We were stimulated by celebrations around the 40th Anniversary of Canada-China Relations in 2010 to design a project that would look specifically at large scale national level efforts at collaboration between Canadian and Chinese universities from 1983 to 2001. After the devastation of the Cultural Revolution, Canada was the only Western country that concentrated its development aid on higher education in China, and the projects it supported were quite different from those of the World Bank, which focused on infrastructural development. CIDA projects supported a large number of university linkages in the areas of education, agriculture, environment, health and management studies, with a particular emphasis on collaboration in the development of faculty and of new courses. Our project intends to reflect on the historical contribution made by the universities and other social institutions on both sides that were involved in these linkages. What kind of long-term impact can be traced, and what lessons have been learned? How did the projects specifically address areas of knowledge that were crucial to China’s rapid transition towards the position of economic and geo-political leadership it holds today in the world community? What new synergies are now emerging between universities in the two countries that might be built upon in new forms of collaboration? To answer these questions we are connecting with participants in past projects in many parts of Canada and China. Our project team includes Ruth Hayhoe (OISE/LHAE), Julia Pan (OISE/LHAE), Qiang Zha (York), Phirom Leng (OISE/LHAE), and Qin Liu (OISE/LHAE).