“Busy Cowboy” was one of the acts during a new year celebration in the Humanities Theatre January 25, sponsored by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. Photo by Boyuan Zhang.

All ready for the year of the rat

Celebrations of the new year are in full swing this week, as the “year of the rat”, one of a dozen animals that make up the oriental zodiac, began with the coming of the new moon late last night. Celebrations for the beginning of year 4706 in the East Asian calendar have been going on since late January, and the new year season continues until the Lantern Festival, which this year falls on February 20.

The conventional cry is “Gung hai fat choi!” — happy new year — but it’s a mistake to think of the festival as just a “Chinese” new year, says Johnny Trinh (left) of UW’s student life office, whose work includes involvement with dozens of ethnic clubs across campus, and whose personal background is a mixture of Vietnamese and Chinese.

He points out that the lunar new year (so called because it’s signaled by the phases of the moon) is observed by overlapping communities that include not just Chinese — themselves speakers of two different languages — but Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Filipino and other groups.

Nobody tries to keep figures on how many of UW’s students have East Asian backgrounds, but "many members of the UW community", says Trinh, will be celebrating the new year. Although the most prominent East Asian population in Kitchener-Waterloo as a whole is Vietnamese, on campus the largest group is Mandarin-speaking Chinese. Mandarin is the national language of China, the form of Chinese spoken in Beijing, Nanjing and other mainland regions, and also in Taiwan.

Another large group of Chinese at UW speaks the country’s second main language, Cantonese, which predominates in southern regions such as Guangzhou as well as the autonomous region of Hong Kong. Trinh points out that until a decade or so ago, Cantonese speakers dominated among the Chinese in Toronto and Vancouver, and on the UW campus, but the balance has since shifted toward Mandarin.

At least 20 recognized student organizations represent various East Asian groups. Students choose an organization (or more than one organization) based on language, religious views and special interests, as a list prepared by Trinh’s office makes clear. For instance, the Korean Students Association, largely made up of people who are actually from Korea, wouldn’t necessarily draw the same participants as the Korean Christian Fellowship, which emphasizes religion and a multi-generation heritage. There’s one Filipino Association and one Vietnamese Students Association, plus Konnichiwa Japan, which includes students from the homeland but is predominantly made up of Canadian students interested in Japanese culture and involved in exchange programs.

Among Chinese speakers, there’s both a Chinese Students Association (where the Cantonese speakers are likely to be found) and a Chinese Students and Scholars Association (where the language is Mandarin). Beyond that, some groups are religious (the Chinese Christian Fellowship, the Chinese Catholic Community, the Tzu Chi Buddhist Relief Organization, and the Cantonese Chinese Christian Fellowship, which held a new year’s coffeehouse last night in Environmental Studies). Then some have other emphases: the Chinese Debating Club, the Chinese Drama Club, the Falun Gong Club, UW Dimensions (which publishes a Chinese-language magazine for the campus). There’s a Mandarin Students Union and a Taiwanese Students Association.

The list is rounded out with the Asian Christian Fellowship, the Canadian Asian Students Association, and Asian Focus. And an umbrella group for some of the clubs, called Cube, will be organizing "Lunarfest" next week, with a food fair on Tuesday and a fashion show on Wednesday.

Stir-fried prawns with broccoli and wasabi mashed potato are among the menu items for today's lunch buffet at the University Club. • The international spouses group will hear about Chinese new year and try some refreshments starting at 12:45, Columbia Lake Village community centre (children welcome; for information e-mail lighthousenm@gmail.com). • The holiday is marked with an open house at Waterloo International, with information about UW partners in East Asia, 3:00 to 5:00 today in Needles Hall room 1101 (RSVP ext. 38350).

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Progress on an Abu Dhabi campus

“We’re into nitty-gritty matters,” provost Amit Chakma told UW’s board of governors Tuesday in a brief update about a proposal to open a campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, offering a selection of UW programs in engineering and mathematics.

