A Seat at the Table: Curator’s Tour and Panel

Event Details

Start: 27 January 2021 12:00 pm
End: 27 January 2021 1:00 pm
Categories: Events

Learn about the Chinese Canadian stories that shaped BC through this online event showcasing the A Seat at the Table exhibitions!

This event will feature a curator’s tour of A Seat at the Table (Chinatown location), followed by a panel to discuss the development of this multi-sited and collaborative exhibition.

This event is presented by UBC Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies, in partnership with Museum of Vancouver and Chinese Canadian Museum Society.

Click here to register for this event

Visit both locations virtually in one day! The Museum of Vancouver will be hosting a virtual walkthrough of the MOV location of A Seat at the Table at 4PM on January 27^th. Tickets are available on MOV’s website.

Opening Remarks:

Dr. Henry Yu – Co-Curator of A Seat at the Table; Associate Professor, UBC History; Principal, St Johns College; Director, UBC INSTRCC

Professor Henry Yu was born in Vancouver, B.C., and grew up in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. He received his BA in Honours History from UBC and an MA and PhD in History from Princeton University. After teaching at UCLA for a decade, Yu returned to UBC as an Associate Professor of History to help build programs focused on trans-Pacific Canada. Yu himself is both a second and fourth generation Canadian. His parents were first generation immigrants from China, joining a grandfather who had spent almost his entire life in Canada. Prof. Yu’s book, Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2001) won the Norris and Carol Hundley Prize as the Most Distinguished Book of 2001, and he is currently working on a book entitled How Tiger Woods Lost His Stripes: Finding Ourselves in History. Currently, he is the Director of the Initiative for Student Teaching and Research on Chinese Canadians (INSTRCC) and the Principal of St. John’s College at UBC, as well as a Board Member of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia (CCHSBC).

Panelists:

Denise Fong – Co-Curator of A Seat at the Table; Research Director, UBC INSTRCC; UBC PhD Candidate

Denise Fong (方靜怡) is a 1.5 generation Chinese Canadian with roots in Hong Kong, Toisan China, New Zealand and San Francisco. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia, with a special interest in public history, digital media and Chinese Canadian history. Since 2009, Denise has coordinated a number of historical research and public history projects, including SFU’s From C to C: Chinese Canadian Stories of Migration and UBC’s Chinese Canadian Stories: Uncommon Histories from a Common Past. She recently co-curated two Chinese Canadian exhibitions locally — Burnaby Village Museum’s Across the Pacific exhibition and the Museum of Vancouver’s A Seat at the Table exhibition. As INSTRCC’s Research Director, Denise provides guidance on historical context and oversees the research team.

Catherine Clement – Content Development & Interpretive Planning for A Seat at the Table; Community Curator and Designer

Catherine Clement is a community curator and designer based in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Her work focuses on uncovering and sharing the lesser-known stories of the community.

She is best known for her 10-year search uncovering the hidden works of Yucho Chow, Vancouver’s first and most prolific Chinese photographer. That project resulted in an exhibition of crowd-sourced materials in 2019, a book in 2020, and now a comprehensive community archive of over 500 private photos taken by Chow.

Catherine also has curated and designed a number of exhibitions for Chinese Canadian Military Museum and the Chinese Cultural Centre of Vancouver. And in 2017, Catherine art directed the “Chinatown History Windows” project which brought history to the streets through the installation of 22 large storefront window murals.

Catherine’s next project will involve another mass community collection exercise, this time across Canada, that will commemorate 100 years since the passing of the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Grace Wong – Chair, Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC; Retired; Former Senior Advisor International, Office of Provost and Vice-President Academic, UBC

Grace Wong’s professional experience spans over three decades at the University of British Columbia (UBC), serving in roles such as Senior Advisor International in the Office of Provost and Vice President Academic, and Assistant Dean in the Sauder School of Business. A particular area of focus was the development of international partnerships and initiating new programs. In 2018, she received the UBC President’s Staff Award for Creativity and Innovation. Grace retired from UBC in January 2020. 

Grace Wong has been active in the community serving as public representative of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC, chair of S.U.C.C.E.S.S, and a member of the Working Group of the Chinese Canadian Museum, board of 58 West Hastings (project of Chinatown Foundation), Mobility Pricing Independent Commission, BC Expert Panel on Business Taxation, BC Immigration Task Force, BC Premier’s Asia Pacific Trade Council, and others. Grace has been recognized with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the BC Community Achievement Award. 