The Mid-Autumn Festival has just passed! This traditional holiday is most known for eating mooncakes and looking at the gleaming full moon. This year, the Chinese Language Program took appreciating the moon to another level with the Mid-Autumn Festival Photo Challenge. 

Students were challenged to recreate a painting of the renowned Song dynasty poet, calligrapher, and writer Su Shi, where he looked longingly at the moon, with a glass of traditional Chinese wine clutched in his hand. The Photo Challenge was a way for students to have fun not only through building a sense of community, but also to share Chinese culture and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival from home. 

The results of the Mid-Autumn Festival Photo Challenge were astounding! Students went above and beyond in their recreations of the portrait of Su Shi. There were several winners for their following categories: Most Accurate Picture, Funniest Photo, Best Caption, and Panelists’ Choice.

See more of the photos here!

Interested in what you can do with a degree in Asian Studies? In our Spotlight Interview Series, we ask our students, postdocs and alumni about their career paths, how they became interested in Asian Studies and for any advice they would give to current students. 

In this interview, alumni Paul Hsu shares how the skills gained from his language studies assisted him with founding and leading a school and an investment firm, purchasing property and chairing the board of a non-profit organisation...and even in meeting his wife!

Tell us a little about yourself, your background and how you became interested in Asian languages and cultures?

I am an educator, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist who believes that education and social justice can change lives. I am the founder and the current Principal of St. Regis Secondary School, an independent high school in Vancouver that promotes quality and balanced learning. 

 I also serve as the founder and CEO of New Castle Japan Investment, a transnational real estate investment firm with a head office in the Ginza District of Tokyo, and am fond of my appointment as the Chairman of the Board of Canadian Housing Society, a non-profit organization whose primary mission is to provide sustainable, comfortable, and financially feasible homes for low-income and other disadvantaged members of our community. 

 My first official experience with Asian languages and cultures originated from a summer internship opportunity during my freshman year. I served as an exhibition guide for a Qin Dynasty artifact exhibition that was jointly hosted by a Canadian company and a Chinese cultural preservation society. This position instigated my scholarly curiosity and encouraged me to conduct further research in order to enhance the quality of my presentation and address questions raised by the visitors. It was truly one of the most rewarding and stimulating experiences of my life.

Has learning an Asian language helped you achieve your personal or professional goals? What tips do you have for students who are keen to play the ‘language card’ in their career development?

Based on my personal experience as well as the collective experience of friends and associates, I sincerely believe that mastery of at least one Asian language will generate immense benefits for one’s personal and professional futures. This is particularly important in the present era of globalization and technology which heighten the need for transnational cooperation between the East and West. 

In this regard, I believe that the roots of my personal and professional success reside deeply in the training and knowledge I gained from the Department of Asian Studies. On a personal level, my language skills and cultural understanding led me to find and marry the love of my life, a Chinese immigrant who lived in Japan for more than two decades. Aside from the obvious merits of understanding my wife’s native tongue, the literary, historical, and cultural understanding I obtained encouraged me to approach our differences with an open mind, and to better understand my wife’s mentality and values as well as the cultural barriers she encountered when starting a new life in Canada. 

On a professional level, the most notable experience I have had involved the tremendous challenge of establishing a commercial bank account and securing the first loan for a property purchase in Japan. I knew what to expect and was able to provide answers to important questions because I understood the way things were done in Japan and why the Japanese think in certain ways. These understandings ultimately laid the foundation for the eventual success of the business negotiation. 

In short, I feel that the “language card” is always a nice card to play. When combined with the right opportunity and relevant set of professional skills, it could very well be the ace up one’s sleeve. However, it is important to note that acquiring a language is more than merely scratching the surface. My advice would be for future graduates to wisely utilize their time in Asian Studies and expand beyond daily conversational level in one to two Asian languages.

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Join the Asian Library for a Diwali Celebration!

Diwali or Deepavali, which means “a row of lights”, is the most widely celebrated festival in India and throughout the Indian diaspora. Join the Asian Library for a virtual celebration and enjoy the diversity of South Asian culture through music and dance performances.

Thursday, November 12 at 11am PT

Register here