The Asian Library is an

academic library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...

located on the

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

campus of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, which houses the Asian languages collections of the

pertaining to

Asian studies Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies. The field is concerned with the Asian people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. The architecture of the Asian Centre building, in which the Asian Library is located, is based on a traditional

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

, and the building was designed by Donald Matsuba at the cost of $1.6 million Canadian dollars. The building was intended to be a centennial gift funded by the

Government of Japan The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...

, serving as a symbol of Asian-Canadian and

Canada–Japan relations Canada and Japan have an amicable companionship in many areas. Diplomatic relations between both countries officially began in 1928 with the opening of the Japanese consulate in Ottawa. In 1929, Canada opened its Tokyo legation, the first in As ...

. The Asian studies idea was created by Geoffrey Brian Hainsworth and a few of his colleagues.

References

University of British Columbia Academic libraries in Canada University of British Columbia libraries {{library-stub