A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNB OVERSEAS CHINESE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
By Anthony Lister (Revised and updated March 2011)

OCSA was officially founded on Friday, November 6, 1964 although the first Chinese students arrived on campus as early as 1955.
The following letter in the OCSA files concerns the founding of the Association and requests students to attend the inaugural meeting to approve a constitution. It reads as follows:
November 2, 1964
Dear fellow students,
The establishment of a Chinese student association was proposed many years ago by some enthusiastic parties and no work on this has been done ever since. This year the total number of Chinese in UNB and St.Thomas is so high that an association for the Chinese students is urgently required not only for the purpose of communication with each other but also for the purposes of our own welfare, benefit, mutual understanding and encouragement towards our studies. A discussion for the foundation of such an association will be held in the Auditorium of the Chemistry building, at 7:30 p.m., Friday November 6, 1964. A copy of the proposed constitution is herewith attached for your scrutiny. Please do your best to attend the meeting.
C. M. Wong
At that meeting the Constitution was approved and the first Executive elected with Mr. Tony Yen as the President. The Constitution approved then is the same with several changes as that which is still in use now. One major change made in early 1965 was to open OCSA membership to all students at UNB and STU rather than just to Chinese students, so that the Association could be affiliated to the SRC. During the first year there were 40 members. The earliest membership list in the OCSA files dates from 1966 and at that time there were 65 members of whom about half were graduate students.
The activities proposed for the first year were not unlike those we still have. There was to be a Christmas Party, a China Night, held around the Chinese New Year with "band music, floor show, door prizes, games and refreshments" a Farewell Party and the following year a reception for the new members. Sports events were also proposed: table tennis, basketball, tennis, badminton, swimming, chess and bridge.
Over the years OCSA has always been an extremely active association organizing all sorts of events for its members and the university community. The China Nights and the Chinese New Year banquets and shows are those which have been most widely noticed on campus. However, many changes have occurred over the years. The biggest change was due to the huge increase in the number of Chinese students studying at UNB. From 40 in 1964 the number had grown to about 175 by the mid 70's and partly because of this two other associations were created: CCANB, the Chinese Cultural Association of New Brunswick (1977), and MSS, the Malaysian Students Society (1978). In 1984 students from the People's Republic of China founded the Chinese Graduate Students Association (now CSSA, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association) and in 1989 the Singapore Student Association was founded (no longer in existence) . Whilst in its early days OCSA was the only Chinese organization in Fredericton which all Chinese joined, young and old, students and professors, irrespective of nationality, it has become one association among many. However, it is still an organization which welcomes all Chinese students and others interested in Chinese culture, and it is not oriented to any particular country. There has nevertheless been a change in composition of the members based on country of origin. When the association was founded, about half the members came from Taiwan. From the mid 70s onwards, members were largely from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, and at the present time, most are from China. Many students are members of several associations, and OCSA has cooperated at various times with most, if not all, of the other associations.
OCSA used to show a large number of movies. In the early days, they were usually 16mm Taiwan and Mainland Chinese films, and were in Mandarin. Even 35mm movies were projected occasionally. Both feature films and documentaries were shown. More recently most of the movies were from Hong Kong and in Cantonese and were on video tape or CDs. Less movies are shown now, and if they are, they are from China.
A new development for OCSA was the opening of the first Chinese radio program on CHSR in the 1985-86 academic year. The first Director and organiser of the program was Fred Tsang. In the OCSA minutes of October 6, 1985 he states " A Radio Program is newly formed by the sub committee of OCSA. It is an independent interest group and its operations and activities will be financially supported by OCSA. Our purposes are not only to provide more services and entertainment, but also foster better understanding and communication between each of us. We much appreciate your support and help." For 17 years and mostly on Sunday mornings, OCSA broadcast two to three hours of programs in Cantonese and Mandarin, news, music, discussion, interviews and drama, but the programs finally ended around 2005, when the Students and Scholars Association started their own broadcasts in Mandarin.
One of the biggest changes to affect the association was brought about by the new information technology. The first mailings of information to our members by e-mail took place in 1995 to 1996, and our first web site was set up by Silvester To in September 1995. Due to these developments, it become extremely easy to keep in touch with the members.
The year 1999 was a watershed in the history of OCSA. For much of its history since around 1971, Hong Kong students formed a large percentage of the membership and most of the presidents came from Hong Kong. However, in the later 1990s there was a steep decline in the number students from that area at UNB, and for the last few years there have not been any (probably connected to the increase in the number of universities in Hong Kong itself). From around 1999 until 2004, the majority of the members were from Malaysia, and the presidents were also from that country. However, these students had their own association, MSS, and running OCSA as well became too much of a burden for them. From 2004 to the present time, most of the members have come from China, and the first president from China was elected in 2004. However, since that time, presidents have also come from Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, showing that the Association is not connected with any particular country.
These changes reflect the fact that there are now about 150 students from China at UNB as well as about 200 at UNBSJ (numbers include graduate and undergraduate as well as students transitioning from English language studies ELP in Fredericton and Saint John College in Saint John.) The first came in the mid 80s and were all graduate students, but since around the year 2000 undergraduates also arrived. Most join CSSA
At the present time, OCSA has somewhat fewer members than in the past, and one former major activity, the annual China Night or Chinese New Year Banquet and Show, which started back in 1965 took place for the last time in 2003.This year the event was organized by CSSA and CCANB.
However, OCSA is still flourishing and very active. Some of the activities that have been organized from 2003 to the present are the annual welcome and graduation parties, two cultural workshops including displays, tea tasting and a lecture on Chinese antiques, a pipa recital, movies, four trips (Fundy National Park, Moncton, Saint John for bird watching, and Christmas in Montreal), a Lantern Festival (jointly with CSSA), sports events (bowling, curling, paintball), potlucks, French classes (now discontinued), OCSA’s 40th Anniversary Dinner, and for the last three years a very popular karaoke competition, which has attracted students of many nationalities, and has become the Association’s major annual event.

Further information about OCSA’s history can be found in UNB’s archives at Harriet Irving Library, where the Association’s records including hundreds of photos have been deposited. There is also a link to many online photos on the OCSA website.

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