January Hot Lunch with Henry Yu
Principal and Professor Henry Yu spoke on the importance of functional faculty-staff working relationships, the new UBC office in ChinatownHouse, and his research & work on local heritage revitalization efforts.
Get an early start!
Are you a new resident to St. John’s College? Then get an Early Start! If you are a current resident, you are welcome to join in. The events in the schedule below in bold and red print are events that require registration.
From August 13 – 24, 2018, we are offering our Early Start Orientation program. Check out the SJC Early Start August 2018 Schedule!
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
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Fun with celebration of light: Fireworks-Sweden w/Mina Meet at the SJC Clocktower @7:45pm |
Yum! Restaurant Trip to House of Dosas w/Vaishnavi (6.30 pm onward)
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Fun with Celebration of Light: Fireworks- Meet at the SJC Clocktower @7:45pm |
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| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
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Rainbow day! 1) Pride Parade: (w/Ashley, Abhijit 11 am – 4 pm) 2) Chai-night! (w/Abhijit, 9 pm onward) |
Shopping adventure: Visit to Ikea and NoFrills Grocery(w/Shams, Abhijit 11 am – 5 pm) |
Yum! Restaurant Trip Iranian food (w/Borna, Mina 6.30 pm onward) |
Let’s get wet! (w/Parker,12 – 5 pm) |
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| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
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1) Fun in the Park! Visit to Stanley Park (Joe, Gloria – 11am-5pm) 2) Open theatre! Movie in the Courtyard (w/Abhijit 9 pm) |
1) Welcome to SJC! Welcome with Principal, Dr. Henry Yu and Associate Principal, Dr. Christ Lee 2) Beach tour (w/Abhijit, Mina, 7-10 pm) 3) Stargazing (w/Joe, 11 pm onward) |
1) The ABC’s of SJC Talk on “getting the most out of SJC” by your fellow residents. (Abhijit, Shams 7.30-9.30) 2) Board-games (w/Arun – 9.30 onward) |
Where Are We Now? First Nations Longhouse (10 am – 2 pm) Includes lunch – registration required by August 13 |
Adapting to a New Academic Culture: (w/Michelle Sunderman & Abhijit Pandhari- 10 am-12 pm Includes lunch – registration required by August 13
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1) Welcome BBQ in the courtyard w/Chef Clarence, 1-3pm 2) Richmond Night Market (w/Parker-6 pm onward) Includes lunch – registration required by August 16 |
1) Vancouver Flea Market Trip (Mina, 11 am – 3pm) 2) Let’s Grill! BBQ on the Patio |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
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1) Into the wild! Short hiking trip (w/Abhijit, 7am-5pm) Sign-up sheet on the bulletin board beside the vending machines 2) Courtyard movie/Chai-Party(w/Abhijit, Shams – 9 pm onward) |
1) ABC’s of SJC (Repeat) (10am-12pm) 2) Trip to Granville Island (w/Fabricio, 2 – 7pm) |
Explore UBC! Treasure Hunt Prizes! 2 -5 pm |
Explore Vancouver Water Day! Enjoy the SJC sponsored Aqua Bus tour around False Creek & Seabus to North Vancouver 10 am – 6 pm Includes packed lunch – registration required by August 20 REGISTER*limited availability |
w/Mina 7 pm – onward |
Restaurant Trip Chinese food w/Gloria, Joe 6.30 pm onward |
1) Beautiful British Columbia! Hike to Rainbow Lake w/Abhijit, All day hike) Sign-up sheet on the bulletin board beside the vending machines 2) Let’s Grill BBQ on the Patio w/Felipe, 6.30 pm Bring $5 – Sign-up sheet on the bulletin board beside the vending machines |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| Orientation by GSS & G +PS |
St. John’s College has built a caring and inclusive community, and is committed to fostering an atmosphere of intercultural understanding and international exchange. See our Mission Statement
SJC is your new home and we want you to be aware and enjoy the safety and care this community can give you. We want you to develop the skills needed for success in your studies at UBC by becoming engaged members of this special community. It is also our hope that your time with us will help equip you for success as you journey through life carrying the Johannean spirit with you.
The Logic of Our Activism
Presented by the UBC’s Equity and Inclusion Office and St. John’s College…
UBC campus is home to many efforts to inspire change in the world. Whether the cause is the environment, queer rights, racial equality, language preservation, or the advancement of a specific political position, UBC community members can usually find a way to engage in what we may broadly call activism. Activist circles often discuss tactics and strategies: What tools do we use to achieve our goals? It is rarer that we talk explicitly about the logic of our actions: What are our ways of making sense of the world, our theories of change? And to what degree do our tactics and strategies match our theories? This lecture and community dialogue provides an opportunity for UBC change-makers or aspiring change makers, to examine themselves and the groups or movements they are involved with, by applying the lens of development theory. Join us as we engage in conversation that illuminates the dominant action-logic governing the forms of activism we observe and engage in, and think through what it might mean to evolve our activism to be more impactful and effective.
