China Through Canadian Eyes

China Through Canadian Eyes

Evelyn Potter and the 1971 Delegation and University of Saskatchewan Students and Staff Today

Sept. 24 – Oct. 5, 2018

Reception:  Sept. 24, 2018, 4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Gordon Snelgrove Gallery, University of Saskatchewan campus

Organized and hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Saskatchewan
Keith Carlson and Zhao Liang, co-curators
Teresa Carlson and Shawn Zheng, exhibition design

This exhibition features photographs taken by Evelyn Potter (then women’s president of the National Farmers Union) in 1971 as part of a ground-breaking visit by a Canadian delegation to China.

In early 1971, a mere 13 weeks after Canada formally recognized the People’s Republic of China, and before the United States opened formal diplomatic relations with the PRC, an academic from UBC was working to arrange a delegation of Canadian professionals and educators to visit China to promote cultural exchange and understanding. A month before its scheduled departure, the Chinese government notified the organizers that unless a "peasant" was added to the Canadian delegation to represent Canada’s agricultural sector, the exchange would not be approved.

Organizers turned to the recently created National Farmers Union and, in particular, to Evelyn Potter, the Saskatchewan farmer who had been elected the union’s first women’s president. She consented. During her month-long visit, Potter took more than 1,200 photographs of life in China.

China Through Canadian Eyes also features scenes of daily life in China today, taken by students and educators sponsored by the Confucius Institute. They show how much has changed since 1971. The spirit of these sponsored tours draws on the objectives of the first delegation: to promote understanding, awareness and respect between the people of Canada and China.

This exhibition is generously sponsored and supported by Confucius Institute Headquarters, the University of Saskatchewan College of Arts and Science and the Diefenbaker Canada Centre.

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