As the new academic year begins, we would like to extend a warm welcome to a new member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Asian Studies. Yi-yi Chen, our newest visiting lecturer in the Chinese Language Program, renews her passion for the art of teaching Chinese literature at the University of British Columbia. Prior to UBC, she was a lecturer both in Taiwan and Vancouver post-secondary institutions.
As an expert in Canadian and overseas Chinese literature, professor Chen is keen on inspiring her students to set out on journeys of lifelong learning alongside literature. To her, Chinese literature encodes the fascinating experiences of a complex yet robust literary culture, which she hopes students will explore. As to how the goal can be achieved in the classroom, professor Chen summed up her teaching philosophy as “flying students’ dreams on top of literature.” She shared with us some of her teaching experiences and pedagogical methods that are especially meaningful to her approaches to teaching.
Professor Yi-yi Chen teaching
Professor Yi-yi Chen teachingSkip ahead to:
Could you tell us some background about yourself, and what inspires you to teach Chinese literature?
Are there unforgettable experiences in your career?
Would you like to share some fun facts about yourself?
Could you give some advice to prospective students of Chinese literature?
Could you tell us some background about yourself, and what inspires you to teach Chinese literature?
I have always loved reading since I was a child, whether it be classical literature or modern literature. This great passion led me to major in Chinese literature during my undergraduate and graduate studies, now approaching my Ph.D. degree in Chinese literature at Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. In my college days, I was lucky to have had many famous Taiwanese poets and writers as my professors, including Zhang Dachun, Li Ang, Zhang Manjuan, Luo Zhicheng, Ya Xian, Li Ruiteng, and others. These literary icons had considerable influences on me and strengthened my devotion to relaying the good tidings of literature.
“Teaching and learning benefit each other, improving both students’ and the teacher’s lives together.”
There is an old Chinese saying, “教学相长,” which means teaching improves the life both of the student and the teacher. As I am a lifelong learner in literature and enjoy guiding students through the gardens of a venerable literary tradition, teaching has become the dream career I am naturally inclined to pursue.
Are there unforgettable experiences in your career?
In addition to teaching, I spent 12 years counselling students on life and career planning. To me, every student is a piece of uncut gemstone full of boundless potential. So long as one works hard, the investment of effort will yield great profit at the perfect time.
I am not sure if it counts as an unforgettable experience that Ko Chen-tung (柯震東) and Wang Talu (王大陸), both Taiwanese movie stars, were once my students in high school. I still remember that Talu often came up to me after class to discuss his dreams.
Coming to a critical turning point in his life, Talu asked me many times, “Do you think it is a good idea for me to become an actor in the show business as I really enjoy acting?” When uttering those words, his innocent eyes were filled with earnest longings for dreams.
I reassured him with big smiles, “With your looks of a big star, you were born to be an actor!”
Many years later, just before the release of Talu’s hit romance film Our Times (我的少女時代), we ran into each other at a restaurant in Taipei. He excitedly introduced me to his girlfriend, saying, “Come to meet my teacher from high school!” At that moment, my heart was carried away by a stir of contentment.
The young man has risen to a brilliant big star, yet I just cannot help but recall the boy who chased his dreams so fearlessly.
Our Times star Wang Talu (3rd from the left) as Hsu Tai-yu
Our Times star Wang Talu (3rd from the left) as Hsu Tai-yuCould you talk about one of your favorite writers or books that you would like to recommend to your students?
As a lecturer in literature, I would say that in modern Chinese literary history, the list of classic writers is long: Lu Xun, Lao She, Xiao Hong, Shen Congwen, Yu Guangzhong, Mo Yan, Yu Hua, and Long Yingtai, to name just a few. Everyone on the list can be called a literary master, and are worth visiting time and again.
As for the book that had a major influence on myself, I have to say it is no other than The Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao (1943-1991). With a noteworthy non-conformity, Sanmao set out to journey through numerous mountains and streams to the end of the world, penning one story after another about people’s lives with her unparalleled sentiments. Those stories shook my heart as a ten-year-old. Sanmao’s book opened my eyes to a new world, shining a torch on my passage as I wandered through my dream land.
The Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao
The Stories of the Sahara by SanmaoWould you like to share some fun facts about yourself?
Reading ten thousand volumes is not as good as travelling a thousand miles. My hobbies are reading, writing, photography, and travel. Since moving to Vancouver, I taught myself to create a website titled Fun Trips in Canada and became a blogger. In the beginning, I simply wanted to record memorable moments on my trips, lest they slip into oblivion. Now I have accumulated a variety of fun attractions about Canadian cuisine, travel, fashion, culture, and language, both locally and nationwide.
What are some valuable skills, transferring in and out of the classroom, that literature learning can teach us?
Literature opens doors to various possibilities of the world. It is a pity that sometimes we tend to restrict our imaginations and activities to a stationary mode of thinking, as a result from getting used to changeless surroundings. Based on my experiences of studying abroad, I encourage students to embrace the enlightenment of literature and walk out of self-inflicted boundaries. Like Liang Qichao (1873-1929) and Huang Zunxian (1848-1905) who peeled open the closed eyes of a nation more than a century ago, we may look through the lens of literature to re-examine our cultural heritage on the one hand, and make changes to the world on the other.
Therefore, the skills that literature learning can teach us are multifaceted: being open-minded to various cultures, constructive communication, critical thinking, multitasking, and self-exploration. These skills obtained from a literature class help navigate our trips to new horizons and possibilities. Moreover, literary studies broaden our ways of learning and thinking, which can be transferred from academic undertakings to many other aspects of our life and work.
Could you give some advice to prospective students of Chinese literature?
A professor of mine once said to me, “As a student of literature, if you only use one language, then you are one eye blind.” A new language enables us to see the world from a broader perspective. Not everyone who is an avid literature lover could become a writer, but I encourage students of Chinese literature to become appreciative, discerning, and competent readers in multiple languages.
In the meantime, I have found that many students only read well-known literary works without truly understanding the background of literary creation. At this point, I think that spending some time reading about the lives of writers and literary history helps to deepen our comprehension of literary merit, while increasing our critical awareness of historical and cultural contexts.
Besides this, another important goal of my teaching is to help students gain the ability to conduct solid research and write successful academic papers. I guarantee that practical skills in good research and writing can be developed from well-planned progress in literature learning.
Professor Yi-yi Chen (5th from the left) with the crew of CLP at Imagine UBC 2022
Professor Yi-yi Chen (5th from the left) with the crew of CLP at Imagine UBC 2022In all aspects of her work, professor Chen is a passionate educator who exemplifies the resolution to cultivate student life skills through literature learning, which is upheld by the Chinese Language Program as its central backbone. If you are inspired by professor Chen’s stories, you can catch her in class teaching Modern Chinese Literature (CHIN 481 & 483) and Contemporary Chinese Fiction in Film (CHIN 485) at UBC this year! We thank her for sharing her stories with us and hope she will enjoy being part of the Asian Studies family!
