the Canadian Aboriginal culture characterised by story-telling and the colonial European literary culture encounter and interact over the process in which Canada as a nation and Canadian literature as a genre come into being.

The Canadian Indigenous studies are also relevant to my multi-cultural experience working on the Swedish Ship Götheborg, a replica of a 18^th century merchant vessle owned by the Swedish East Indian Company. I suppose its voyage to Guangzhou in 2006, in remembrance of the history of the trading between Sweden and China, would NOT have been much celebrated by the Cantonese had it been operated instead by the British East India Company which is arguably involved in the opium sales that lead to the first Opium War, or the Anglo-Chinese War, taking place in Guangzhou (Robins 81). Although Guangzhou did not end up being colonised as happened to Hong Kong, the kinship between the two Cantonese cities facilitates the exposure to the conflicting stories informed by divergent dimensions including the native mainland China ideology, characterised by the sense of a victim of Western imperialism, and in contrast the British colonizing narratives which defend the legitimacy of gaining territorial rights over Hong Kong. My understanding of the history of the British colonization of the Chinese land as well as my experience of dealing with the complexity of stories developed from different sources and presented accordingly in different ways might effectively enable my critical approach to the Canadian Indigenous history, which appears to be one of the major components of this course of Canadian studies.

One of the most significant characteristics of the Canadian Indigenous history seems to be the systematic and enduring discrimination that the Canadian Aboriginal people were subject to in Canada’s colonial history. The miserable experiences and painful feelings of the First Nations caused by institutional racism could be well identified with the Chinese who had to face the discrimination manifested through the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, or the Chinese Exclusion Act (Chinese), regardless the contribution they have made towards the growth and prosperity of the Canadian society e.g. in opening the virgin land of British Columbia (Brief). Personally my experience with discrimination did not happen on the Swedish sailing ship, nor in Britain where I studied my MSc and worked in the hospitality industry, but unfortunately here in Canada. I saw a man, who appeared to be a white and a drunk, shouting at a bunch of young individuals and saying something like “speak English or go home to China”. It now prompts me to wonder if this gentleman knows anything about the Indigenous “beginning” stories in addition to the European Genesis (King 10). If he did, would the power of the native orature help open up his mind for the variety of cultures that contribute to the creation of a multi-cultural Canada as it is today? If Canadians from all walks of life bear the awareness of the diversity of Canadian literary genres in mind, would they be able to find the common ground that makes one land home to all of us, including the natives and newcomers (Chamberlin 4)?

Hopefully I could explore those questions in constant and structured dialogues, enabled by the blogging assignments, with my fellow students who may have a large number of fascinating stories and critical insights to share. In return, I hope my own stories and ideas could offer up a range of distinctive perspectives into the class readings, thus contributing to the collective knowledge property of this weblog community. With the posting of this very first blog in my life, I am feeling incredibly excited in joining you in the same boat in search of the past and the future of Canadian literature.

WORKS CITED

A Brief Chronology of Chinese Canadian History: From Segregation to Integration. n.d. Web. 10 Sep. 2016. <http://www.sfu.ca/chinese-canadian-history/chart_en.html#>

“Canadian Aboriginal History: “Did You Know”?” 27 Jul. 2011. YouTube. Web. 10 Sep. 2016.

Chamberlin, Edward J. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground. Toronto : A.A. Knopf Canada, 2003. Print.

King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative. Toronto : House of Anansi Press, 2003.Print.

“Lakota Origin Story by Elder Duane Hollow Horn Bear.” 4 Sep. 2016. YouTube. Web. 10 Sep. 2016.

Robins, Nick. “Loot: In Search of the East India Company, the World’s First Transnational Corporation.” Environment and Urbanization 14.1 (2002):79-88. Print.

Sigel, Louis T. The Reform and Restructuring of the Guangzhou Economy: The Question of National Applicability. Ed. Yu, George T. China in Transition : Economic, Political, and Social Developments. Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, 1993. UBCLibrary. Web. 10 SEP 2016.

SOIC: The Swedish Ship Götheborg. n.d. Web. 10 Sep. 2016. < http://www.soic.se/en/our-story/>

The Chinese Experience in British Columbia: 1850-1950, Immigration: Chinese Exclusion Act. n.d. Web. 10 Sep. 2016. < http://www.library.ubc.ca/chineseinbc/exclusion.html>