When: 11:30am to 1pm, Tues March 6th, 2018
Where: St. John’s College Dining Hall, 2111 Lower Mall
Price: Lunch is provided for $10 for faculty and staff, free for students
Lunch: Persian Buffet
Hummus with Pita Bread
Fattoush Salad
Grilled Chicken
Roasted Vegetables
Persian Rice with Cashews
Fresh Fruit Platter
Coffee/Tea
Please note that we use the service Eventbrite to sell tickets which is located outside Canada. If you do not wish to use this service, you may come to the Administration Office of St. John’s College, 2111 Lower Mall, and pay for your ticket in person during our office hours: Monday – Friday, 9 am – 4 pm.
Speakers: Aftab Erfan and Bill Torbert
Bill Torbert (PhD) is a leading scholar of developmental theory who has articulated a personal and organizational evolution path consisting of eight action-logics. He is a retired leadership professor who taught at Southern Methodist University, Harvard University and Boston College and was once a student activist on the Yale campus.
Aftab Erfan (PhD) is the director of dialogue and conflict engagement at UBC’s Equity & Inclusion Office, and an instructor in the School of Community and Regional Planning. She was shaped by the youth environmental movement in Canada. She is a co-author, with Bill Torbert, of papers and presentations on developmental action inquiry.
Mars over America
Cover of Science Fiction World magazine
Mars over America: The New Wave of Chinese Science Fiction
A public lecture by Professor Mingwei Song, Wellesley College
Wednesday, January 11, 3 – 5:00pm
Fairmont Social Lounge, St. John’s College, UBC
2111 Lower Mall
The contemporary new wave of Chinese science fiction presents a subversive vision of China’s pursuit of power and wealth, a dystopian counterpart to the government-promoted “Chinese dream.” This lecture explores the cutting-edge literary experiments that characterize the new wave, which evoke sensations ranging from the uncanny to the sublime, from the corporeal to the virtual, and from the post-human to the transcendent. Professor Mingwei Song will discuss important Chinese science fiction novels such as Mars over America (Han Song, 2000), The Three-Body Problem (Liu Cixin, 2006) and The Waste Tide (Chen Qiufan, 2013).
Mingwei Song is an associate professor of Chinese literature at Wellesley College. In 2016, he was an Elizabeth and J. Richardson Dilworth Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. His research interests include modern Chinese literature, cinema studies, youth culture, and science fiction. He is the author of numerous books and research articles, including Young China: National Rejuvenation and the Bildungsroman, 1900-1959 (Harvard, 2015), and Criticism and Imagination: Collected Literary Critical Essays (Fudan, 2013). He has been researching Chinese science fiction since 2010. He has edited three special journal issues on Chinese science fiction: Renditions 77/78 (2012), which features English translations of thirteen Chinese science fiction stories and novel excerpts; China Perspectives 1 (2015); and Chinese Comparative Literature 100 (2015). He has also organized conferences on science fiction at Wellesley College (2013) and Fudan University (2016) and served as a juror for numerous Chinese science fiction awards. He is currently editing The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Science Fiction (Columbia, 2017) and writing a monograph Posthuman China: The Poetics of the Invisible and the Hidden Dimensions of Chinese Science Fiction.
Prof. Song will also be offering a graduate seminar on “Representations of the Invisible: Posthuman China” at UBC from 10am-12pm on January 13. Interested parties, please email: chris.rea@ubc.ca.
Hosted by the UBC Modern Chinese Culture Seminar, and sponsored by the CCK Foundation Inter-University Centre for Sinology, St. John’s College at UBC, the UBC Centre for Chinese Research, and UBC Asian Studies.
Hot Lunch with Gilles Lepine
Happy Halloween Hot Lunch with Gilles Lepine
Borders that Unite, Borders that Divide
Along with Biodiveristy, Bioliteracy and Ecojustice events in 2016/17 , St. John’s College is also putting together events in a refugee series entitled:
Sunday, October 16
Screening of “The Land Between”
http://thelandbetweenfilm.com/
https://youtu.be/Vf4N_lHOWEA
8pm, Fairmont Social Lounge
Friday, October 21
“Opera 101: Storytelling through opera”
*This event is also part of the UBC Refugee Symposium & Opera, Breaking the Cycle: Canada Refugee Record on the Global Stage
Mobile Opera by UBC Opera Ensemble, Q & A and discussion with the Director Dr. Nancy Hermiston of The Consul, an opera by Gjian Carlo Menottia that charts the perils of those fleeing persecution. Menotti was moved by events during and after World War II, when many nations would not admit refugees. Nancy Hermiston is also a Senior Faculty with St. John’s.
