The School Room

Janet Wang | Making Art in Chinatown About Chinatown

A second-generation settler of Chinese heritage, Janet Wang is a Vancouver-based visual artist and educator working within a traditional painting practice, integrated with sculptural installation practices and digital media. Her creations explore the construction of identity through the appropriation and disruption of social patterns and familiar gestures. Wang pays homage to the canons and traditions of history, both the artistic and the quotidian, in order to use the familiar as a meeting point with the viewer. She has exhibited her work throughout Canada and internationally.

On this episode, learn about Janet’s Here, There, a new installation on display at the Chinese Canadian Museum in the Reshaping Collections: Where History Meets Art exhibition.

The School Room: Reshaping Collections Artist Series is made possible with support from the City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/.

Morris Lum | Behind the Scenes: The Photography of C.B. Wand

Morris Lum is a Trinidadian-born photographer and artist whose work explores the hybrid nature of the Chinese-Canadian community through photography, form and documentary practices. His work also examines the ways in which Chinese history is represented in the media and archival material. Currently based in Mississauga, Ontario, Lum’s work has been exhibited and screened across Canada and the United States.

On this episode, learn about Morris’s Finding C.B. Wand, a new photography installation on display at the Chinese Canadian Museum in the Reshaping Collections: Where History Meets Art exhibition.

The School Room: Reshaping Collections Artist Series is made possible with support from the City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/.

Karen Tam | “Made in China”: The Chinatown Curio Shop

Karen Tam is a Montreal-based artist and curator whose research focuses on the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities. In her installations, she recreates Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops and other sites of cultural encounters. Tam’s deep engagement with archival and collections research has also led her to question whose histories get to be collected and told, and to interrogate the narratives that have been constructed around the Chinese diaspora.

On this episode, learn about Karen’s Whispering Jade Bazaar, a new installation on display at the Chinese Canadian Museum in the Reshaping Collections: Where History Meets Art exhibition.

The School Room: Reshaping Collections Artist Series is made possible with support from the City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/.

Marjorie Young | Chinatown Connections: Strathcona and Beyond

Strathcona is Vancouver’s oldest residential neighbourhood. Bordering Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside, it has historically been home to the working class, including the Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, Irish, Ukrainian, and Black communities. While gentrification has caused significant change and displacement of some of these communities, the neighbourhood’s diverse makeup continues to be as evident today as ever before, with the majority of residents speaking a non-English heritage language.

On this episode, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee chats with Marjorie Young, a Strathcona local and the first registered Chinese Canadian speech language pathologist in British Columbia. Reflecting on growing up in a multicultural environment, Marjorie describes what it was like going to school with classmates who collectively spoke over fifty different heritage languages. They then discuss Majorie’s memories of her family’s famous Chinatown restaurant, W.K. Gardens, the go-to spot for community banquets and celebrity visits until its closure in the 1960s, as well as Marjorie’s second career as a visual artist.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/

Dianne Leong Man | Connected Across Oceans: The South African Chinese Diaspora

How do Chinese diasporic experiences in South Africa differ from those in Canada? In this episode, Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee sits down with Dianne Leong Man, co-author of "Colour, Confusion, and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa", to learn about the country with the highest population of Chinese living in Africa and its community. They discuss the reasons for early Chinese settlement in the country and the South African Chinese Exclusion Act of 1904, the various racial classifications of the Chinese over time in South Africa, and the role Dianne’s book has played in the courtroom to protect Chinese South African rights.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/

Janet Bradley Worthington | Family Separation: The Story of Mah Tin Yick and the Oriental Home and School

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 is the only immigration law in Canadian history to have prevented a particular group from entering the country on the basis of race, specifically barring people of Chinese descent from legally entering Canada from 1923 until 1947 with very few exceptions. Preventing entry denied many prospective Chinese people opportunities for new experiences and economic gain in Canada. However, it also meant that the Chinese already in Canada were prevented from having their families join them in their new lives across the Pacific. 

Mah Tin Yick was one of many Chinese whose life was profoundly impacted by this draconian law. Arriving in Victoria from China in 1885, just before the head tax was implemented, Mah Yick settled in Salmon Arm, British Columbia and ran a hand laundry business with his family. However, tragedy struck when his partner passed away just after the Exclusion Act came into effect, leaving him struggling to care for his two young daughters on his own. 

On this episode of the School Room podcast, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee is joined by Janet Bradley Worthington, Mah Yick’s granddaughter. Tune in to hear about how Mah Yick was personally impacted by the family separation the Exclusion Act brought on, the role the Oriental Home and School played in Janet’s family history, and what it took for Janet to uncover these stories through searching Chinese Canadian archival records.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/

Lillian Dyck | Stubborn Advocacy: Growing up Chinese-Indigenous

Dr. Lillian Eva Quan Dyck’s life has been one of many firsts. The first Indigenous female senator, first Canadian-born senator of Chinese descent, and first Indigenous woman in Canada to earn a PhD in science. Lillian has blazed trails in the sciences and Senate for her work in reforming the Criminal Code to consider harsher penalties for crimes against Indigenous women, the restoration of Indian Status for Indigenous women who had married non-Indigenous men, and her career as a neuropsychiatrist.

 

On this Truth and Reconciliation Day special episode, Lillian Dyck discusses why she was told to hide her Indigenous heritage and lean into her Chinese identity growing up, her subsequent advocacy and incredible achievements in the Senate for women and Indigenous peoples, and the inspirations behind Shelley Niro’s recent film based on Lillian’s life, Café Daughter.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/

Lori Fung | Olympic History: The First Chinese Canadian Gold Medalist

The Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984 marked the first time an Olympic gold medal was awarded to a Chinese Canadian athlete. Lori Fung’s gold in the newly debuted sport of rhythmic gymnastics not only made history as the first Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadian gold medalist, but also as the first ever rhythmic gymnastics gold medalist. On this episode, Lori talks growing up in East Vancouver and Canadian representation in sports, her Olympic experience, and her big screen debut as an aerial ballerina in the 2004 Catwoman movie.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/

Chun Hon Chan: The First Chinese Canadian Olympian

Chun Hon Chan was the first Chinese Canadian to compete in the Olympic Games, participating in the weightlifting competitions at the Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972 Summer Games. Standing at just 5'2" and weighing in at 120 pounds, his appearance and strength defied expectations during a time when Chinese men were stereotyped as physically weak. On this episode of the School Room, Debbie and Derek Chan, children of Chun Hon Chan, recount memories of their father, including his journey to Canada as a paper son, hardships as a restaurant worker and owner, and his disciplined lifestyle as an athlete.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/

Shelley Niro | Cafe Daughter: A Story of Chinese-Cree Identity

Shelley Niro (Mohawk) is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist, best known for her work in photography, painting, sculpting, beadwork, multimedia, and independent film. On this special episode celebrating National Indigenous History Month, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee and Shelley discuss the challenges surrounding representations of Indigenous peoples, stereotypes, and identity in her works, including in her latest film Café Daughter.

To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/