Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) of National Central Library (NCL) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on March 17 held a book donation ceremony in Toronto. During the ceremony all of the Taiwanese publications on Chinese and Taiwan Studies that CCS exhibited in the 2017 Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies and its Book Fair were donated to the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, University of Toronto. The donation was co-presented by NCL’s Deputy Director General Yin-mei Wu and President Yun-han Chu of Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. U of T Chief Librarian Larry Alford, on behalf of the University, accepted the donation. Also attended were Deputy Director General Nicolas Song-whei Hong, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Toronto (Toronto TECO), Director Alicia Y. H. Wang, Toronto TECO, Cheng-Yun Liu, Research Fellow, Institute of History and Philology, the Academia Sinica Center for Digital Cultures(CDC), Shi-yung Liu, Research Fellow and Deputy Director, Institute of Taiwan History(ITH), Academia Sinica, Hana Kim, Director of the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, U of T and the Library’s former Acting Director Stephen Qiao.

The 2017 Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies and Book Fair were held from March 16 to 19 in Toronto. The CCS, in association with Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, participated in the Book Fair and exhibited Taiwan’s recent publications on Chinese and Taiwan Studies, a total of 414 volumes, 385 titles. The CCS was represented by NCL’s Deputy Director General Wu and the Center’s Liaison Division Director, Wen-De Huang. The CCS hoped that through the Book Fair, international Sinologists might get to know the achievements of Taiwan’s Chinese Studies research and the newest publications in the field, thereby strengthening academic cooperation and exchanges and introducing overseas scholars more channels to purchase the publications.

In addition to the CCS, the Academic Sinica’s ITH and CDC also joined the Book Fair also included. At the end of the Book Fair, both institutes also donated their exhibitions to the U of T to enrich the University’s research resources.

In recent years, the U of T has maintained intensive academic and cultural exchanges with Taiwan, and became the 16th overseas “Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies” established by the NCL in 2015. Moreover, the University also collaborated with NCL to promote the Rare Books and Documents Digital Archives Project to enrich research resources for Chinese Studies in Canada.

The Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies is held in spring every year. The four-day meeting provides a platform of scholarly exchange and discussion for Asian Studies. This year’s conference hosted more than 2800 attendees and presented 360 peer-reviewed panel sessions. The attendees included Asian Studies scholars and librarians from American universities as well as the Asian Studies researchers and publishers from all over the world.

Deputy DG Hong (1st from the right) attends the book donation ceremony.

Deputy DG Hong (1st from the right) joins NCL’s Deputy Director General Wu (4th from the right), U of T Chief Librarian Alford (3rd from the right), President Chu of Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation (2nd from the right) and Professor Liu of Institute of History and Philology (5th from the right) for a group photo.