Month: March 2014

It’s hard to imagine that my first year at UBC is coming to an end. All the people I have met and the friendships I’ve formed have made the year all the more memorable.

But putting the social aspects aside, I must highlight just how educational the classes I’ve taken with the Coordinated Arts Program this year are. However this only occurred to me during the second term.

Initially, I applied for CAP for an easy transition into university – what it was designed to do. However, countless friends have told me that CAP was a hit-or-miss kind of program. You either really enjoy your classes, or you hate them all. I personally had mixed feelings

During the first term, I was not very fond of my courses. Poli Sci and History were a complete bore, and I was never really engaged in lectures. The only course I enjoyed (and did fairly well in) was ASTU. I’ve always enjoyed writing comprehensively and reading works of others. It seemed as though ASTU, lead by Heather was a great catch for me. Clear and concise, I could follow along every class, and I loved the novels assigned.

Even though the courses briefly related to each other, it was too insignificant to leave a long-lasting impact. They might as well not have related to each other at all and it still wouldn’t have made a difference to me. I questioned my choice of applying of CAP and regretting my decision.

It wasn’t until the second term where I discovered the value of CAP. All three courses, (ASTU, History, and Anthropology) clearly shared central themes and arguments, and I absolutely loved it. I could take something I learned from one course and incorporate it into another, further developing my understanding of the material. The amount of knowledge I’ve retained and appreciated from all CAP courses collectively in this term substantially outweighs the amount in term one.

I found the topic of Indigenous groups and colonization very engaging (and easy to write about). I loved learning about the effects colonization has had on these people, and the traumatic experiences they have faced and currently are facing. The fact that these issues still exist today really opened my eyes. This problem is unbelievable important, yet not many people know about it. I had not known about the current issues surrounding indigenous peoples today until taking History this term. I truly valued the lectures and information I’ve taken in, and I hope more people can come to learn about the same issues I’ve learned.

So was CAP a hit or a miss for me? I still can’t really say. While I do see the benefits of enrolling in CAP, I still wonder about how my year would have went had I chosen to pick my courses freely. However, I do acknowledge that CAP has given me a better understanding about how the school system works, and having most courses intertwine and connect from time to time really did make transitioning easier. There really is no point in questioning whether my decision was right or not. It has already happened, and I can’t change the past. All I can say is that I’m definitely looking forward to my next year!

It was really nice to be able to write about my thoughts on the past year in this blog to share with everyone. Thanks Heather!

Will I still keep posting blogs?

Probably not….

Dionne Brand’s characters in What We All Long For possessed very unique traits and personality. Personally, I loved them all. They were real, and really spoke out to me. Unimpressed by their immigrant parents’ current lives and past, they distance themselves from their cultural background. Furthermore, they are also represented as misfits within society, being loners throughout high school and then moving to a run down neighbourhood following graduation. Because of these two factors, they face the internal conflict of identifying themselves. They are torn between their  heritage and mainstream Canadian society.

Each character possessed a set of their very of traits. Tuyen, a lesbian, avant-garde artist who lives behind the shadow of her lost older brother. Carla, an independent bike courier who lives away from her irresponsible father and whose mother has committed suicide. Jackie, a shopkeeper who is unable to control her parents from their hedonistic lifestyles. Oku, a poet and college drop out who lives uncomfortably with his parents.

Each character is so unique in their own ways, and as the story unfolds, each characters’ personal stories go down different roads, while at the same time, their relationships deepen as tension between them build. Tuyen is in conflict with her parents and their grief for their lost son. Carla is in conflict with her father for not taking care of her brother. Jackie is in conflict with her family, feeling unable to properly build a relationship. Oku is in conflict with his father and himself, striving to become independent. Tuyen’s one-sided love for Carla and Oku’s one sided love for Jackie are described very often. We learn about each character in depth as we follow along on each other their little stories, and when they pool back together, we see them as a whole different group of people compared to when they are first introduced.

What We All Long For possesses so many different themes which brings the story to life. Crime, romance, death, belonging, and desire are all apparent themes. Just like in life, we don’t face one “theme” at a time, we are tackled with multiple “themes” all at once, leaving most of us lost in a flurry of confusion. No one knows what could possibly be around the next corner.

Being a second-generation immigrant myself, I kind slightly relate to them (although my parents’ lives are substantially better than the parents’ depicted in the novel). First and foremost, I consider myself Canadian before Taiwanese-Chinese. Like the characters in the novel, I consider myself different from my family. However, I still try to stay connected to my culture and heritage as it is still a part of my identity. I do not understand how Tuyen can just throw her family away, leaving them and her culture behind her. This is probably the only thing that irks me. Besides that, I found the characters funny, reasonable, and most of all, alive. I feel that they could truly be living down in Toronto, facing off against the struggles of self-identification and life.

Dionne Brand does a great job at bringing her characters to life, and depicting each their own struggles in life. Besides the abrupt ending which can be pretty much compared to a slap to the face, What We All Long For is a great novel that allows one to ponder about life.