Chinatown Reimagined: A Community Forum on Cultural Heritage-Making

Chinatown Reimagined Website Hero Banner

With growing community efforts to recognize Vancouver’s Chinatown as a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, UBC INSTRCC’s most recent project hopes to highlight revitalization efforts within an important site of Canadian history.

Our collaboration with the City of Vancouver’s Chinatown Transformation Team and Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group brought subject experts and community leaders to highlight active discussions and point out future directions. The goal is to bring together diverse people who are passionate about Chinatown and its future and to discuss its role as a local and global cultural heritage district.

Chinatown Reimagined: A Virtual Community Forum

Taking place in October 2021, Chinatown Reimagined was a three-day community forum with 6 interactive sessions exploring innovative, community-led approaches on key topics surrounding the future of Vancouver Chinatown. The live sessions in total attracted over 1100 registered attendees across the three-day span of the event.

Presenters and panelists included community organizations, business operators, heritage practitioners, cultural groups, representatives from historic sites and Chinatowns around the world, the next generation of leaders, and academics.

You can read more details of this project on the Chinatown Reimagined website.

Virtual Exhibition

Led by the supervision team of Dr. Henry Yu, Jenny Lu, Tyler Mark, and Denise Fong, our student research team also played a critical content creation role in the curation of Chinatown Reimagined’s virtual exhibition. Student responsibilities touched upon a diverse set of skills, including interviewing, filmmaking, content curation, web design and development, translation, and overall engagement with the Chinatown community.

Through months of detailed planning, research, design, and collaboration, our student team created a unique collection of interactive virtual interfaces that breaks down the historic background of Vancouver Chinatown’s cultural heritage and key community preservation efforts.

These projects include short film series, a web-comic, an interactive photo gallery, and other interactive guides. To appreciate these student creations in full, please visit Chinatown Reimagined’s virtual exhibition on a computer browser.

Bilingual Support

This project was designed with bi-lingual accessibility support for the Chinese Canadian community. Live Mandarin interpretation was incorporated during our live sessions and our student research team took the lead with translating communication material.

You can find full credits of the INSTRCC research team’s involvement on Chinatown Reimagined’s credit page. You can also view progress vignettes of UBC INSTRCC’s student research team through #ChinatownReimagined on Instagram.

What’s Next?

Historic Chinatowns across the globe are facing critical decisions about the next steps in cultural preservation and their futures as communities. There are plans to continue Chinatown Reimagined as a recurring event to help facilitate these conversations both in Vancouver Chinatown and global communities.

New waves of community leaders are actively sharing their lived experiences while introducing new perspectives on their cultural history to the greater society. We hope events like Chinatown Reimagined can continue to encourage discussions and inspire people to fight for causes that are personal to them.

Subscribe to the INSTRCC newsletter for monthly updates on INSTRCC projects such as Chinatown Reimagined.

Written by Daniel Chen

ACAM390A: Virtual Community Showcase

This last year has been a whirlwind of virtual meetings, travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders. So naturally, Professor Henry Yu’s (virtual) travel class united students across majors, faculties and national borders to learn about the Food and the Heritage of Chinese Migrations in ACAM390A – online.

Continue reading “ACAM390A: Virtual Community Showcase”

ACAM 390A: Community Tours and Cultural Storytelling in the Virtual Space

Students from the ACAM 390A class crowdsourced a number of virtual tours and other forms of online cultural storytelling to start thinking about what works in the virtual space in preparation for their projects. Here’s a list of our favourites from the activity for you to explore!

Continue reading “ACAM 390A: Community Tours and Cultural Storytelling in the Virtual Space”

ACAM 390A Guest Lecture: Carmel Tanaka (Cross Cultural Walking Tours)

On May 18th, 2021, the ACAM 390A class welcomed Carmel Tanaka, program coordinator of Cross Cultural Walking Tours (CCWT), to discuss her work. CCWT is a walking tour in collaboration with a number of cultural heritage organisations connected to Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood. Currently, the tour traverses Jewish Strathcona, Hogan’s Alley, Chinatown, DTES and Powell Street, focusing on histories and sites related to education. Continue reading “ACAM 390A Guest Lecture: Carmel Tanaka (Cross Cultural Walking Tours)”

Gold Mountains Book Club

Last month, we wrapped up our first online book club: Gold Mountains: Stories from Chinese Diasporas Past, Present and Future. Chinese diasporic literature encompasses a wide diversity of various waves of migration, experiences, hopes and dreams. Over the months of March and April, we not only shared our team’s favourite pieces of literature, but we also shared some relevant documentaries and articles in response to anti-Asian current events. We hope you enjoyed following along on this reading journey with us. Thank you for helping us create a safe space to read, share, learn, and uplift Chinese diasporic literature.

