The 2025–2026 academic year has been a fruitful one for the Centre for Chinese Research, remaining dedicated to fostering dialogue on mainland China and its neighboring countries through workshops and talks spanning various disciplines.
In November 2025, the Centre was honored to host Dr. James Lin from the University of Washington for a discussion on his book, In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan. His work explores how the Republic of China exported its agrarian success to Africa and Southeast Asia to bolster international legitimacy during the Cold War.
Following this, in December 2025, Dr. David Ownby joined us to introduce “Reading the China Dream,” a decade-long project dedicated to translating the works of contemporary Chinese intellectuals and their perspectives on critical national issues.
March 2026 highlighted CCR’s mission of promoting interdisciplinary communication and intellectual exchange. Leveraging the opportunity presented by the AAS conference, Dr. Kimberley Ens Manning (Concordia University), Dr. Shoufu Yin (UBC), Dr. Ashley Esarey (University of Alberta), and Dr. Helena Wu (UBC) collaborated with CCR to facilitate a series of workshops and seminars on campus. The CCR is deeply grateful for these opportunities to bring such diverse and insightful perspectives together.
In March, CCR was honored to have Dr. Wen-hsin Yeh and Dr. Joan Judge to talk about their recent research. Dr. Wen-hsin Yeh shared her thoughts on how shipwrecks and captured individuals in the “inter-imperial” waters of the Taiwan Strait shaped modern concepts of the state and nation between the 1850s and 1950s. Dr. Joan Judge shared her recently published book The Politics of Common Reading Vernacular Knowledge and Everyday Technics in China, 1894–1954, which is about how everyday readers in revolutionary China (1894–1954) utilized informal knowledge and practical “technics” to navigate the era’s profound societal shifts, repositioning them as active, informed agents rather than a passive mass.
The Centre for Chinese Research maintains its steadfast commitment to serving as a nexus for communication, knowledge sharing, and collaborative growth within the fields of Chinese studies and culture. At UBC, this mission is sustained through a multifaceted support system involving research grants, student collaborations, and high-level conferences. Looking ahead, we welcome interdisciplinary partnerships with global scholars and policymakers, striving to create new pathways for academic innovation and cross-cultural exchange between Canada and Asia.
