Brian Evans: History Department

Chinese History Dept: When the earnest teen-ager told the acting head of the history department of his ambitions, his professor was perplexed, according to Vancouver Sun. Evans has spent the better part of the last 61 years proving his former professor wrong - along the way becoming one of Canada's foremost experts on Chinese history and culture. After taking an undergraduate degree at the U of A, he went on to earn a PhD in Chinese history at the University of Lon-don's School of Oriental and African Studies. He become the U of A's first Chinese history professor, founded the department of East Asian languages and literatures, and served as associate vice-president and when farm boy Brian Evans arrived at the University of Alberta as a first-year student in 1951, he knew exactly what he wanted to study: Chinese history. "Why?" he asked Evans. "There isn't a future in it." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.