He said a delegation of three academic officials will make a week-long trip to Abu Dhabi later this month to talk with Waterloo’s partners there about “curriculum-related matters” as the planning moves ahead. The delegation will include Leo Rothenburg, chair of civil engineering (who will be acting dean of engineering in 2008-09), chemical engineering chair Tom Duever, and the director of math and business programs, Peter Wood.

“This visit is critical,” said Chakma, noting that UW is hoping to avoid delays, despite the complications of a new accreditation system that was recently introduced by the Emirates as a number of universities from North America and Europe move to create specialized campuses in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and elsewhere.

“We have literally 20-plus people working towards preparing a package of our accreditation application,” the provost said.

“We remain enthused about the project,” he added, noting that if all goes well with the academics’ visit this month, trips are in the future for representatives of the registrar’s office, the co-op department, and student services, as well as the vice-president (administration and finance) or someone from his organization who will work with local authorities on the construction of buildings for UW to use.

There remain some issues to be looked into, the provost told the board, noting that UW has expectations about academic freedom, human rights issues, and matters as ordinary as whether students in the Emirates will be allowed to publish a newspaper the way they do on the Waterloo campus.

Creating an Abu Dhabi presence “will carry more risk than any project we could contemplate here,” he said. But: “this project, executed well, will bring in about $22 million a year, and we’re going to use all this money to strengthen quality on our main campus.”

At steady state, the Abu Dhabi campus would take in about 200 students a year, making a total enrolment of about 800, he noted.

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Drama students explore Caledonia

A new play opens tonight— not only performed, but also “researched and relived” by students of the UW drama department.

Its title is “Differ/End: The Caledonia Project”, and the credits include “Text by Gilbert Garratt, Directed by Andy Houston, Dramaturgy by Lisa O’Connell, Music and Soundscape by Colin Labadie, Film and Visual Documentation by Peter Mabrucco.”

The show’s background is right out of the nightly news. “As the mist rose early in the morning of April 20, 2006,” a news release recalls, “Ontario Provincial Police officers attempted to end a 52-day land-claim occupation of a southwestern Ontario construction site by members of the Six Nations reserve. Armed with M16 rifles, tear gas, pepper spray and Tasers, the OPP moved in and arrested 16 people.

“By 9 a.m. hundreds of protestors returned to the site. Fires were set. Roads were blocked. Protestors climbed on vehicles and waved Mohawk flags while police helicopters roared overhead. ‘As long as it takes,’ vowed a protestor. A call was sent out to other reserves to send more demonstrators. As night fell, busloads of supporters arrived at the site, the newly developed subdivision of Douglas Creek Estates, in the small town of Caledonia, Ontario.

“Today the land stands empty, the existing homes struck down, their infrastructure torn out. Even the topsoil has been removed and sold off. Twisted and broken lamp standards guard paved roads that negotiate the land of this stillborn suburb and lead to nowhere.

“How could this happen? How could a burgeoning subdivision in a bedroom community become the battleground for a 200-year-old land claim dispute? Could it happen in your neighbourhood? Is the land under your home disputed? In our modern democracy where differences are acknowledged and even celebrated, how could this happen?

“These were a few of the questions asked by the student-researchers from the University of Waterloo’s Drama Department as they made their way to Caledonia during the fall of 2007.

“Over a period of several months, under the supervision of Professor Andy Houston, twenty-five students conducted extensive first-hand research. They spent time with and interviewed people of the town of Caledonia, people of the Six Nations Reserve, native historians, people who watched the dispute from their backyards, and people who have travelled from outlying communities drawn to issues of land and justice. Now the students are ready to share their experiences and discoveries with all of us who share the land.”

The show is being performed in Studio 180 of the Humanities building, at 7:00 tonight through Saturday and again February 14-16. Tickets are $12 general, $10 seniors and students, from the Humanities box office (519-888-4908).

CAR

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