5 – 7 pm, Fairmont Social Lounge
Light dinner will be served.
RSVP is required: sjc.events@ubc.ca
More events in the UBC Refugee Symposium & Opera
Breaking the Cycle; Canada’s Refugee Record on the Global Stage
Bing Thom
Mr. Bing Thom
The Asian Canadian Community Engagement Initiative (ACCE) at the University of British Columbia is saddened by the sudden passing of Bing Thom on October 4, 2016. A renowned architect and urban designer, visionary activist, and dedicated educator, Bing was a prominent alumni of UBC, which is home to one of his most magnificent buildings, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. He was a pioneer in establishing ties with China and some of his most transformative projects are located in Shanghai, Tianjin, and his own birthplace of Hong Kong. His life and career exemplified Vancouver’s historic role as the Gateway to the Pacific.
Bing’s devotion to social justice has left a lasting impact on Asian Canadian communities. As a third-generation Chinese Canadian from a trans-Pacific family, his life was directly impacted by legacies of racism and exclusion. As a young activist in Vancouver, he played a key role in movements such the democratization of the Chinese Benevolent Association and the founding of the Chinese Cultural Centre. For decades, he was one of the most respected voices and role models in the community.
His dedication to raising consciousness about Asian Canadian issues continues to inspire educators here and elsewhere to integrate academic studies with community-engaged learning. While an architecture student at the University of California, Berkeley, he played an important role in the establishment of Ethnic Studies there. The flourishing field of Asian Canadian Studies is a direct result of his lifelong efforts, and when UBC’s Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program was established in 2014, he was an early supporter. Bing also contributed to, and occasionally stayed at, St. John’s College, an international residential graduate College with deep ties to Hong Kong, China, and other places in the Asia Pacific region.
The members of ACCE would like to extend our sincere condolences to Bing’s family and colleagues. He is deeply missed.
September Hot Lunch with Prof. Santa Ono
The “bow tie” effect!
Full house at Hot Lunch
From Hongcouver to…?
From Hongcouver to…?
Looking Three Decades Past and Three Decades Ahead
Over the last three decades since Expo86, Vancouver has transformed as a city. This dialogue looks back over the last thirty years at how trans-Pacific migration and financial connections have changed Vancouver. The goal of this conversation is to have a reasoned, thoughtful, and serious discussion about issues that have at times enflamed fear and emotion, and identify trends that will shape the next three decades. Events will take place at Fairmont Social Lounge, St. John’s College, UBC, 2111 Lower Mall. Parking available across the street in the West Parkade.
How Have We Changed and Where Are We Going?
Friday, September 23, 1:30pm-4:30pm
(Discussion will be in English)
Discussants
Moderator: Dr, Henry Yu, Principal, St. John’s College, and Associate Professor, History, UBC
Frances Bula, Journalist and frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail
Winnie Cheung, President, Pacific Canada Heritage Centre and Museum of Migration Society
Dr. Lisi Feng, Research Associate, Institute of Asian Research, UBC
Dr. Chris Lee, Director, Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program, and Acting Principal, St. John’s College, UBC
Michael Lee, former Vice-Chair, SUCCESS, and former Chair, UBC Alumni Association
Joanne Lee-Young, Journalist, Vancouver Sun
Dr. Helen Leung, Associate Professor, Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, SFU
Charlie Smith, Editor, Georgia Straight
Dr. Tom Hutton, Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning, UBC
Echoes of Hongcouver?
Saturday, September 24, 10:00am-1:00pm
(Discussion will be in Chinese)
Discussants
Moderator: Winnie Cheung, President, Pacific Canada Heritage Centre & Museum of Migration Society
Tung Chan, Chair, Board of Trustees, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
Dr. Lisi Feng, Research Associate, Institute of Asian Research, UBC
Dr. Leo Shin, Associate Professor, History, UBC
Ken Tung, President, Civic Education Society and former Chair, SUCCESS
Andy Yan, Acting Director, City Program, SFU, and Adjunct Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning, UBC
Eleanor Yuen, former Head, Asian Library, UBC
Held at St. John’s College, UBC, to mark the thirty-three year anniversary of the establishment of Sing Tao Daily in Vancouver. Contact henry.yu@ubc.ca for more information.
Welcome by Dr. Chris Lee
Dear Fellows,
Welcome to St. John’s College!
For those of you setting foot in SJC for the first time, you are joining a proud tradition of academic excellence and inter-cultural understanding that was the hallmark of our founders, the alumni of St. John’s University in Shanghai. Considered one of the best institutions of higher learning in China until it closed in 1952, its reputation for bringing the best of Eastern and Western learning together is reflected in the tremendous contributions and achievements of its alumni, known as the Johanneans. Some of the leading scholars, businessmen, educators, and public servants of our time have been Johanneans and here in Vancouver, the local chapter of the St. John’s University Alumni Association continues to take a great interest in our College. I hope that every one of you will have an opportunity to interact with our Johannean founders during your stay.
