UNews - Michael Chan

Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies goes to religious studies major

caroline.zentner — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 18:39:59 +0000

Jessica Knoop-Lentz (BA ’19) was inspired to write about Buddhist ecology and her efforts netted her this year’s Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies worth $1,000.

“I was very excited and incredibly grateful. Since I’ve been on maternity leave, it was a very welcome gift,” says Knoop-Lentz, who is mother to a six-month-old baby boy. “This was by no means the result of my efforts alone. I was several months pregnant, planning my wedding and doing my honours thesis all at the same time. I had amazing support from friends and family, so me winning this prize is also a celebration of them.”

Knoop-Lentz majored in religious studies and minored in Asian studies and anthropology, subject areas that were far from her original starting point.

“When I was at Lethbridge College, I took Introduction to World Religions and Buddhism,” she says. “When I was writing my papers and going to class, it came so naturally. Originally, I wanted to be a vet and now I want to teach religious studies.”

Originally from the Crowsnest Pass, Knoop-Lentz moved to Lethbridge about a decade ago. When she enrolled at the U of L, Knoop-Lentz started taking classes with Dr. John Harding, a professor in the Department of Religious Studies.

“Eventually, it just solidified my interest in religious studies,” she says. “I was working really hard to do OK in biology, but religious studies felt effortless. I switched majors and went with what I was passionate about.”

Her paper, titled Shades of Green: A Consideration of the Multiple Perspectives on Buddhist Ecology, was written for Harding’s class on Buddhism and science. While Knoop-Lentz didn’t need the course credit, she signed up purely because she was interested.

“Buddhism is often seen as the most scientifically compatible religion. Some people would even say the Buddha was a scientist because he sought to understand the world and how it works,” she says. “Buddhists view all things as interconnected. There’s also the concept of karma, which is the idea that by doing good in this life, you’re planting seeds for your future lives or later in this life.”

But everyone has a different idea about what is good. Would a Buddhist agree to killing off a diseased population of animals if it saves the greater forest or should the lives of individual animals be considered?

“The answers to those questions depend on who you ask,” says Knoop-Lentz. “No Buddhist is ever just a Buddhist. They could be farmers or mothers and that will factor into their decision making.”

Prize adjudicators, Drs. Trevor Harrison and Richard Mueller, commended Knoop-Lentz on a well-written paper that explores the compatibility of Buddhist teachings with modern western-based approaches to ecology. While traditional Buddhism often emphasized the inward search for enlightenment, Knoop-Lentz shows that ecological elements were already present. She demonstrates that variations of Buddhist teachings were connected with local ecological circumstances and economies.

The Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies was established by Dr. Bonnie Lee, a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, to honour the memory of her husband. Michael Chan was a Chinese-Canadian scientist and humanitarian.

Two students share this year’s Michael Chan prize

caroline.zentner — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 17:57:49 +0000

Two unique projects earned Rutika Gandhi (BA’14) and Fallan Curtis wins in this year’s Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies.

The annual prize, named after Michael Wing-Cheung Chan (1952 – 2001), is given to continuing undergraduate or graduate students in any degree program with an interest in Asia-focused scholarship, research or projects. Chan was a Canadian Chinese scientist and humanitarian known for his brilliance in mathematics and his passion for promoting Canada-Asia understanding.

As this year’s winners, Gandhi and Curtis receive $500 each — Gandhi for her essay looking at Buddhism in the digital world, and Curtis for her photo essay comparing biomedicine (Western medicine) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Curtis, an undergraduate student, participated in Dr. Bonnie Lee’s ‘Health and Culture in China’ field

study course. In the beginning, Curtis planned her project around comparing the health systems in Canada and China but first-hand experience with the Chinese system changed the focus.

While the field study group was in Hangzhou, Curtis started feeling unwell. The pain intensified, centering in the lower right quadrant of her abdomen and appendicitis was suspected. As her condition worsened, Curtis sought treatment at a hospital. Language proved to be a barrier despite the services of a translator. However, Curtis understood she needed to provide a deposit before treatment could begin. She made emergency calls to family members and secured the deposit. Tests confirmed the infection.

“Basically, over the course of five days, I received copious amounts of antibiotics intravenously and different tests,” she says. “Once they found out that those antibiotics were working and decreasing my white blood cell count, they decided not to operate. If I had presented with the same symptoms here they would have operated immediately. Now that I have had it once, the likelihood of it re-occurring is quite high.”

Students in the field study also visited a TCM hospital and one of the doctors there gave her an acupuncture treatment for appendicitis.

“I don’t think this would have exactly been a productive treatment when the appendicitis was acute, but it was interesting after to get the opportunity to be cared for in a different way,” she says.

Curtis refocused her project and decided to use her experiences and information on the types of health-care systems in a photo essay. She learned that the younger generation in China is more supportive of modern scientific medicine and some people are concerned that TCM will disappear as a result. Integrated medicine, which blends TCM with biomedicine, is also becoming more prevalent.

“There are positives to TCM that biomedicine cannot account for,” she says. “I think one of the most important things TCM has to offer is a better patient-practitioner relationship. So, integrated medicine is a combination of both treatments and studies have shown it to be extremely effective.”

