Panel Talk x LunarFest 2025
Places of Memory in Graphic Novels
Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Time: 12:30-13:30
Venue: Coach House at UBC Green College
Address: 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 | Map | Parking
What is the relationship between comics and place?
How can comics tie us to memory, history, and emotion?
Join us for the panel talk “Places of Memory in Graphic Novels” to explore how graphic novels preserve memories through space and time.
Co-organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and LunarFest Vancouver, the panel features presentations by celebrated Taiwanese graphic novelist Mr Ruan Guang-Min 阮光民 and Dr. Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam (UBC Central, Eastern & Northern European Studies) to be hosted by Dr. Helena Wu (UBC Asian Studies).
Event in English. Beverage will be provided. Free admission. All are welcome. No prior registration required.
About the panelists:
Ruan Guang Min (visiting artist)
Ruan Guang-Min’s graphic novels are set against Taiwanese cultural backgrounds. His stories vividly depict the local Taiwanese way of life. He uses a simple, unostentatious style of drawing to present to the world the values worth passing down from generation to generation. Each of Ruan’s works touches your heart and seeks to capture the nostalgia of a bygone generation.
As the recipient of several prestigious Taiwanese awards, Ruan’s work Dung Hua Chuen Barbershop has been adapted into an acclaimed TV serial drama. His books include Legends of Assassins, Dong-Huachun Barbershop, Seasoning of Happiness, Restaurant Paradise Ep1~3, Between Police and Thieves, Yong-Jiu Grocery Store, Condition to live (or Condition of life, which was adapted to a play). He is also committed to adapting literature with comics. The Illusionist on the Skywalk and Other Short Stories by Wu Ming-Yi, The Steelyard by Lai ho, A Small Town Planted with Papaya Tree by Long Ying-zong.
Profile: The Lantern City
Dr. Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam
Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia. Biz’s research and teaching examine the representation of history in comics, comics and new media on forced migration, intersections between Indigenous studies and German, European, and migration studies, and feminist methodologies in the graphic arts.
At UBC, she leads the Narratives Research Group in the UBC Centre for Migration Studies and founded and co-leads the recently established Comic Studies Research Cluster in UBC’s Public Humanities Hub. Biz is also the Equity Chair for German Studies Canada and sits on the Executive Committee of the International Comic Arts Forum and the Executive Board of the Comics Studies Society.
She is currently completing her book manuscript, Graphic Historiography: Teaching History & Memory through Comics and Graphic Novels (Ohio State University Press).
About the host:
Dr. Helena Wu
Dr. Helena Wu is Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor of Hong Kong Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She is also the Convenor of the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative, as well as the co-curator and co-organizer of the UBC Asian Independent Cinema Showcase. She is also a Green College Leading Scholar (2023-2025).
Dr. Wu’s works on cinema and literature appeared in peer-reviewed books and journals such as Interventions (2018), Chinese Martial Arts and Media Culture (2018), Journal of Chinese Cinemas (2020), Asian Cinema (2022), Screen (2023), Cultural Studies (2024) and more. She is the author of The Hangover After the Handover: Places, Things and Cultural Icons in Hong Kong (Liverpool University Press, 2020).
This event is co-organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and the LunarFest 2025, with the support of the UBC Department of Asian Studies.
More about the LunarFest 2025: https://lunarfestvancouver.ca