The Choi building provides a new home for an expanded Institute of Asian Research, which was founded in 1978.
Headed by Director Terry McGee, the institute houses five research centres focusing on different regions of Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and India and South Asia.
The building and its institute contribute to UBC's already strong links with academic institutions in other countries and function as a gateway to the campus's international precinct, which includes the Asian Centre and Nitobe Garden.
Funding for the institute was provided by a number of major donors from Canada and Asia including a lead gift from the C.K. Choi family and matching funds from the B.C. government. More than $20 million in grants and endowments was raised for the institute's building, two endowed faculty positions in each centre, graduate fellowships, faculty exchanges and library collections.
The official opening ceremony begins at 2:30 p.m., Oct. 7 with a ribbon cutting, plaque unveilings and honouring of donors.
Principal guests of honour will be the Choi family. C.K. Choi is a Vancouver business leader and philanthropist and five of his seven sons and daughters are graduates of UBC.
"Although I have not had the benefit of a higher education and do not consider myself an intellectual, I have always had a tremendous desire for the pursuit of knowledge," Choi said in explaining his support of UBC.
Other special events held to inaugurate the new building include Asia Week, a celebration featuring daily noon hour concerts and cultural events that highlight the different regions represented in the building--Japan on Monday, India and South Asia on Tuesday, Southeast Asia on Wednesday, China on Thursday and Korea on Friday.
Asia Week festivities run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. Lunches featuring the cuisines of Asian countries will be served each day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., immediately followed by cultural performances.
Displays range from traditional arts and crafts to the latest Internet web sites from Asia, on view at the institute's multimedia centre. Graduate students will demonstrate how new technology is applied to research.
Daily tours will be given of the award-winning building, which is constructed of recycled and recyclable materials and features the latest advances in environmental design.
The tours, conducted by Campus Planning and Development, will take place at 10 a.m and 2:30 p.m. daily.
A book exhibition and sale will be held by the three journals published out of the Choi building -- Pacific Affairs, B.C. Studies and Canadian Literature. Institute and Centre publications will be on sale, including copies of Design for the Next Millennium: The C.K. Choi Building for the Institute of Asian Research, which gives a detailed description of the building and the institute's activities.
As well, the institute will host an academic conference, The Empowerment of Asia, that runs Oct. 8-9.
The conference will bring together prominent scholars from Asia and North America for what organizers say promises to be a milestone in the reassessment of Asia's role in the emerging global system.
The keynote speaker is Harvard University Prof. Tu Weiming, an international scholar on Confucian thought and director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.