Read on for a week-by-week summary and links to purchase our reading list!

WEEK ONE:

We kicked-off the first week of our book club in celebration of International Women’s Day with works from two talented female authors: SKY Lee and Maxine Hong Kingston. Their books, Disappearing Moon Cafe and The Woman Warrior, give us intimate glimpses into the roles that Chinese women play within their families and broader society. Additionally, both authors illustrate the struggles and disconnect faced by families separated between the home country and the new country, as well as how the characters navigate intergenerational tensions and family secrets.

Disappearing Moon Cafe – SKY Lee

SKY Lee crafts a compelling intergenerational family saga of four generations of Chinese Canadian women from 19th century British Columbia to late 20th century Vancouver Chinatown. The women are faced with the forging and subsequent unravelling of family secrets, all within the context of Chinese Canadian experiences of racism and discrimination.

Massy Books (Vancouver local): https://tinyurl.com/2mhra996

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/5vyc43bn

VPL: https://tinyurl.com/2d9uh3jh

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts – Maxine Hong Kingston

A memoir written in five parts, Kingston depicts her experiences growing up as a Chinese American immigrant interwoven with tales from her mother’s past and untold stories of the women in her family. Mixing in elements of Chinese folklore and myth, The Woman Warrior is a moving account of finding belonging and confronting the traditions and ghosts that haunt us.

Massy Books: https://tinyurl.com/59rjd8u9

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/tsft4ddz

VPL: https://tinyurl.com/f5jae728

WEEK TWO:

For week two, we took a deep dive into the depiction of Asians within Western media. We started with Charles Yu’s National Book Award Winner, Interior Chinatown, which is a witty and unique take on an Asian man’s struggles to break into the entertainment industry while paradoxically playing into the same stereotypes that chain people like him down. Coincidentally, around the same time that we were preparing to roll out Week 2’s theme, we were heartbroken to hear of the devastating spa shootings in Atlanta that targeted Asian female workers. This current event was a real-life manifestation of some of the historic and ongoing depictions and racial stereotyping of Asians in Western media—namely, the hypersexualization of Asian women and desexualization of Asian men. These consequences do not stay within the pages of books like Interior Chinatown; they show us how much representation and narratives matter and how much work is still left to be done. Alongside our book pick for Week 2, we also curated some documentaries and short-reads for further learning.

Interior Chinatown – Charles Yu

Life is a stage in Charles Yu’s award-winning Interior Chinatown. Willis Wu has always dreamt of becoming Kung Fu Guy—the most coveted role for an Asian man in American television. For now, he is Generic Asian Man, living in a run-down Chinatown SRO. As Willis starts working his way up in the world of the cop show, Black and White, he begins to discover family stories, the meaning of Chinatown, and the potential for life beyond the SRO.

Massy Books: https://tinyurl.com/354chwx9

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/35bc2txe

VPL: https://tinyurl.com/5dnnua62

Documentaries:

The Slanted Screen – Dir. Jeff Adachi (2006)

Explore the portrayals of Asian men in American cinema in The Slanted Screen. This documentary chronicles the experiences of actors struggling against ethnic stereotyping and limiting roles.

Slaying the Dragon – Dir. Deborah Gee (1988) & Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded – Dir. Elaine H Kim (2011)

This documentary and its sequel show how stereotypes of exoticism have affected the perception of Asian American women since the silent era. The sequel looks back in the 25 years since the original film to explore what’s changed.

Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words – Dir. Yunah Wong (2011)

Anna May Wong spent most of her career typecast between a painted doll or a dragon lady. For years, older generations of Chinese-Americans frowned upon the types of roles she played; but today a younger generation of Asian Americans sees her as a pioneering artist, who succeeded in a hostile environment that hasn’t altogether changed. Yunah Hong’s engrossing documentary is an entertaining and imaginative survey of Wong’s career, exploring the impact Wong had on images of Asian American women in Hollywood, both then and now.

Short reads:

‘Who Killed Vincent Chin?’ And How Media Depictions Of Asians Have Changed (Or Not) – Marina Fang (HuffPost)

The history of fetishizing Asian women in Orientalist tropes – Rachel Ramirez (Vox)

Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and Television? – Thessaly La Force (NY Times Style Magazine)

The Importance of Authentic Asian American Representation in Hollywood – Nicole Park (Center for Scholars and Storytellers)

The Unbearable Whiteness of Hollywood: Thoughts on Asian American Representation in Pop Culture – Pearl Shin (Third Coast Review)

WEEK THREE:

Our final week of Gold Mountains Book Club was centred around food (and food titles). Dim Sum Stories, while only food-related in name, provides a very local and personal look into the life of Larry Wong, a Vancouverite who grew up in Chinatown. We also visit Chop Suey Nation, by Ann Hui, another author who grew up locally, who uses food as a lens through which to investigate stories of Chinese Canadian migration and her own family’s migration story. To close out this series, we held a very special discussion with Ann Hui in celebration of World Book Day, where we chatted about food, authenticity, storytelling and more.

Dim Sum Stories – Larry Wong

Written by Larry Wong, a local historian and past president of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, Dim Sum Stories is about his 1940s-1960s childhood in Vancouver’s Chinatown and filled with memories of life in a Chinese Canadian family whose father came to Vancouver in 1911. More than a personal memoir, Dim Sum Stories is also a social and cultural history of Vancouver’s Chinatown told up-close-and-personal by a master storyteller.

CCHSBC: https://tinyurl.com/nvzcdpa4

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/hfvwpncx

VPL: https://tinyurl.com/43t73ptr

Chop Suey Nation – Ann Hui

Globe and Mail journalist, Ann Hui, sets out on a cross-country road trip to investigate the mysterious existence of small-town Chinese restaurants in rural Canada. Along the way, she uncovers her own family’s story of how they migrated from Guangdong to Vancouver, the challenges they faced and the secrets of the Legion Cafe.

Massy Books: https://tinyurl.com/9a3jrzk

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/h8w3y75k

VPL: https://tinyurl.com/2y837ksm

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We hope to see you again in the future for more book-related content! Until then, let us continue to uplift Asian diasporic literature and seek voices that are often left out. Also, please consider shopping at local and small businesses. We have provided links to shop our reading list at Massy Books which is a local, Indigenous owned and operated business that provides online shopping and delivery services.

Written by Rose Wu and Tiffany Lee.

How do you celebrate Lunar New Year? #OurLNY 2021 Virtual Celebration

Happy year of the Ox!

Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

This year’s Lunar New Year—like most events—was different. Many of us were unable to celebrate in person with friends and family, and public celebrations were canceled or moved online. But like the strong Ox, we persevered and we adapted. To spread the New Year cheer, in the week leading up to LNY, the INSTRCC student team (in partnership with the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) and the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC (CCM)) brought you a virtual celebration centred around how you celebrate.

Social Media Engagement

Our social media celebration was the most interactive part of the INSTRCC LNY line-up. To launch our celebratory programming on February 1st, we partnered with the Museum of Vancouver and the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC to host a giveaway chock full of Chinese Canadian-themed goodies, including tickets to the A Seat at the Table exhibition at the MOV, Makers Artists United 2021 calendars, restaurant vouchers, and more fun prizes. Using the hashtag, #OurLNY2021, we asked you to share your LNY stories with us which informed some of our virtual programming and blog posts. Additionally, we used our Instagram handle, @chinesecanadianstories, to share interactive activities such as LNY bingo, quizzes and polls, and so on.

ChineseCanadianStories.ca

The focal point of our celebration was a website (chinesecanadianstories.ca) we launched which served as a hub that housed LNY-themed blog posts, select short films from the A Seat at the Table exhibition, upcoming community events and more.

In the days leading up to Lunar New Year, we published blog posts centred around food, customs and stories, some of which were curated from stories you shared via social media.

