John Edward Stowe PhD / 司徒祥文 (Sītú Xiángwén)
Dr. John Edward Stowe is the Academic Coordinator and an instructor for Chinese language courses at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has been teaching Mandarin Chinese for over 35 years, formerly having also taught Chinese in the United States and Taiwan.
John is especially proud of the success of his students. In 2021, Ryan Vopni (Ryerson, 2018, History, BA) graduated with an MA in International Relations and Affairs from Peking University (the Harvard of China). In 2022, Eric Muellejans (TRSM, 2021, BTM, BA) graduate as a Schwarzman Scholar from Tsinghua University (the MIT of China) with an MA in Global Affairs.
In 2021, Dr. Helen Xiaoyan Wu (UTSC) and John completed their translation of the prize-winning textbook, New Practical Chinese Reader, 3rd Edition (Volume 2), into English. It has been so popular that it is now in its second printing and its translation has been used for translation into other languages such as Arabic, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Ukrainian, and even Uzbek.
See John in action interviewed for a Toronto-based TV station in Chinese!
Courses Taught:
Along with the CHN course series, John regularly teaches popular CHS courses. These courses, taught in English and open to all students, were created by John.
CHS 503 - Chinese Literary Traditions: An Upper-Level Liberal Studies course that covers major traditional works. Various literary genres and techniques are discussed.
CHS 504 - Chinese Cultural Traditions: An Upper-Level Liberal Studies course examing the major cultural traditions in China. Chinese myths, legends, identity, values, beliefs, and achievements are explored.
CHS 505 - Modern Chinese Culture: An open elective introduced in Winter 2025, this course reflect upon a dynamic modern Chinese culture from the perspectives of a wide array of Chinese people.
Selected Works:
2021 - Translated with Dr. Helen Wu Volume II (of 4) of the standard Chinese language textbook 新实用汉语课本New Practical Chinese Reader, Volume 2. It is used internationally by Confucian Institutes in all English-speaking countries. The English translation was used for the Italian and Arabic edition.
2018 - Contemporary Literary Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Today's Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Short Story Writers, Scriptwriters, & Others, Vol. 437. This 476-page collection of critical essays was published by Layman Poupard Publishing (Columbia, South Carolina) in the spring of 2018. ISBN:13-978-1410378118. John contributed an article and acted as Academic Advisor for publication, wrote annotations for critical essays, provided a descriptive paragraph summarizing the major scholarly currents and the historical development of critical discourse on the author, Jia Pingwa, and provided a primary bibliography in English and Chinese.
2018 - English translation (from Chinese) of a novella “West Nile Virus” and a short story “Grown Up” by two Chinese Canadian Diaspora writers: Chen He and Yu Xi. These appeared in a collection of translations entitled Toward the North: Chinese Canadian Writers, edited by Dr. Xueqing Xu (York) and Dr. Laura Hua Wu (UWO).
2015 - Translated with Dr. Helen Wu Volume I (of 4) of the standard Chinese language textbook 新实用汉语课本New Practical Chinese Reader, Vol. 1, which is used globally by Confucian Institutes in all English-speaking countries.