Chung

Gung hay fat choy! Chinese New Year is on February 10, which will mark the beginning of the Year of the Snake. To celebrate, we thought we’d use our monthly featured photograph blog post to find some snakes in the Chung Collection.

The Chung Collection actually holds several photographs of snakes- why would that be? It’s because travellers aboard CPR cruises around the world sometimes took photographs or bought postcards of snake charmers in exotic locales along their journey, such as this photograph from Trinidad:

And this photograph from Mumbai:

Although people born in the year of the snake are thought to be careful, independent and charismatic, we know that snakes the reptilian creatures are not everyone’s favorite. For those who suffer from ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), the Chung Collection has a photograph for you too:

This snake is a hedge of flowers, taken in Vancouver in 1921. Phew! That’s better!

To search for snakes, or any other animal in the Chinese zodiac, use your keyword in an advanced search and specify “photographic material” as the media type. You can also see our Chinese zodiac round-up from 2011. Happy year of the snake and happy searching!

If you are in the Vancouver area, be sure to check out the Chinese Benevolent Association’s annual parade and the Year of the Snake Temple Fair at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Classical Garden on February 17.

We’re huge fans of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s lectures, and Chung Collection users may be interested in an upcoming evening lecture, to be held on February 19 at 7:30 pm at the University Women’s Club at Hycroft. The lecture on “Chinatown as a National Historic Site” will be given by historian John Atkin and city planner Jeanette Hlavach, on the process and significance of Vancouver’s Chinatown becoming a National Historic Site.

The VHF website has registration information, and information on all of their upcoming lectures and brown-bag sessions.

We frequently have vistors that count themselves amongst UBC Alumni so we’re thrilled that Dr. Chung and his collection has been profiled in Trek Magazine, published by the UBC Alumni Association. You can read the article online. It was written by Larissa Bjus, who also wrote a forthcoming book about Dr. Chung and the Chung Collection, which we will have available in the library soon!

Thank you for your patience yesterday as we kept the Chung Collection exhibition closed for installation of new exhibits! There is still work happening today, Thursday November 15th and tomorrow, Friday November 16th in the back of the room and the back exhibits will remain unavailable during that time.

We’ll be adding interpretive signs to our new exhibitions soon. Stay tuned to the News blog for more information (and some behind-the-scenes photos!)

The Chung Collection exhibition will be closed November 14 for the day, as we install new exhibitions. We’re really excited to tell you about these new additions- stayed tuned!

Our apologies for the inconvenience. Note also that the Chung exhibition, along with other branches of the library, is closed for Remembrance Day on November 12th.