“Why can’t I wash my hair on Lunar New Year?”

A member of the INSTRCC student team shares customs, rituals, and superstitions practiced by her family for Lunar New Year. We also share more examples of homonym-based beliefs commonly regarded during the New Year—Chinese people love our puns!

“What’s on Our Plate? – 年夜饭”

The INSTRCC team shares what their families eat for 年夜饭 (nián yè fàn), Lunar New Year’s Eve.

“WeChat Calls and Dumpling Wrap-offs – LNY Celebrations and Traditions”

We asked our followers @ChineseCanadianStories on Instagram to share how they celebrate the holiday. Here’s what they said.

“The 12 Zodiacs and the Great Race”

Ever wondered about the backstory of the zodiac animals and why they are ordered the way they are? There are different variations of the story, but give our summary of the Great Race a read.

“#SupportSmall: Treats for your Lunar New Year Feast”

Here we highlight some of our favourite local restaurants and some special LNY meal sets they have on offer.

“Modernize Tailors”

Established in 1913, Modernize Tailors is one of the oldest legacy businesses in Vancouver Chinatown. Mia Wu from Modernize Tailors writes about how the business brings together traditional wear and modern experiences under the overarching Chinese value of family unity.

“Keeping Dinners Small & Virtual Celebration Calls”

@Foodyblogs and @Foodologyca, two social media food bloggers from Vancouver, share with us how they celebrate LNY and what they are changing this year.

The website also premiered some short films from A Seat at the Table for a limited amount of time. We know many of you cannot physically visit the exhibition at this time, so we brought the videos to you in the form of a mini home theatre! Each film was offered with English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. Among the selected films were: Dumplings, Bubble Tea, Randall Wong, Ovaltine Cafe, Start of a Vision, Under Fire, and Radical Intimacy. You can check out these films and others by visiting the A Seat at the Table exhibitions at the Museum of Vancouver and the Chinese Canadian Museum at Hon Hsing locations.

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Lunar New Year this year was different but we found new ways to celebrate and come together. Whether you joined in the festivities or not, we hope you had a wonderful Lunar New Year and we wish you and your loved ones happiness and health for the Year of the Ox.

Artwork and writing by Rose Wu

Keeping Dinners Small & Virtual Celebration Calls

As we count down the days until Lunar New Year, we’ve asked our fellow Chinese Canadian community on Instagram how they typically celebrate the annual festivities.

Angelica from @Foodyblogs says: “For Chinese New Year, my family and I often celebrate with lots of food! My favorite would have to be the chewy sweet rice cakes which we would pan-fry to make them perfectly crispy on the outside and mochi-like on the inside.

In the past, my mom would also make radish cakes with her sisters and my grandma. They would sit together and grate radishes for hours while they reminisced about their past. Since my dad and I are both vegetarian, he would also prepare a vegetarian version of the traditional radish cake for us to enjoy! We would then have a big dinner celebration with hotpot which was always super lively and warm, followed by a few games of mahjong or cards (specifically “Big 2”) to end the night!

Additionally, we would also have a celebration at my temple among all the volunteers and their families every year, often on the weekend following CNY! There was always a lot of amazing vegetarian Chinese food, some of which I had the chance to help prepare with other volunteers. We would sleepover the night before and wake up at 4 am in the morning to start cooking and arranging all the food and I was always inspired by the high spirits that everyone had despite the early schedule! The lunch celebration was always extremely lively, and there would be performances, some of which I would take part in, by the various volunteer groups within the temple.

Given the pandemic this year, we will probably stick to a small dinner just between my mom, dad, and me! My dad will still make his radish cakes though which I am excited for! Because my temple has also been closed off to the public, they are hosting a virtual celebration this year and the volunteers had the chance to put together a video of us performing as a way to wish all the nuns at the temple a Happy Lunar New Year!”

Diana from @Foodologyca says: “We usually keep our Lunar New Year celebrations simple and enjoy the day with our family over a bountiful amount of food at the dinner table. We don’t usually have any superstitions or special preparations, but we do make sure we have a large assortment of dishes from fish, to chicken, and veggies.