Last year, SJC was gifted a Chinese motto by our Johannean Founders: 薈東西精英 臻世界大同, which translates to “Gathering the Talents of East and West, for the cultivation of World Peace and Unity.” This year marks the nineteenth year since SJC admitted its first residents. Since then, we have been a “home away from home” for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars from over forty countries, with most residents coming from outside Canada. This diversity has long been the greatest strength of our community. Residents take an active role in sharing their experiences and expertise with each other in formal and informal ways. For this reason, we place great value on our daily meals together – so much so that we have adopted as our English motto “The World Around Our Table.” This year, we will also be organizing a series of events to address two topics of global importance: biodiversity and ecojustice, and the displacement of refugees worldwide. I look forward to seeing many of you at these and other events and hearing your ideas. I will also have regular office hours during the school year and invite you to drop by and share what’s on your mind.
As Acting Principal, I am privileged to work with a top-notch staff to ensure that this is a nurturing and welcoming place for all residents and guests. For new residents, I look forward to meeting you at our Welcome Session on 10:30am on Friday, September 2, where our staff will share important information about how to ensure your safety and well-being at UBC. This is one of many activities planned during orientation, including our annual Welcome BBQ and Founders’ Dinner.
My wish is that your time at SJC is truly transformative – that you will depart from our community with more knowledge, experience, and wisdom than when you first came, and that you will carry on the Johannean spirit of “Light and Truth” to your next destination. I hope that the friends you meet here will last a lifetime, and that you will look back on your time here as some of the best years of your life.
With best wishes,
Dr. Chris Lee
Acting Principal, St John’s College
Associate Professor of English
Introductory Letter from Dr. Chris Lee, July 2016
St. John’s College welcomes Dr. Chris Lee as our Acting Principal while Dr. Henry Yu is on sabbatical from July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2017.
Dr. Lee has been a member of the SJC community for over ten years and has served as Associate Principal since 2010. Chris is an Associate Professor in the English Department, and Director of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program at UBC.
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Dear Residents, Alumni, and Friends,
I am writing to introduce myself to the SJC community as the Acting Principal this academic year. Henry Yu is beginning a year-long sabbatical this month, but we will still see him and his family living at the College in the next few months. On behalf of everyone at SJC, best wishes to Henry as he takes a well-deserved break for research and travel!
I’ve met many of you already, but a quick introduction: unlike most people at SJC, I grew up in the the Vancouver area, but my extended family is scattered in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Guangzhou, and across North America. I attended UBC as an undergraduate and returned about ten years ago to teach in the English department. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of being part of this community in various capacities. When my wife Michelle (herself an SJC alumna) and I lived at the College last year, we loved the energy and creativity here – and also experienced first hand the challenges of living together in community! I am delighted to work with our fantastic administration team this year to make sure that SJC is truly a “home away from home” for everyone who lives and stays here.
Summer is traditionally a quiet time at SJC, a chance to relax, slow down, and enjoy one of the most beautiful sunsets anywhere. Over the next two months, we will be planning for the coming year as we welcome our newest residents and organize activities designed to (in the words of our mission statement) “inspire a global vision and foster a spirit of community.” We will also start looking ahead to 2017-18, when SJC will be celebrating its twentieth anniversary!
None of this is possible without the active support of our residents and alumni and I look forward to working with you all this coming year. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have ideas or concerns.
Best wishes for a safe and happy summer!
-Chris
The World Around Our Table Tapa
A Gift of Koloa, Tongan Treasures
“The World Around our Table”, depicts a Tonga kumete or kava bowl, which is used here to symbolise communal dining, sharing and multiculturalism at St. John’s College. The common Tongan practice of kava drinking or “faikava” is closely connected with “talanoa”, which can be referred to as a conversation, a talk, an exchange of ideas or thinking, whether formal or informal.
In Tonga, the gift of a tapa, or ngatu, is of great social and ceremonial importance. The cloth is painstakingly made from the bark of mulberry trees by local women, then lovingly designed and painted with images that are central to the cultural identity, social relations, politics, history and contemporary religion of the people.
St. John’s College has been honoured to accept the gift of three tapas from St. John’s College Alumnus, Stan Manu. This tapa was presented in 2014 and was specially designed by Stan’s mother, Kelela Lotiola, and personalized with symbols embodying the College, as well as traditional Tongan emblems.
Graduation Celebration
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- Dr. Chris Lee, Associate Principal
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- Celebrating with some great food!
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- Dr. Henry Yu, Principal
We celebrated the achievements of some of our residents this week. Congratulations!