Curtis can’t say enough about the value of her field study experience. The sights, sounds and smells of being in another culture can’t be learned in a book. Winning the Michael Chan prize is a bonus.

“I’m quite honoured. The prize will help me out financially because of this costly trip, so that’s nice,” she says. “I really wanted to share my experiences and I was inspired by the interactive learning experience.”

Gandhi, a master’s student under the supervision of Dr. John Harding, found her niche in religious studies while she was an undergraduate. During a course on Asian religions and the West, Gandhi learned about different manifestations of Buddhism, depending on the country, sect and school. She also learned about the ways Buddhism has been re-interpreted in modern times, including in the digital world.

Gandhi became intrigued by Second Life, an online three-dimensional virtual reality game. Some locales in the game are Buddhist in nature so Gandhi signed up, created an avatar and explored the virtual Buddhist world. Participants can visit temples, burn incense, pray, meditate, do yoga, make donations to a temple and chat with other participants.

“It made me think ‘What does this mean?’ Is it replacing religious activities or is it just another way for Buddhists to connect with each other? Is it just part of globalization?” she says. “I did a bit of research and concluded that it’s not a way for Buddhists to replace offline religious activity; it’s just an extension of it.”

Issues that occur in the real world can also be reflected in the online world. Gandhi turned her attention to a forum known as E-sangha, a popular website that claimed to be transnational and not associated with any particular form of Buddhism.

“Every forum has guidelines that people need to follow or their profiles can be suspended or terminated. E-sangha followed the eight-fold path, which ties their website to some form of authenticity, but their guidelines forbade certain schools of Buddhism from joining, which went against the site’s claim that it was universal,” Gandhi says.

As modern Buddhism evolved from different places around the world, the dynamics between the monastics and laity changed. Traditionally, monks have been authority figures in Buddhism. Now lay people sometimes hold more sway in the online world and the current mindfulness movement in North America is led by mostly lay people and even some who are not Buddhists.

“Overall, what I’m trying to show is that the real world and the online world are not completely separate and that the online world does not replace the offline world. They sort of work in sync with each other and although the online world does not replace the offline world, it can extend some of the issues that are going on,” she says.

Winning the Michael Chan prize was unexpected but welcome news and the money will help her pay tuition fees.

“I always try to keep a positive outlook on things but I also don’t want to set myself up for disappointment,” Gandhi says. “I knew it was a good paper but when I actually saw the email that I won I was pleasantly surprised and really happy.”

Revealing essay earns Eelhart the Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies

trevor.kenney — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 22:57:25 +0000

Anyone who has travelled knows that travel changes you. Yet how often do we take the time to really reflect on exactly how a new place has expanded our perspective?

In spite of taking the mandatory preparation class, Eelhart says he still found himself incredulous upon touching down in the new country.

For students undertaking a two-week trip to China as part of an international field-study course, writing a paper about their experience provided an opportunity not only to record their itinerary, but to meditate on their responses to a culture so different from their own. For Aaron Eelhart, a third-year general sciences student at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, the personal reflection and photo essay he wrote also earned him this year’s Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies.

To understand Eelhart’s experiences, his own words are the best source.

“In elementary and high school, I had been taught that China was a backward country. I was essentially taught that China was two things: a competitor and an oppressed country controlled by a brutal regime. It is beyond doubt that these teachings were based in some truth for the time, but I have learned that China is a country far too rich in culture and history to be defined by any singular thing,” wrote Eelhart in his reflection paper.

In spite of taking the mandatory preparation class (Global Mental Health with U of L professor Dr. Bonnie Lee), Eelhart says he still found himself incredulous upon touching down in the new country.

“It was like landing on an alien planet, really. It was a huge culture shock, but it was very exciting,” he says.

Dr. Bonnie Lee, centre, delivers the Global Mental Health course.

Besides visiting Shanghai and Nanjing as part of the field study, Eelhart and some of his fellow students also booked a four-day tour package to see Beijing and sites like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Not only was it his first time in China, but it was his first time travelling outside the country since he was eight years old.

In his reflection paper, Eelhart meditated particularly on the language differences.

“I had to laugh at myself during my stay as it allowed me to remember what it feels like to be illiterate. I have been able to read English since I was very young, but Chinese characters are something I do not understand in the slightest,” he wrote.

He was also impressed by how well his Chinese counterparts spoke English.

“I did not know enough Mandarin to engage in even the simplest of conversations. The whole experience at Fudan [the university that the students visited] really made me respect the ability to speak multiple languages,” he explained.

For a student working two jobs to support his education, the Chan Award really means a lot.

“It helps me big time this semester. The $1,000 that I got as a prize went straight toward my tuition,” says Eelhart.

The trip itself made him eager to go back as soon as he can.

“Barring unforeseen circumstances, I will return to China. There is so much happening there, and I want to be a part of it. My experience has taught me that the world is a much larger place than I previously realized. It is a big, beautiful world out there. I want to experience it.”

UNews - Michael Chan

Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies goes to religious studies major

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Two students share this year’s Michael Chan prize

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Revealing essay earns Eelhart the Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies

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