Ever since we were kids, we always celebrated with lots of food on the table. I never always understood what each prepared dish means, but we always had our family around the dinner table.

As this year is a bit different due to the pandemic, we are keeping it small to our immediate family. One good thing that came out of this pandemic is being thankful for our health and the importance of family.

Modernize Tailors

: Photo by: Modernize Tailors

: Photo by: Modernize Tailors

Modernize Tailors, established in 1913, is the one of the oldest legacy businesses in Vancouver Chinatown. Founded by Wong Kung Lai, Modernize has been the go-to tailor shop for locals and celebrities alike by offering men’s suiting services with a personalized touch.

Today, the legacy of this over a 100 year-old business is led by Mia Wu, apprentice of the legendary late Bill Wong. With her strong desire and promise to carry on this master tailor’s legacy, we have ushered in a new generation of tailoring; modernizing and respectfully building on the traditions and revered craftsmanship. The tailoring house now offers services such as bespoke garments, clothing design, wardrobe advice, styling, and alteration services. Modernize provides a personalized tailor-made experience for all ages and genders, as well as for all occasions.

Thanks to the continued support from the neighbourhood of Chinatown, Modernize Tailors has become one of the oldest tailoring houses in Vancouver. With every satisfied client, the financial support directly supports local youth tailors who make up the team at Modernize Tailors.

Your personal tailor – a perfect fit for every body type and personality.

Lunar New Year Traditions: Then and Now

There is a Chinese proverb which goes: Harmony in the family leads to prosperity in all undertakings.

Kinship can lead to peace and devotion.

A long-standing tradition in Chinese culture is having family portraits be taken professionally. Gathering with loved ones in order to take a single picture expresses how important the concept of family is in Chinese culture. It may seem like a simple act – to dress up in traditional clothing and wait for your photo to be taken – but for many families of Chinese heritage, family portraits carry a deeper meaning.

Like a hearth that brings others together with warmth and with light, the act of taking family portraits brings people together. It joins everyone involved into a special moment through the spirit of unity. It is a gesture of respecting the elderly to loving one’s child – an act of affection that spans across multi-generations, all captured in a singular moment.

This year, Modernize Tailors has designed a special collection to bring together traditional wear and modern day experiences. Cherishing the importance of family unity, Modernize Tailors is working with Ting Photography to carry on the beautiful traditions of portrait photography in Chinese culture. This initiative is inspired by the work of Yucho Chow, Vancouver’s first and most prolific Chinese photographer who operated in Chinatown from 1907-1949. Families of all backgrounds had their portraits taken by Chow, including the Wong family of Modernize Tailors. Sitting in the shop is a copy of “Chinatown Through a Wide Lens: The Hidden Photographs of Yucho Chow,” a recent book by Catherine Clement.

“We want to bring back and honour cultural traditions and the rich history of ” – Mia Wu

: Photo by: Modernize Tailors

: Photo by: Modernize Tailors

Modernize Tailors is also collaborating with Chinatown Wonders, a local shop that deepens ties to community, culture, history, and heritage by bringing together artists, creators, and businesses connected to Chinatown. Through this partnership, the inaugural launch of Modernized Tailored products will be showcased online and sold through Chinatown Wonders. On Saturday, Feb 13th Chinatown Wonders is hosting a pop-up store across the street from Modernize Tailors. The “Around the Corner” event brings together businesses adjacent to the Chinatown Millenium Gate. Visitors are also encouraged to visit the Chinese Canadian Museum’s exhibition, A Seat at the Table, where there will be special Lunar New Year programming from Feb 12 to 14.

Modernize Tailors endeavours to expand its relationship with Chinatown Wonders, as well as connect with other businesses in Chinatown, to build stronger connections and sense of community as the neighbourhood recovers .

To welcome the Lunar New Year, the team at Modernize Tailors has designed their own traditional-styled clothing. Find them wearing their commemorative garments at 5 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC, just steps away from the Millenium Gate.

Modernize Tailors Inc.
Instagram: @modernizetailormade
Website: www.modernizetailors.com
Phone Number: (604) -685-0610
Address: 5 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC

Ting Photography
Website: www.tingphoto.com
Instagram: @tingphotography

Chinatown Wonders
Website: www.chinatownwonders.com
Instagram: @chinatownwonders
Address: 529 Carrall St., Vancouver, BC

The 12 Zodiacs and the Great Race

This year is the Year of the Ox, which is second in the order of the 12 Chinese Zodiacs. There are many variations to the stories of how the order of the 12 animals came to be, but the most popular one is the story of the Great Race.

