UBC Chinese Canadian Studies Initiative and Burnaby Village Museum Celebrate Unique Five-Year Collaboration with a Retrospective video

UBC Chinese Canadian Studies Initiative and Burnaby Village Museum Celebrate Unique Five-Year Collaboration with a Retrospective video

Burnaby, BC – Since 2018, students from the Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies (INSTRCC) at UBC have been working with the Burnaby Village Museum (BVM) to develop projects that highlight Chinese Canadian history in Burnaby. Through the collaboration, the students have interned with the museum and created materials that explore and contextualize Asian Canadian and Chinese Canadian stories and experiences in Burnaby.

The students’ projects have spanned a wide range of mediums and approaches to museum programming. They include the creation of a smell station designed to engage visitors in the Chinese Herbalist Shop, a visitor survey aimed at improving site design and immersion, an interpretive exhibit that explored the history of Chinese Canadian farmers and their contributions to BC’s food system, as well as an additional interactive pop-up space where visitors could share their personal stories of food, migration and gardening.

Projects continued during the pandemic and were focused on building BVM’s digital repository. Rose Wu, currently a Masters student at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning, was a UBC INSTRCC student researcher who worked with BVM in 2020 and 2021. “Working with the BVM was a transformative experience. The flexibility and support of the BVM team encouraged us to embrace our creativity, pursue our passions, and have fun on the job.”

“Having INSTRCC students at Burnaby Village Museum has brought new and creative ideas to our institution. The students bring with them such a rich multi-disciplinary approach and we’ve learned a lot from them and hope they’ve learned from us as well,” said Jane Lemke, curator, BVM.

“These projects have been a significant part of the historical redress undertaken by the City of Burnaby and BVM to recognize both the history of the Chinese Canadian communities of Burnaby and the racism and exclusion they faced and struggled to overcome, said Dr. Henry Yu, Director, INSTRCC, UBC.

Ky Kim and Wei Yan Yeong, student researchers from the 2022-2023 team, created a retrospective video looking back on the last five years and the impact the collaboration between UBC and BVM has had on students, alumni, UBC staff/faculty and museum staff.

Learn More:

Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies (INSTRCC) at UBC

Burnaby Village Museum

One-minute teaser video

Full-length retrospective video

Media Contacts:

Dr. Henry Yu
Professor; Director, INSTRCC
henry.yu@ubc.ca
University of British Columbia

Jenny Lu
Coordinator and Team Manager, INSTRCC
jennifer.lu@ubc.ca
University of British Columbia

Jane Lemke
Curator
jane.lemke@burnaby.ca
Burnaby Village Museum

Burnaby Village Museum Projects (Summer 2021): Hands on Surveying and “The Hands On Our Food”  

In 2021, UBC INSTRCC student research assistants once again had the opportunity to partner with the Burnaby Village Museum (BVM) on summer projects that support their museum programs. This year, there were two student teams who supported program development and program evaluation. 

“The Hands on Our Food” 

Wei Yan Yeong and Rose Wu, both graduates of UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems, collaborated with BVM staff on programming the empty space beside the Chinese market garden near the Love Farmhouse. 

“The Hands on Our Food” was a signage-guided journey through the BVM garden space that showcases the “hands” through which food passes through to get to our tables. The “hands” represent specific roles that Chinese Canadians played in the local food system—such as market gardeners, delivery people, restaurants, greengrocers, etc. The signs were life-sized, standing at six-feet, with illustrated characters of the various roles grouped under the categories of Producers, Distributors, Consumers, and Importers & Exporters. Each character was accompanied by short text boxes that gave historical background about each role. The standees provided context for the market cart and Chinese kitchen garden also in the area. 

With the help of BVM staff, the students built a Chinese kitchen garden—based upon the personal gardens many Chinese farmers and restaurateurs kept—and planted vegetables such as bok choy, bitter gourd, and winter melon. The garden was a big hit with the visitors, especially those who had their own gardens at home and enjoyed learning about new crops and gardening tips. 

