Dr. Chai-Shin Yu is fondly remembered by generations of students for his years of service in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. His foundational course,“Introduction to Korean Civilization,” introduced hundreds of students to the main currents in Korean thought, religion, and culture.
Now Dr. Yu’s family and the Korean community in Toronto have joined with the Department of East Asian Studies to create the Dr. Chai-Shin Yu Memorial Scholarship in Korean Studies to recognize Dr. Yu’s important contributions and, in the spirit of his enthusiasm for teaching, to support students committed to studying about Korea.
“I remember walking into Dr. Yu’s classroom in September of 1983,” recalls Dr. Andre Schmid, currently a professor in the department, a historian of modern Korea, and one of Dr. Yu’s former students. “It was still early days for Korean Studies, not just in Toronto but in North America more generally. Nevertheless, the room was full of students eager to learn about the Korean past. We were one of the first generations of students in North America, who under Dr. Yu’s guidance received a complete course in Korean history.”
Dr. Yu’s courses sought to show the unique features of the Korean past. He keenly lectured on the history of Korea’s adaption of Buddhist and Confucian traditions. He was also deeply committed to teaching indigenous strains of religion, such as shamanism. Beginning his courses with the pre-history of the peninsula, Dr. Yu had students reading writings that covered the entire breadth of Korean intellectual traditions down to the 19th century. He also had an interest in the history of Christianity, regaling students with stories about its arrival through contact with missionaries and later dissemination among Koreans.
Dr. Yu was equally renowned for supporting his students. He wrote countless letters of recommendations for students who went on to law and medical schools, who became teachers, or who gained employment in government civil service.
As a scholar, Dr. Yu wrote twenty books on Korean and Asian thought and culture in both English and Korean. He generously donated his books to libraries in North America to foster interest in the history and culture of Korea.
Dr. Yu’s contributions extended beyond the university into Toronto’s cultural landscape. While serving as a professor at the University of Toronto, he played a pivotal role in making the Korean gallery at the Royal Ontario Museum possible through the founding of CARAKA (Canadian Association for the Recognition and Appreciation of Korean Art). His vision and dedication made this achievement possible, showcasing Korea’s rich cultural history to a broader audience and fostering greater understanding and appreciation of Korean civilization among Canadians and visitors from around the world.
“While I did not know it at the time,” adds Dr. Schmid, “I later learned that Dr. Yu was a key figure in the local Korean community, not only as a minister but also as a lecturer.” Dr. Yu’s contacts and hard work helped lay the foundation for various fundraising efforts that have enabled an ever-growing number of students over the last few decades to take a greater variety and depth of courses on Korea than could possibly have been imagined back in the late 1970s, when Dr. Yu first taught at the University of Toronto. His family, together with the Korean community in Toronto, hope to continue his legacy with the creation of this new scholarship.
Dr. Yu’s efforts in those early days paved the way for what has become one of the largest programs in Korean Studies in North America. Currently, there are more than 600 hundred students on average taking Korean courses every year in the department, ranging from courses on Korean film and media, literature and literary translation, and modern Korean history. Language instruction is given at all four levels of the undergraduate program, with extra specialized courses for students with prior exposure to Korean language and for students interested in professional use of Korean. At the graduate level, there are over a dozen students at both M.A. and Ph.D. levels whose focus lies in Korean studies. Graduates from the department are teaching at major universities in North America, Europe and South Korea.
(L to R) Grace Lee, Richard W.L. Guisso, Kyoungrok Ko, Ena Kim, Andre Schmid, Janet Poole, Takashi Fujitani
Dr. Yu is lovingly remembered by his family—wife Ena and their children Ruth, Sarah and John—and by members of the Korean community, who have together established the Dr. Chai-Shin Yu Memorial Scholarship with the goal of continuing to support Korean studies at the University of Toronto. Anyone wishing to make a donation may do so here.