More than 150 supporters came to celebrate the past and anticipate the future as they commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Asian Library in early March, 2010.
Emeritus librarians and professors who helped build the Library joined students, staff and dignitaries in the Asian Centre, including the President of Sanyo Canada, Koshi Terakawa; the Consul-General of Indonesia, Bambang Hiendrasto; the Consul-General of Japan, Hideki Ito; and longtime UBC Library supporter Dr. Wallace Chung.
“We are here to note the accomplishments of the past,” said Wes Pue, UBC Vice-Provost, “but also to embrace the future – to look forward with great confidence to the directions in which the Asian Studies Department and the Asian Library will go.”Ingrid Parent, the University Librarian, highlighted the pivotal role of two Asian Studies professors – Ho Ping Ti and Ronald Dore – in bringing two collections to UBC that formed the foundation of the fledgling Library: the 45,000-volume Puban collection purchased in 1949 in Macau, and one of three North American depositories for Japanese government documents.
Eleanor Yuen, Head Librarian, reflected on many roles played by the Asian Library. “We have always been the Library where research meets the community,” she said.
Not just there, but here
Priorities for the next five years will focus on serving a global community of researchers and building digital collections. Yuen also highlighted the need for a renovation of the Asian Centre and Library in order to accommodate the changing nature of users’ needs.Other highlights included the launch of a database documenting the history of the Asian Library, and the awarding of the inaugural Peter Ward Prize to UBC student Alan Lau for his essay about the Asian Library’s impact on his work.
“The reason we can celebrate a 50th anniversary is that UBC’s Asian Library was in many ways ahead of its time, and that it recognized that Asia was not just over there, Asia was here,” said Henry Yu, Professor of History at UBC. “We live in a place where Asia is.”
The donation of two significant collections that reflect this dual heritage was celebrated: the Pang Jingtang from mainland China, with its valuable and historic Ming-period volumes; and the Ron Bik Lee Papers, which provide unprecedented insight into the immigrant experience, economic development and philanthropy in the Chinese-Canadian community.
Paul Fang, grandson of Mr. Pang Jingtang, spoke movingly of the scholar who painstakingly collected the volumes in his namesake collection, and the family journey that brought the collection to Canada.
UBC’s Asian Library consistently ranks among the best in the world – number one in Canada, and number 12 in library holdings across North America. Today, its collection stands at more than 600,000 volumes, but numbers tell only part of the story of what distinguishes UBC’s Asian Library. Dedication, perceptiveness and opportunity have built this great resource, whose beginnings, present and future intertwine modernity and the ancient world.