The Confucius Institute is a specialized Chinese library located in Woodcroft Avenue, and houses approximately 40,000 texts available to the Chinese community. The topics of the material vary, including Geography, Travel, History, Culture, Medicine, Sports and Chinese Martial Arts, Children's Books, and Language Education.
The organization's website describes the institution as a "non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the educational, cultural, and economic ties between China and Canada." It accomplishes this goal through providing materials to children, the main demographic of readers. Language education is a substantial drive for the institution, and they hold a large collection of language instruction material and conduct language proficiency exams every year.
The librarian, Man Luo, explained that much of the material is intended for children because the director of the Edmonton branch is a bilingual educator. He determines the material the library, acquiring texts according to their level of usefulness for adolescents. Much of the materials now also uses romanization, a system that makes learning Chinese easier and more appealing to the younger generations. The library receives a lot of material for educational purposes, especially since the institution holds a reading program for children called "Get Reading".
The library is well organized; the material is neatly lined overarching topics. However, what's more interesting is that every item compliments the overall theme of the library: Chinese culture. For example, under the History section, you won't find books on the French Revolution or World War II. Instead, you'll find titles such as Inside China Today and An Outline History of China. There are hardly any items that deviate from the discussion of Chinese culture. One notable difference between the collections at the Confucius Institute and Edmonton Public Libraries is that EPLs also carry Chinese books on topics like health and self-help, which are not intended to strengthen cultural bonds, but rather appeal to certain individuals and their particular tastes.
The Confucius Institute in Edmonton receives financial support from Hanban and the Chinese Government. The majority of the material is donated by the Chinese government, with many behind the scenes mechanisms and operations organized by the Confucius Institute Headquarters. Knowing this, I was interested to find out how the censorship laws in China affect the material available in the library, and in extension, Edmontonians. However, Luo explained that the material does not interfere with the censorship laws of China, as it can be publicly sold in China anyways. In addition, the institution's reliance on the Government of China has rendered the problem obsolete by excluding any censored material from the start.
To end the interview, I asked Luo what she thought "popular print" meant in the context of the Chinese community. She said that, based on her work and observations as a librarian, she considers children's books and material highlighting ongoing trends in society, especially regarding to fashion and cooking, to be "popular." In addition, Luo thinks her institution helps connect readers to the wider world of print culture by providing access to Chinese reading material in a city like Edmonton.
