On the outside looking in

Ziyan Yang knows something about being an outsider.

From China, the PhD student in French literature is writing her thesis about the outsider’s perspective among Quebecois writers, specifically about “the representation of identity by Asian Quebecois writers.”

Arriving in sleepy Halifax three years ago, from Wuhan, China — a city of some 9.7 million and a history stretching back 3,500 years — she can identify with the subject matter.

Strangers smile

“It’s really a much different place,” says Ms. Yang, 28, who is now quite fond of her adopted home. “Halifax is a nice size and the people are extremely friendly. Strangers on the street smile at you.”

She recalls when she first landed at the Halifax airport and graduate students from the Department of French turned out to meet her. Having arranged accommodation with another Chinese student downtown, the students drove her to her new apartment but were reluctant to leave her there once they saw where she’d be sleeping — in the living room.

“When the Canadian students saw the apartment, they were shocked,” says Ms. Yang, who now laughs at the memory. “But I was confused. Was it really a big problem? Chinese people actually won’t mind living in the living room.”

In fact, compared to Ms. Yang’s living quarters during her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Foreign Studies in Beijing, the living room laid out before her seemed, well, positively roomy. In Beijing, she shared small dorm rooms with three or four other students.

“That concept of privacy is a cultural difference,” she says. “And I must say I appreciate having a door to my bedroom and I don’t want to live in a living room anymore.”

Ways of learning

The way of learning is different too, she says. There is more freedom and professors encourage students to think critically and form their own opinions. “I do appreciate the chance to reflect and to be able to work on something you feel passionate about.”

She came upon the topic for her thesis in a course of Quebecois literature, and found herself drawn to Asian-Quebecois writers: the Shanghai-born Ying Chen whose novels include Le memoire de l’eau, Les lettres chinoises and L’ingratitude; Japanese-born Aki Shimazaki whose 2005 novel Hotaru won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in French; Kim Thuy who’s book Ru is her own story of fleeing Vietnam in the 1970s; and Ook Chung, born in Japan to parents.

“I think it is very interesting to be the minority within the larger minority culture of Canada, a culture with a very strong sense of identity.”