The market cart, which represented the carts used to sell produce, included an activity board for children to discover facts about the vegetables growing in the garden and recipe cards strung across the top—an addition included because many visitors had never seen many of the vegetables growing in the garden and were curious about how to eat them. 

The goal of the project was to attract visitors to the garden space and help them better understand the systems and networks that were involved in the Burnaby food system back in the day; to showcase how food is not just a commodity, but something with a complex story before it ends up at the dinner table. 

Chinese Kitchen Garden
Market Cart Activities
Standees

“The Hands on Our Food” Photo Gallery

[Click to Enlarge]

Visitor Study 

The second student team, consisting of Celine Co and Kareena Shamdasani, were tasked with conducting a study on visitor trends and providing recommendations on how to improve traffic to under-visited parts of the museum. In their study, which involved engaging with and surveying visitors, they learned about visitors’ favourite exhibitions and those that were less popular. A valuable aspect of their work was discovering visitor preferences and the reasons behind liking a certain exhibit, be it the nostalgic value or the interactions with interpreters—which paints a story for the BVM on what factors are important to visitors. Additionally, visitors provided ideas and suggestions on what would make the exhibits with less traffic more interesting or attractive. 

Building off this initial study, the student team piloted prototype changes to some of the less visited exhibits, including changing the entry and exit points to the Seaforth School to encourage more visitors to the Brookfield Lane area. Additionally, for somewhat “hidden” exhibits that were easily missed, such as the Ofuro (Japanese bathhouse) and Tin Smith shop, the team decided to add ambient sounds to the exhibits to catch the attention of visitors. This strategy helped increase foot traffic to the Tin Smith shop. 

The students’ study and prototypes helped inform a set of recommendations for the BVM team on how to enhance some of their existing exhibits and also as general suggestions for enriching future programs. 

In wrapping up another successful summer of student internships, we express thanks to the Burnaby Village Museum for their ongoing support of student learning and their continued commitment to this partnership. We look forward to continued collaboration in the future! 

Written by Rose Wu

Alexandra Liaw

Student Research Assistant
Groups: Students

Biography

As an undergraduate student of English Literature and History at the University of British Columbia, Alexandra’s interests include public history and cultural heritage. When given the chance, she enjoys visiting art galleries, browsing antique shops, sketching landscapes, and baking desserts. On most days though, you can find her curled up with a book and a warm cup of tea.

Retrospective on “A Seat at the Table”

UBC INSTRCC Team Celebration at the A Seat at the Table Exhibition (Museum of Vancouver location) in 2022

After two and a half years, the award-winning A Seat at the Table exhibition, jointly hosted at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) and the Chinese Canadian Museum (CCM), has come to a close and will continue as a travelling exhibition throughout Vancouver Island museums. Using food and restaurant culture as narrative entry point and visual platform, the exhibition addressed themes of mobility, belonging, racism, agency, resilience and reparation. UBC is proud to have played a key role in bringing together the historical and contemporary voices of Chinese Canadians in British Columbia. From the early days of its inception to public engagement and educational programming, students, faculty and staff of UBC INSTRCC and the Asian Canadian Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) program have worked alongside the community advisory committee, storytellers, artists, and the project team to bring this exhibition to life. 

Some ways UBC was involved in the exhibit include: 

  • Dr. Henry Yu (INSTRCC director) and Denise Fong (PhD candidate and INSTRCC Research Director) were co-curators for the exhibit, alongside UBC alumnus Dr. Viviane Gosselin (MOV’s Director of Collections & Exhibitions and Curator of Contemporary Culture). 
  • As part of the virtual storytelling experience integral to the exhibit, our team of student research assistants created, shot, edited, and made animations for 50+ unique short films, subtitled in three languages (English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese). Films also included past student projects like the stop-animation “Food Fight,” and a pair of virtual reality experiences filmed in Hoiping, Guangdong, China. 
  • Student docents led tours at both the Chinese Canadian Museum and Museum of Vancouver locations, including offering multilingual-guided tours, as well as students and alumni who worked as visitor services staff.  
  • Student research assistants led the activation of the MOV backyard garden space, as complementary outdoor programming to the exhibit, showcasing the vibrant and diverse gardening scene of Vancouver through the motifs of food and cultural heritage.  
  • INSTRCC students were involved in the coordination of a communications strategy, including the social media campaign #SATMyFamily, and an INSTRCC student takeover of the MOV Instagram, highlighting favourite parts of the exhibit.   
  • INSTRCC and ACAM were involved in a series of public programming events, including:
  • INSTRCC research assistants created an education program Chinatown Existing in collaboration with the Chinese Canadian Museum and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens 

