Chinese Student Association to Launch Newspaper
Concordia University’s media outlets will soon be trilingual, as the Concordia Chinese Student Association has announced plans to launch the school’s first Chinese-language newspaper.
“Even though we have different kinds of English language newspapers at Concordia, Chinese students are reluctant to read them sometimes,” said CCSA president Jingdi Pi. “They don’t have too much information about the campus. For example, for something like health services, Chinese students who are almost graduating sometimes don’t know they can [get access to services like] acupuncture and things like that.”
The new paper will be titled Qi Dian, which translates to Starting Point in English. Pi says the title is also a statement regarding how the CCSA views their adopted city.
“For overseas students, Montreal is a starting point for us to explore and learn more things about the world,” she said.
The CCSA have established a comprehensive mandate for Qi Dian. It will act not just as an introduction to Canadian life, but also as a means to retain a link to their country of origin.
“We want to bridge the Chinese students and university together,” said Pi. “So one the one hand we can provide them with the latest campus news and also off-campus news such as the latest policies that are important for international students.
“We also want to provide students with traditional Chinese cultural things, so they don’t forget our culture.”
Originally slated for a launch in October, the CCSA has had to put off the first issue due to problems finding an appropriate printing facility.
However, that delay has given the CCSA time to decide what content will eventually make it into the 16-page first issue. One such change might be the inclusion of an English-language column, to be written by CCSA executive member Andrew Peters.
“Andrew really wants to write something about the experience of when he was in China on exchange,” said Pi.
The extra time has also allowed the CCSA to expand their contributors from solely members of the CCSA to any student with an interest in Chinese culture.
“There are two parts [to the newspaper],” Pi said. “The first part is from members of the CCSA, and we also welcome anyone who understands Chinese and English to join our team.”
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 05, published September 14, 2010.
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