魏依云 ERIN ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

The story of China and I: Canadian Sinologist

　　Erin Williams is the project supervisor of Canada Asian-Pacific Fund. Her researchareas include international relations and the Sino-Canadian bilateral relationship. Sheshared her China story with us as she takes part in the 2016 Visiting Program forYoung Sinologists in Beijing.

Erin Williams attends the opening ceremony of the 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists at theNational Library of China on July 6, 2016. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

　　My very first encounter with China was a lucky accident: I was 17 years old and completing ayear-long cultural exchange program in the small Latin American country of Honduras.

　　My host family there had planned an evening out at the movies. But rather than buying ticketsfor the film we had intended to see, we mistakenly purchased tickets to see "The LastEmperor" about the life of Puyi and the tremendous change and challenges that Chinaexperienced in the early 20th century.

　　It now feels like a fateful moment. When I returned to the United States the following year, Iselected my university specifically because it offered Mandarin language courses.

　　Two years later, in 1991, I had the opportunity to visit China as a student at East ChinaNormal University. Among the many things I learned was how common it was for well-intentioned people to misunderstand each other.

　　At that time, there was comparatively little people-to-people contact between China and theUS (the country where I grew up). Whatever information people had was mostly filteredthrough their respective media or governments.

　　As a result, people in Western countries especially had an incomplete understanding of Chinaand the complexity of people's lives, histories, and experiences.

　　Surprisingly, many Western countries have lagged woefully behind in re-orienting theireducation systems to account for the fact that Asia – and China in particular – is playing anever greater role in shaping the world in which we all live.

　　In countries like Canada and the US, students learn far more about the countries thatmattered to their pasts, than they do about countries that will matter to their futures.

　　Moreover, many Westerners still have the mistaken assumption that China is trying to "catchup" to the rest of us. Instead, they need to understand that China and its Asian neighbors areincreasingly defining the future, and that China has become a truly global power in its stature,and in its connections with all parts of the globe.

　　Since that first experience in 1991, I have returned to China five times – as a teacher ofuniversity students in Shanghai, as an author trying to tell the life stories of people in anorthern Chinese village and as a graduate student conducting research on how China dealswith issues of bilingualism and ethnic difference.

　　The next chapter of my China story starts with making a difference closer to home, starting inmy adopted city of Vancouver, which is rightfully referred to as the most Asian city outside ofAsia.

　　In my current role as a manager of education initiatives at the Asia Pacific Foundation ofCanada, I have the opportunity to address the gaping hole in young Canadians' educationabout China.

　　I am leading a project to train pre-university teachers to be informed about contemporary Asiaand Asian history so that they can introduce their students to this very important region of theworld.

　　My own "China story" began with a fortunate accident, but we cannot leave the future ofChina-Canada relations to serendipity.

　　职业履历：1993年-1994年 中国华东师范大学英语教师；2004年-2010年，亚太安全合作理事会项目协调员；2008年-2010年 加拿大英属哥伦比亚大学《太平洋事务》杂志助理编辑；2010年-至今 加拿大亚太基金会项目主管。

　　学习经历：加拿大英属哥伦比亚大学亚太政策研究硕士；美国波士顿大学国际关系硕士。

　　研究领域及成果：国际关系；发表过论文《中国的少数民族和国际原民性》《区域多边主义能否应对区域挑战》。