EAL Lecture -- Chinese North American Literature: Writings & Analysis

Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, Department of East Asian Studies, & Chinese Language & Global Asia Studies at UTSC Jointly present:

Chinese North American Literature: Writings & Analysis


Speakers: Dr. Lien Chao ( 趙廉 ) & Prof. June Liu ( 劉俊 )

Chair: Dr. Helen Xiaoyan Wu

Date & time: Tuesday, June 8, 2010 starting at 2:30pm. Light refreshments will be provided.

Location: Current Periodical Area, Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library
( On the 8th floor of the Robarts Library at 130 St. George Street, Toronto )

Registration: Seats are limited and registration is required. To register, contact Lucy Gan by email (lucy.gan@utoronto.ca) or by phone 416-978-1025

Flyer: Downloadable

Language: All talks are in English


Topics & Biographies of the Speakers

1. Writings about the in-between Cultures: The Chinese Knot and Other Stories, by Dr. Lien Chao

Award-winning author Lien Chao will talk about her new book that weaves together eight emotionally charged short stories of personal histories, politics, social relationships and cultural challenges into one tapestry of Toronto’s heterogeneous cultural landscape. Life in such an in-between cultural space means at once rooting and uprooting, belonging and non-belonging, dispossessing and acquiring. The protagonists of these stories find love, face loneliness, confront generational crises, and overcome racial stereotypes as they evolve and grow in this exciting, ever-changing multicultural society.

Dr. Lien Chao is an award-winning Canadian writer. She came to Canada in 1984 to pursue her graduate studies at York University. She completed her M.A. in 1986 and her Ph.D. in English in1995. Lien is a bilingual writer in English and Chinese. Her first book, Beyond Silence: Chinese Canadian Literature in English (1997) won the 1997 Gabrielle Roy Award for Canadian Criticism. Lien is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. Her volunteer work includes serving as the Vice President for the Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ont.) Inc. and the Vice President for the Chinese Pen Society of Canada.

2. Comparative Studies on Two Groups of Chinese Writers in North American Literature, by Prof. Jun Liu (劉俊)

There are two groups of Chinese writers in North American literature. One consists of those writers who come from Taiwan and Hong Kong, and the other from Mainland China. Those two groups of Chinese writers play an important role in different historical periods of Chinese North American Literature, and show different themes, styles, and feelings of their creations respectively.
Prof. Jun Liu, Ph.D. in modern and contemporary Chinese literature from Nanjing University (1991), is a Professor in the Chinese Department at Nanjing University. He is currently the Director from China of the Confucius Institute at the University of Waterloo. His academic fields focus on Taiwan literature, Hong Kong literature, and overseas Chinese literature. His major published books are as follows: A Compassionate Mind: Biography of Kenneth H. Pai; From Taiwan & Hong Kong to Overseas: Multi-perspectives on Cross Regional Chinese Literature; An Overall View of World Chinese Literature, etc.