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This article examines education diplomacy as a specific application of public diplomacy in stabilizing Canada–China relations, which have worsened over the last few years. It conducts a case study analysing post-crisis responses of Chinese stakeholders in Canadian university international programs. The survey results provide policymaking insight for restoring post-crisis global learning activities.

It applies conceptual analysis, comparative methods and historical reflection to design a community-based survey. It treated Chinese university students and scholars as stakeholders of education diplomacy. Utilizing an established network of Chinese intuitional partners by the host institute, this case study analyses questionnaires on the online survey platform Qualtrics.

The survey indicates concerns about diplomatic tension by Chinese stakeholders in Canadian university international programs. However, their responses are still favourable for resuming global learning activities with more flexibility, mobility and personal safety facilitation.

The paper assesses the post-crisis response of Chinese stakeholders concerning the Canada–China education collaboration while interpreting Education Diplomacy as a specific form of Public Diplomacy for normalizing China–Canada relations still subject to growing bilateral tension.

This writing examines the remarkable career of the founding East Asian scholar at Montreal's Concordia University. He was the individual who did more than merely a college professor after 37 years there. He had helped to shape a new course in Sino-Canadian relations.

This paper will look at an element of soft power engagement between Canada and China before Deng Xiaoping's Open Door Policy. It also examines Concordia's achievement in establishing a China foothold in the early-1980s.

Canada has always been a pioneer in engaging Red China. Despite not having formal diplomatic ties until October 1970, Ottawa never abandoned its wish to seek a friendship with Beijing. Amidst the thawing China–Canada relations since 1970, Concordia University recruited a 25-year-old graduate student named Martin Singer to inaugurate its East Asian courses. Singer's auspicious academic career not only gave him to organize Canada's first and the largest student delegation to China but also enabled him to pioneer the first joint-postgraduate studies program between a Chinese and a Western postsecondary institution. He was also a key player in establishing a novel and unique relationship between the PRC and the Western world.

This paper provides a glimpse into China's early experience in engaging the world as it left behind decades of communist isolation. It also highlights how serendipities allowed people and institutions to advance in the wake of this exciting period in modern Chinese history.

This paper gives a comparative analysis of the foundation of sinology in two Canadian universities. Despite not having diplomatic exchanges, Canada's new relationship with the People's Republic of China (PRC) ignited a China interest in the Canadian academe. Through York University and the University of Guelph (U of G)'s experiences, readers will learn the rewards and challenges that sinology brings to Canadian higher education.

This paper offers an overview of the historical foundation of sinology in the Canadian academe. Who pushes through this process? What geopolitical developments triggered young and educated Canadians to learn about China? This paper assesses York and Guelph's process in introducing sinology by relying on university archival resources and personal interviews. Why was York University successful in its mission, which, in turn, made into a comprehensive East Asian Studies degree option in 1971? What obstacles did the U of G face that prohibited it from implementing China Studies successfully?

After 1949, Canada took a friendlier relationship with the PRC than its neighbor in the south. As China–Canada relations unfolded, Canadian witnessed a dramatic state investment in higher education. The 1960s was a decade of unprecedented university expansion. In the process, sinology enjoyed its significant growth, and both York University and the U of G made their full use of this right timing. However, China Studies at the U of G did not take off. Besides its geolocation disadvantage, Guelph's top-down managerial style in the 1960s, which resulted in collegial disillusionment, was also a significant barrier to this program's success.

Before the Internet age, universities were the first venues for most Canadians to acquire their initial academic knowledge of China. After the Second World War, sinology became popular among students as China became one of the world's “Big Fives”. More Canadians became romanticized with Maoism while opposing America's containment policy. York and Guelph exemplified this trend in Canadian history. Contrary to popular belief, historian Jerome Chen did not establish York's China Studies. Likewise, an ex-US diplomat John Melby did not bring China into Guelph, sinology arrived due to individual scholastic initiatives. Visionaries saw envisioned China's importance in the future world community.