The Canada-China Focus (CCF) has come together as a non-partisan space for conversations on critical issues related to Canada-China relations. We are deeply concerned that the current upsurge of anti-Asian racism and Sinophobia in Canada is affecting people in communities across the country. We are also concerned that this upsurge is shaping public discourse about Chinese Canadians and Canadian policy towards China. Our vision is to facilitate constructive public conversations that develop a better understanding of China and of Canada-China relations. We seek to engage both countries in advancing global decolonization, justice, and peace as essential elements of an independent Canadian foreign policy. Hosted by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, the forum is guided by an advisory committee composed of members from communities and universities from across the country.
CCF Advisory Group
William Carroll has been a member of the Sociology Department at the University of Victoria since 1981, and was founding Director of UVic’s interdisciplinary program in Social Justice Studies. His books include Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy, available for free download here: https://www.aupress.ca/books/120293-regime-of-obstruction/
Gen-Ling Chang is former associate director of Toronto District School Board. Her career experience has been in education leadership, strategic planning, and organization development, focusing on inclusion, representation, and opportunities for under-served populations. Currently she is deputy executive director, ALPHA Education as well as the chair of School and Community Relations, Asian Canadian Educators Network, working with educators, youth, and communities.
Xiaobei Chen is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. She was President of the Canadian Sociological Association (2020-2021). Her research and teaching interests include: sociology of childhood and youth, governance and power, citizenship, racism, colonialism, citizenship, Asian diasporas especially the Chinese diaspora, and Buddhist social thought. Her latest book is a co-edited volume The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada. Her current research and community engagement are focused on anti-Asian racism and Sinophobia.
Takashi Fujitani is the Dr. David Chu Chair in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Toronto, where he is also Professor of History and Director of the Dr. David Chu Program in Asia-Pacific Studies. His major works include: Splendid Monarchy (UC Press, 1996); Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans During WWII (UC Press, 2011); and Perilous Memories: The Asia Pacific War(s) (co-edited, Duke U. Press, 2001). He is editor of the book series Asia Pacific Modern (UC Press) and has held numerous grants and fellowships, including from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation.
Xinying Hu is a lecturer in the Labour Studies Program at Simon Fraser University. She is the author of China’s New Underclass: Paid Domestic Labour (2011). Her teaching and research interests focus on precarious work, globalization and labour migration, as well as trade unionism and international labour solidarity. She has participated union to union exchange between China and Canada.
John Price is professor emeritus in history with the University of Victoria. He is the author of Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and the Transpacific (2011) and currently lives in Vancouver. He co-authored with Ningping Yu the biography, A Woman in Between: Searching for Dr. Victoria Chung (2018).
Timothy J. Stanley is professor emeritus of anti-racism education and education foundations in the Faculty of Education of the University of Ottawa where is also the former Interim Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. A historian of anti-Chinese racism in Canada, in 1976-78 he lived in Beijing as a Canada-People’s Republic of China Exchange Scholar.
Cathy Walker is the retired director of the occupational health, safety and environment department of the Canadian Auto Workers Union (now Unifor). She is a member of the advisory committee of the Simon Fraser University Labour Studies Program. Cathy has visited China more than a dozen times from 1974 to 2015 as part of worker and union delegations and helped to facilitate return visits from China.
David Webster is associate professor, Human Rights Studies, King’s University College, Western University. He is also a fellow of the Wilson Institute for Canadian History at McMaster University and the Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. His research addresses international human rights and Canada-Indonesia relations.
Henry Yu teaches history at UBC and is Principal of St. John’s College. His research and teaching are built around collaborations with local community organizations, civic institutions such as museums, and multiple levels of government. He is passionate about helping Canadians be inspired by the often hidden and untold stories of those who struggled against racism and exclusion and helped make Canadian society more inclusive and just.
