Message from Co-Chairs

Eleanor Yuen
Head, Asian Library, University of British Columbia

It gives me great pleasure to be the local host of the 5th International conference of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies and to welcome you to Vancouver in May when beautiful British Columbia is in its full glory.  BC is a province with more than half a million ethnic Chinese call home from PRC, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Asia, the U.S.A., Central and South America , UK and Australia , and stage stories of “Chinese through the Americas” every day.

In the last three decades, the Asian Library at UBC has developed its collections and supported the research of Chinese Canadians. Hosting the conference helps to impart a sense of larger purpose of contributing creative ideas and best practices to further WCILCOS’s mission of promoting research, learning and outreach for Chinese Overseas Studies. To reflect the evolving interests of a growing number of institutions and researchers, the 2012 conference has brought together new thematic panels on Chinese rare books held outside China and on historic relations between Chinese and aboriginals.

Of the 101 presentations planned, we are particularly pleased about the panels organized by the community groups from coast to coast. It is also very gratifying to help bring students to the conference through generous sponsorships of participants. As a major international conference on Chinese overseas, it presents a terrific venue for us to honour and celebrate the lives and legacies of mentors and pioneer researchers in North America from the past to the present.

Indeed, it will be an exciting time to visit UBC to celebrate our newly-minted Asian-Canadian program, the “Chinese-Canadian Stories” portal and enjoy the Asian Library’s recently acquired family archives and resources.

I look forward to meeting you very soon and wish everyone another successful and enjoyable conference.

Jeffrey Ferrier
Curator, Center for International Collections, Ohio University Libraries

As Co-Chair of the 5th International Conference of the 5th International Conference of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies, it is my great honor to welcome all participants.   It is particularly appropriate that the conference is being held in British Columbia, Canada given this year’s theme, “Chinese through the Americas” and the significant contributions that the Chinese have made throughout the New World in recent centuries.

Ohio University Libraries is proud to continue their sponsorship of the conference series and partner with the University of British Columbia Library to host this event.  I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Daniel Shao for his very generous support.

In keeping with the tradition of past WCILOCS conferences, prominent scholars will be joined by librarians and archivists committed to preserving the scholarly record of the Overseas Chinese for future generations.  These individuals have travelled far and wide from Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand and the Americas to share their latest research and knowledge.