Over the past few years, the A Seat at the Table exhibition has shaped the many projects of UBC INSTRCC, as well as the educational, professional, and personal experiences of the many student research assistants. Below are what some of our research assistants had to say about the experience: 

“Being a UBC INSTRCC RA for the A Seat at the Table Exhibition was truly an eye-opening experience for me. It gave me the opportunity to connect with and document many important stories of the Chinese Canadian community. Before this, I’ve thought of museums as a place of history, but working with the exhibit has shown me that a museum can be a place of the present and a source of inspiration for the future we want.” 

– Wei Yan Yeong, INSTRCC Research Assistant

“Being part of the A Seat at the Table opened my eyes for what an exhibition could mean for a community. I was interviewed for my immigration journey and core food memories growing up in North America. Once minute elements in my life, such as what I ate for breakfast, were being placed under the spotlight. Overall, seeing our collective stories curated into a piece of cultural history has been a validating experience and has made me more appreciative of the cultural diversity in Vancouver.”

– Daniel Chen, INSTRCC Research Assistant 

“I edited videos, drew illustrations/made short  animations, did some translation, and helped design the common look-and-feel for the videos using the decided theme colours and fonts. This project allowed me to learn and flourish both on the creative front and in the story-telling space; I enjoyed being able to appreciate and showcase different sides of Chinese Canadians, especially the aspects that might seem a less “news-breaking”. These stories help paint a more dynamic picture of Chinese Canadians. Because of this almost ‘exploratory’ project, I’m much more braver than I was before when I’m curious about something and more expressive when I appreciate something.”


– Debbie Liang, Former INSTRCC Research Assistant 

See also: 

Photo gallery (click to expand):

Video display at the Chinatown location, featuring videos made by UBC students
INSTRCC student featured in exhibit short film
Dr. Henry Yu and Denise Fong giving a tour of the exhibition
Signage for the MOV Backyard Garden
Vegetables grown in the MOV backyard garden
INSTRCC students filming an interview outside the Museum of Vancouver
Denise Fong giving a tour of the exhibition for the Day at the Museum event
Day at the Museum
INSTRCC students touring the exhibition
Film screening for the Food, Film, & Activism event
Panel speakers at the Food, Film, & Activism event
Group photo from the Day at the Museum event

Written by Rose Wu

‘What’s Your Blend?’ Garlic Pickling Workshop [blog]

This project was my introduction to working with INSTRCC, and I am very grateful for everything I learned from the experiences and people I got to work with! The “What’s your blend?” garlic pickling workshop was the final part of the summer project, where we got to see our work be used and shared with the public, but I found immense value in the behind-the-scenes work leading up to the workshop throughout the summer as well. 

I was presented with the idea to work at the Museum of Vancouver garden because it aligned with my interests and studies in agriculture, and I gladly accepted what sounded like a perfect opportunity. Throughout my work, this assumption proved true, but not because I was already experienced in the field, rather that I was able to learn so much and gain new interests. Although I had experience on farms and agricultural science, I had never had hands-on gardening experience. I was able to learn and thrive with help from Wei Yan Yeong, who had already worked on the “MOV Backyard Garden” project in previous years. Together we went through the process of selecting which vegetables to plant, tending to their growth, and designing the programming that would eventually become the garlic pickling workshop.

At the beginning of the summer, we decided to center our work around a theme of “culture as collection.” Our goal was to emphasize that although there are specific cultural and historical experiences shared between people, that each person’s identity is formed by their own unique collection of these experiences.