A long long time ago, the Jade Emperor announced that the years of the calendar were to be named after animals in the order that they crossed the river to him.

The Witty Rat and Diligent Ox

The Cat and Rat were not good swimmers so they hopped on the back of the Ox, who was kindhearted to help them across. Right as they reached the other side of the river the Rat pushed the Cat into the water and leaped across into first place. The Ox then came in second.

The Hearty Tiger and Nimble Rabbit

The third to cross the river was the Tiger and soon after came the Rabbit. The Rabbit was able to cross the river by jumping from one stone to another and almost last the race when it slipped and fell into the water. Luckily, it was able to hold onto a floating log nearby that was eventually washed up to shore.

The Benevolent Dragon

In fifth place was the Dragon in which the Emperor was curious as to how such a powerful creature could only come in fifth. Later the Dragon explained that on the way, he stopped by a village to bring rain to the people and also saw the Rabbit cling onto the log and sent a gust of wind to push it to shore.

The Galloping Horse and Crafty Snake

Soon after, the Horse was nearing the finish line but was not aware the Snake was hidden in its hoof. The snake suddenly appeared and scared the Horse, resulting in the Snake finishing in sixth and the Horse placing seventh.

Team Synergy – The Goat, Monkey, and Rooster

Then the Goat, Monkey, and Rooster came together on a raft that the Rooster had found. The Jade Emperor was impressed by their team teamwork and decided to place the Goat in eighth, followed by the Monkey in ninth and then the Rooster in tenth place.

The Playful Dog and Gluttonous Pig

The eleventh animal to reach the shore was the Dog who was the best swimmer of them all but found time to play along the way and for a moment forgot about the race. Lastly, the Pig arrived despite stopping halfway to eat and even take a nap!

The Lost Candidate and a Start of a Feud

The Cat eventually never got to cross the river after being pushed off by the Rat and legend says that this is not only the reason why Cats dislike water, but also how the Cat and the Rat became enemies.

The final placement is Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

Which other variations have you heard of before?

WeChat Calls and Dumpling Wrap-offs – LNY Celebrations and Traditions

Springs Festival Eve (February 21, 2021) is just one week away. This marks the first day of a 16-day-long holiday festivities that caps off with the Lantern Festival (February 26, 2021). Whether your family only celebrates on New Year’s Day or has customs for every day, we all have traditions that make the holiday feel special to us.

We asked our followers @ChineseCanadianStories on Instagram to share how they celebrate the holiday. Here’s what they said:

“LNY cards and printed photos to family in China”

The is the chance to catch-up with all your friends and family. A physical card would give a more personal touch.

“WeChat calls to relatives back home”

Even the least tech-savvy grandparent would know what WeChat is. For people with larger families, these calls could go on for hours spread throughout the week. This is the time for younger folks to say their greetings to relatives before receiving their virtual red envelopes.

“Making food together”

A special feast takes more than one pair of hands to prepare. This is the time to show-off your best dish and your improved cooking skills.

“Homemade dumplings”

Dumplings are the perfect food to get everyone involved. One person is responsible for kneading the dough and rolling our the individual dumpling wrappers; another person mixes the filling; everyone else lends a hand in wrapping the dumplings. If you’re like me, you’d always get roasted for how your dumplings stand out like ugly ducklings.

“Sitting all together at the table”

The holiday spirit is about coming together with the ones you love and appreciate. In Chinese culture, Lunar New Year is the time out of the year where people put in their best effort to return home for a family reunion.

“Enjoying food & mahjong”

After dinner, the dining table becomes repurposed for mahjong. For more invested families, they would have an additional square foldable table just for mahjong. The kids go off to watch TV and play while the adults get their game face on.

How do you celebrate Lunar New Year? We’d love to know!

Share My Story

All quotes were collected via Instagram Stories @ChineseCanadianStories. If you’d like to also participate, follow us for daily LNY content leading up to the holidays!