Donia Zhang

My father passed away in Toronto at about 11:10 pm, May 8, 2015, the night before my invited talk by Toronto Canada-China Friendship Association, which was held... at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, May 9, 2015. My mother and brother-in-law both encouraged me to stick to the schedule. It was the hardest talk in my life, which I can never forget. During the talk, I pretended nothing had happened and nobody knew it until the end of the talk when I really bursted into tears... My father was 78 years old and lived an honorable life. I wrote a tribute to him and posted on my WordPress site: https://doniazhang.wordpress.com/tributes See more

Happy Spring Festival from the Lok and Zhang Family!

Merry Christmas to you from the Lok and Zhang family!

Merry Christmas from the Lok and Zhang family!

Family gathering on Christmas Eve at my sister's and brother-in-law's home, with my nephew playing piano and my mom synchronizing with a harmonica. I am sitting in the background watching (Video by my sister).

In my fourth/youngest aunt’s home in Haidian district of Beijing today, with mom, eldest aunt, youngest cousin and her family.

I spent the day at my younger uncle’s home in Changping district of Beijing, with my mom, eldest aunt, and third cousin Li Ying (Lily). It was a lovely and relaxing day without thinking about work, which is a rare occasion for me nowadays.

A blast from the past. My birthday celebration party held at the Nurses Hostel of Warneford Hospital, one of the student accommodations in the summer after finishing my first year of architectural studies at Oxford Brookes University (Photo: Hsiao-yen Rita Peng, 1989-8-18 evening).

Our first visit to Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, August 19, 2006 (just before starting my PhD at Oxford Brookes in September 2006).

A major part of human experience is to trace their roots, either family roots or intellectual roots, or both. In my recent trips to China, for example, I not on...ly searched for where my great grandfather and grandfather were born, lived, and worked, but also my previous primary, secondary, and tertiary schools and universities where I studied. I have recollected the photos of (Beijing West Riverbank Primary School, photo in 2007), (Beijing No. 43 Middle School, 2017), (Beijing No. 8 High School, 2007), (Capital Normal University, 2017), and (Peking University, 2014). Some of the schools have been relocated while keeping their names, others have been demolished or replaced. Change is the norm in life. I occasionally receive such a question: Were you brought up in the UK? or Did you grow up in Canada? Well, my Chinese education has instilled in me character building before going to the UK. See more

Today after lunch at Duyichu in Qianmen Street, my elder uncle, eldest aunt, mom, eldest cousin Li Hong and I visited Sanlihe (Three-mile-river) in Beijing’s Ea...stern District, the location of our former residence where my great grandfather (mother’s side) moved from the Ye County (now Laizhou City) in Shandong province to Beijing in the 1930s. See more

At Beijing Olympic Park today with my elder uncle, eldest aunt, mom, and eldest cousin. This park is filled with natural sceneries such as trees, grass, and a dug up lake, unlike other Chinese parks which always have built up structures.

In four weeks between September 18 and October 26, my mother and I visited three Chinese provinces (Shandong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu) and 10 cities and towns, wh...ich include Qingdao, Laizhou, Qufu, Shanghai, Zhouzhuang, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Yangzhou, and Nanjing. We are impressed with China’s fast urban improvements in these places and are proud of its accomplishments within such a short period of time. If you ask me which city I like best among them, I would say without hesitation that it is Qufu. This answer is not only because Qufu is in compliance with the ideal capital city planning mentioned in the Record of Trades in the Rituals of Zhou (), but also because the city is so clean, tidy, and with abundant modern architecture incorporating vernacular Chinese architectural forms and styles. More important perhaps, are the people whom we met there who are less commercial and have kept traditional Chinese cultural values, which made us feel very comfortable to deal with. See more

A Tribute to My Late Second Uncle Li Yuzeng He was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer and hospitalized in September at the International Hospital of Peking U...niversity in the Changping District of Beijing. Because of my three conferences to attend in China this September, I was able to visit him twice at the hospital. On October 27, only 8 days after I left China for Canada, we were saddened to hear he passed away, at the age of 77 (only two months from his 78th birthday). My last meeting with my second uncle (Mother’s side) was on October 18, 2018 in Beijing. The meeting was calm, though we both knew it might be the last one, but I tried to say things positive to comfort him. He was very slim then but took much of his strength to stand up from the hospital bed to give me a hug before I left. I sensed he was getting a little emotional and I did not stay long. That was my last sight of him when I turned my eyes away from the door of the hospital room. My second uncle worked all his life as a high-school teacher of Chinese language and literature. He was a kind, generous, and loving person, and always enjoyed talking with family and friends. He was especially close to my late Father as they went to the same middle and high school and both were Young Pioneer Counselors in the school, though at different grades. My aunts in Beijing jokingly recalled that each time when the meal was ready, their phone always rang and it must be my second uncle on the other side of the phone as he perhaps missed the big-family reunion dinner nowadays and when the meal time came, he always thought of his siblings. He encouraged my academic pursuit, including doing the PhD. I took photos with him when he visited us in Canada in 2003, and during my 2007 fieldwork in China, as well as when we visited him at his home in Beijing in 2017. Losing a dear one in our hearts is always painful, it hurts even when I am typing this message. Today is Halloween, the time to commemorate all the deceased...I wish him and other departed family members resting peacefully in the heaven.