Our first task was to update the information panels in front of the garden to reflect our work for the summer season. I had the opportunity to share my story about cultural food, which was something I had not realized would be so important and impactful to my own sense of identity. We also created a series of short videos to document our progress and give updates on social media each time we tended to the garden, sharing what we learned along the way. Being able to share our work with the public in these ways was very meaningful to my own experience of the project and objectives of the project to engage and connect with the community.

Finally, we were able to share our work in-person, by using what we grew in the garden for the garlic pickling workshop. We were very pleased with the eagerness of the participants to expand both their food skills and techniques, and their concepts of culture and identity. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this project and be able to see this crossroads of my passions!

Check out our garden updates and other content on the MOV Backyard Garden @chinesecanadianstories on Instagram!

Written by Cat Hung

Richmond Growing [Blog]

This summer, we (Shirley Ting and An Xu) were offered the amazing opportunity to develop Richmond Growing, a social media campaign, in collaboration with Urban Bounty. 

As a community-based food security initiative, Urban Bounty has over 20 years of experience in community programming, engagement, and advocacy. Their expertise and guidance was invaluable in co-developing Richmond Growing in alignment with community strengths and objectives. In essence, we wanted to help showcase the unique methods and practices of Richmond’s local gardeners, but we also wanted to create some connections— between the gardeners, Urban Bounty, and the local community at large through personal stories. 

Richmond Growing was a very fun and rewarding project to do. We commuted around the city to interview community gardeners, conduct archival research, and explore Richmond’s green spaces. Neither of us grew up in Richmond, so we didn’t know the communities very well, but we were so touched by how kind and generous everyone was. We were often treated to and sent home with armfuls of fresh produce, snacks, and even whole pizzas. As Ian Lai, Urban Bounty’s executive director, puts it, “Nobody should ever leave empty handed!” 

Even more than our bounty of fresh produce, was the bounty of amazing stories that the local gardeners shared with us. They welcomed us into their gardens, their homes, and shared with us their migration stories, treasured childhood memories, and profound life philosophies. 

Our favourite moment of the whole project was when the gardeners alongside Urban Bounty and INSTRCC staff trekked to Terra Nova Rural Park for a community potluck. Folks brought food harvested from their own gardens, snacks made by their Grandma, and Ian Lai prepared a showstopping only-once-a-year galette. As research assistants, we had been in contact with everyone throughout the summer, but it was so nice to see, sit down, and enjoy a meal with the gardeners. Perhaps even more importantly, the gardeners, who had been following each others’ stories on social media, were able to chat and meet each other for the first time. One of the gardeners, Maitrayee Shah, remarked that it felt “just like a family gathering.” It reminded us that while this project was a “social media campaign” intended to reach and resonate with folks over the internet, it’s also important to celebrate and center these seemingly small scale interpersonal relationships. We think that’s what makes community-based projects so amazing to facilitate—finding commonality and bonding over differences within the community ultimately creates more of a sense of belonging and connection. 

What’s Next?

We are pleased to share that the team is at work developing the next stage of our partnership with Urban Bounty, further exploring community story sharing and the foodscapes of Richmond. 

To view more of Richmond Growing, please visit Urban Bounty’s Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. 

Written by Shirley Ting and An Xu

Richmond Growing

Richmond Growing is a social media campaign developed in 2022 by INSTRCC research assistants An and Shirley in collaboration with Urban Bounty, a Richmond-based food security initiative. 

Following the stories of 3 local community gardeners, Richmond Growing provides an interactive platform for the city’s under-told community stories. Through this project, audiences can explore connections between land, food, and the gardeners tending to these valuable green spaces. Richmond Growing also offers supplementary stories to highlight (hi)stories of BIPOC engagement and resilience in the city’s food systems. To increase reading accessibility, the project is multilingual and features traditional Chinese and Punjabi in addition to English. 

Watch our project trailer on Instagram here.

Read the blog post

Written by Shirley Ting

Finding Community: Connecting with Other Chinese Immigrants in Richmond (Short Film Series)

In the past few decades, Richmond has solidified its reputation as a vibrant diasporic community. The journey of Chinese immigrants to Canada has been exciting, challenging, and nothing close to monolithic. For many, the decision to immigrate was not an easy one. Migrants had to leave behind their homes, their families, and their communities in order to start a new life in Canada.

