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I'm currently an Asia-Pacific Studies and East Asian Studies double major in my final year at the University of Toronto. I was really excited when I heard about how the Taiwan government decided to start a global pilot project of inviting student delegates, at UofT in Canada. I was even more over the moon when I was selected to be part of the delegation.

The Taiwanese government invited 10 upper year undergraduate students from the University of Toronto to participate in an exciting pilot program for students to contemplate the topic of "Global Taiwan". The 8 day fieldwork excursion will take 10 future leaders to Taiwan to experience one of the largest and most dynamic economies and cosmopolitan cultural innovators as well as a vibrant democracy. The student delegates will meet with government officials, civil society groups, and observe various aspects of Taiwanese culture, innovation, and institutions. Before departure, the students have to write an eight page paper on "Global Taiwan" and will present the paper at a conference at Taiwan National University to their Taiwanese counterparts.

At this point we would like to invite all applications for editor positions for this 2009-2010 school year. In addition to the available editor positions all applications will be considered for available staff positions. Successful applications will be awarded with a $2000 grant. Please tailor your application to suit either the Research or Publication departments.

The application deadline has been set as next Friday October 2nd at midnight, with notification shortly after. All participants should be prepared to attend a general meeting the following Friday afternoon.

Applications should include:

a) Program of Study and Year
b) A note on Asia Pacific related scholarships, courses and any related languages
c) A brief cover letter
d) Resume

Hello Readers,

The calendar, found at left, pulls together information from all new content on the site, creating an easy place to schedule talks, conferences and scholarship deadlines.

Don't forget that content is parsed into both subject and country in the catalogue as well, in case you are particularly interested in one thing or the other.

Cheers,

Adam

This is a notice that the Asia Pacific Reader will be recruiting new editorial staff this autumn to take up open positions in publications and research departments.

If you are interested, take a look at each respective department and be prepared to submit the following for application.

There hasn't been a formal date set, so please refer back for further updates.

Cheers

Adam

From the 2008 Application:

Applications should include:

a) Program of Study and Year
b) A note on Asia Pacific related scholarships, courses and any related languages
c) A brief cover letter
d) Resume

- Writing and editing experience is an advantage. Experience with event coordination is also an advantage.

So there I was, in Xinjiang with no predictions of what the five days would lead me. Even though I had scanned through the itinerary of the trip before departure and therefore had an idea of what would happen in the trip, everything remained uncertain. This could be shown by the fact that there were only ten of us in our sleeping car. Other passengers simply claimed their refunds.

The moment we arrived at a train station in Xinjiang I saw many policemen walking around. The station looked busy as usual, with many travelers rushing out the exit. Everyone in our group looked kind of worried, but I was surprisingly calm.

Note: This entry has two separate components that are independent of each other.

A Midpoint Critique
As I'm more than halfway through my stay in China, I thought it would be fitting to review my experience at the Beijing Language and Culture University. My first four-week language program is completed and the second has begun so I have a decent perspective on how the university works.

Hello Readers

You may have noticed a couple small additions to the site. We've added the ability to get printer-friendly versions individual pages as well as the ability to convert any page into a PDF at the bottom of each page. This will make keeping information for future reference even easier.

The second addition is commenting on blogs. This has been a much requested feature that has come online for new blog posts. Don't forget to check out the new suggestion feature if you want to make other types of contributions.

Another project we are working on ahead of September is the integration of a calendar, which will keep events, conferences and application deadlines within easy reach.

Cheers,

Adam