UI Boise, Confucius Institute Honor Chinese History with Display, Lecture Series_
University of Idaho[아이다호대학교,미국대학교장학금]
The University of Idaho Boise will unveil a new permanent display of Chinese history in the Idaho Water Center on Wednesday, April 20. The new display showcases a historic sign from the Boise branch of the Chinese Empire Reform Association (CERA), which was established in the Boise Valley in the early 1900s. The eight-foot tall sign hung in Boise’s Chinatown.
CERA was founded by Kang Youwei, a noted scholar and political thinke. Kang Youwei, was the top advisor to the Guangxu Emperor (1871-1908) and a key leader in the Hundred Days Reform movement that sought to modernize imperial China. Youwei fled China in 1898 after the conservative Empress Dowager Cixi ended the Hundred Days Reform movement by toppling the young Guangxu Emperor and abolishing his reforms. The Empress Dowager Cixi called for the execution of Youwei and other leaders of the reform movement. Youwei went into exile and founded CERA on July 20, 1899, while living in Victoria, British Columbia. Youwei visited Boise in 1905, where he met with the local CERA chapter and with then-Idaho Gov. Frank R. Gooding. After Kang’s visit, the Boise Chapter of CERA built one of the first CERA buildings in the United States.
The sign was donated to the University of Idaho Asian American Comparative Collection (AACC) late last year by the Yick Yee and Chow Lun Wong Yee family, with the condition that it would be displayed in a prominent location. The AACC has partnered with the UI Confucius Institute to research the provenance of the sign and to fulfill the family’s request.
The mission of the UI Confucius Institute is to support the teaching of Chinese language and culture, and to foster academic, cultural, and economic exchange between the U.S. and China. The Confucius Institute is housed in UI’s College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences and began offering courses in Chinese language and martial arts at UI Boise this spring.
“It is an honor for the Confucius Institute to honor the request of the Yee family to have this piece of Idaho’s Chinese history on display at UI Boise,” said Matthew Wappett, director of the Confucius Institute. In the late 19th century Chinese residents made up almost a third of the population of Idaho. “This display hearkens back to an important historical period for the Boise Valley and the state of Idaho.”
The public will be able to view the new installation during the Confucius Institute’s China in the Treasure Valley lecture series, April 20-21 in the Legacy Pointe Room of the Idaho Water Center. The lecture series is free and open to the public.
The series features lectures by Terry Abraham and Priscilla Wegars of the Idaho Humanities Council. Abraham’s talk will focus on Chinese funeral customs in the West and will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20.
Wegars, curator and founder of the UI Asian American Comparative Collection, will present on Chinese immigration in Idaho, particularly to the Boise basin in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Wegars’ lecture will also be from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 21.
미국주립대 장학생 한미교육원
미국주립대 장학금 기관. 미국대학 입학&편입, 미국유학, 어학연수, 장학금, 미국유학준비
한미교육원 서울본사 1588-9774 / 한미교육원 부산지사 051-747-0030