Our recent collaboration with Richmond Museum tasked our student researchers to interview immigrants to unveil intergenerational experiences of migration and multilingualism among Chinese Canadians in Richmond.

Watch the video series!

Stories of New Beginnings

INSTRCC student researchers Gillian Chan, Kristy Lin, Tiffany Mak, and Daniel Chen talked with Chinese immigrants about their experiences in Richmond, BC and Canada, asking them about everything from language and food to Asian heritage and discrimination. The result was an 11-part short film series that’s now posted on Richmond Museum’s Vimeo channel. 

“What dishes remind you of home?”

“What local resources helped bring you closer to the local community?”

“What lifestyle changes did you have to make after moving to Canada?”

Breaking Barriers

Adjusting to a new culture, learning a new language, and facing racial discrimination were just a few of the obstacles they had to overcome. It was not always easy, but with support from the local community and determination, they were able to build a new life for themselves in Canada.

Shortly after Lee Chen (from Shanghai, China, 2014) first immigrated to Powell River, BC, she saw signs that said Asians and Chinese people should get out: “Our community… organized a town hall and invited… Chinese immigrants plus immigrant residents from other ethnic backgrounds.”

Illustration and Animation by Debbie Liang

In addition to gathering families to meet and hang out, the organizers ran an activity where attendees shared when their families first arrived in Canada. Chen reflects: “The purpose of the activity is to show that not many folks have been Canadian for more than 3 generations… I was extremely touched by everyone’s empathy and the welcoming culture I experienced that day.”

You can find the rest of Lee’s migration story and the stories of 6 other participants on Richmond Museum’s Vimeo channel. 

UBC INSTRCC is proud to have produced these videos in partnership with Richmond Museum. We would all like to thank the wonderful participants who volunteered to share their experiences in this project.

Written by Daniel Chen

INSTRCC 2022 Recap

In a blink, another year has flown by! In 2022, we at UBC INSTRCC saw our biggest cohort of student researchers yet, working on a record number of projects with a diverse range of community partners. Thank you for your continued support of our students’ work! 

Here’s a taste of some of the projects we worked on in 2022:  

Celebrating Asian Heritage Month with Richmond Museum – Student RAs partnered with the museum to create a series of short films that highlights aspects of Asian culture and experiences in celebration of Asian Heritage Month in May. 

“Food, Film, & Activism” event at the Museum of Vancouver – To celebrate the release of Cheuk Kwan’s book, “Have You Eaten Yet?,” and his docu-series that inspired the book, INSTRCC and partners hosted a film screening and panel in dialogue with the A Seat at the Table Exhibition. 

“Virtual Storytelling Workshops” with PCHC-MoM – Student RAs led a workshop series with members of the community to document their family histories using digital media. 

“Food, Farms, and Funerals” ACAM390A/ANTH362 Course –  INSTRCC RAs/TAs planned for the first-ever summer global seminar to Vancouver Island. The course was offered in partnership with Vancouver Island University.  

“Richmond Growing” with Urban Bounty Richmond – Student RAs gathered and shared stories from three community gardeners in Richmond to celebrate their important contributions to the community. 

Punjabi Market tour – INSTRCC RA and Punjabi Market Collective Director of Education, Gurleen Cheema, gave us a walking tour of Punjabi Market, pointing out long-lasting neighbourhood businesses and their stories, and ending with a delicious meal at Himalaya Restaurant. 

Other achievements from 2022: 

Looking for other ways to support our work?

Consider making a donation at: https://give.ubc.ca/projects/instrcc/ 

Follow us @ubcinstrcc where you can watch our IG story highlights for more about these projects and events!

Yaohua Frank Luo

Student Research Assistant
Groups: Alumni


Biography

Luo Yaohua is a graduate student of Wuyi University in China, majoring in architectural heritage protection. He loves ancient Chinese architecture and hopes to become a master of traditional houses.