CHINATOWN HOUSE
is a new space in Montreal’s Chinatown that offers lectures and socio-cultural events in collaboration with our partners and allies, giving everyone the opportunity to participate in social innovation to foster and strengthen ties within our Chinatown.
A cultural space
for events and shows.
A community hub
for allies, community members and residents.
An ecosystem
for incubating new ideas and visions for Chinatown.
CONCEPT
In response to the evolving neighbourhood, Chinatown House MTL is not a static entity. Instead, it knots together (團結) existing amenities and new partnerships to form a continuous ribbon of interventions that extend beyond the current boundaries of Chinatown. To do this, Chinatown House MTL transcends the existing Chinatown Gates, which were built during an era of expropriation to demarcate the community’s limits.
Chinatown House MTL’s gateways act as unifiers rather than dividers. Each Is tailored to serve its surroundings – be it in the form of mobile structures and pop-ups in previously under-utilized spaces, or community land trusts. Collectively, these gateways blur Chinatown’s edges, serving as nodes of connectivity throughout the expanding neighbourhood. Through this vision, Chinatown House MTL emerges as a vibrant socio-cultural ecosystem, unfurling across different times and places.
Events
calendar
FEATURED EVENTS
Chinatown House Reflection Exhibition
JIA Foundation invites you to the Reflection Exhibition of Chinatown House on Friday April 19, 5-7pm
The Reflection Exhibition of Chinatown House is a community celebration about this special cultural space and community hub created through collaboration with community members and volunteers, launching on Friday April 19.
As this exhibition marks the end of our Chinatown House programs at the current location, JIA Foundation will be launching new initiatives for the summer. Mr. Robert Beaudry, councillor of the Ville-Marie borough, will also join us at this celebration and share the city’s plan and priorities for Chinatown in relation with Chinatown House.
Community partners will also be present.
Screening : Meet and Eat at Lee’s Garden
Join us at Chinatown House this Saturday, April 13 for a special screening of “Meet and Eat at Lee’s Garden”, followed by a Q & A with the director moderated by Rachel Cheng.
Synopsis:
Day’s Lee takes a look at the history of the Chinese-Canadian community through her family’s restaurant which opened in Montreal in 1951 and how Chinese-Canadian restaurants created a bond between the Chinese and Jewish communities.
Bio:
Day’s Lee is the producer, director and writer of the documentary Meet and Eat at Lee’s Garden. The documentary, which was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award, is based on her father’s history as a head tax payer and the family’s restaurant, Lee’s Garden, which was one of the first restaurants to open outside of Montreal’s Chinatown in the 1950s.
Lee is also an author and has published three books: a children’s picture book, The Fragrant Garden, a short story collection, The Red Pagoda and Other Stories, and a young adult novel, Guitar Picks and Chopsticks, all of which are stories about the Chinese-Canadian community. She holds a journalism degree from Concordia University and as a freelance writer, has written articles for national publications.
Where: 1088 Rue Clark
Time: 1 – 3pm
Cost: Free
Guest Lecture: Linda Zhang
Don’t miss architect Linda Zhang’s free lecture on Tuesday, April 9th at 10:30 am on the theme “Open Urbanism: community empowerment through technology and collaborative design processes” featuring her project Planting Imagination!
Stay to discover the presentation summarizing the two years of collaboration between the JIA Foundation and the students of Concordia University Urban Planning professor Silvano De la Llata.
Where: 1088 Rue Clark
Time:
10:30am-11:30am: Linda Zhang’s Lecture
11:30am-1pm: Concordia Urban lab presentation
Traces of the Exclusion Act: Exhibition Launch Event
Join us on Saturday, March 23, for the launching of our new exhibition in collaboration with the Chinese Canadian Museum: “Traces of the Chinese Exclusion Act”.
Hosted by the JIA Foundation, visit our special exhibition tracing the history of Chinese Montrealers during an era of discriminatory laws and then join documentary filmmaker Karen Cho for a fascinating conversation with curator and creator Catherine Clement, and Simon Wing, son of a Montreal head tax payer and advocate for head tax redress.
Where: 1088 Rue Clark, 1st floor
When: March 23, 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Exhibit opens at 2pm and the discussion begins at 3pm.
OPEN HOUSE DATES
March 27, 2024, 12pm – 4pm
April 13, 2024, 12pm – 4pm
April 18, 2024, 12pm – 4pm
Long Time No See Poster Workshop
JIA is delighted to invite you to our workshop in collaboration with Long Time No See from Toronto: “Storytelling as Community Resistance.” 
This unique workshop is a project initiated by the community art group Long Time No See (LTNS), organized by the JIA Foundation in partnership with the Chinatown Youth Committee and OSLA. Through this project, we hope to explore LTNS’s approach to representing narratives from Chinatown, first in public spaces and later in a gallery setting. On March 2nd, the Chinatown House program will host an in-person workshop with LTNS members. 
When: Saturday, March 2nd, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PMWhere: Chinatown House (1088 Rue Clark, second floor)
Join us for this educational workshop where you can learn more about the processes of this inspiring collective. 
To register, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/E7ZCx89Zuc2a9dH88
MIAO Collective presents: Rebinding Home: Family in the Diaspora
Miao Collective is very honored to be partnering with Jeunesse du Quartier Chinois and Jia Foundation at Chinatown House for the presentation of this curation in Montreal.
Rebinding Home: Family in the Diaspora presents different facades of being a diaspora by presenting the series of works Miao Collective encountered. We want to stir up the thinking about identity fluidity, consequences of choices, reconciliation between body and culture, family footages and family memories, boundaries of the self, and more.
We will screen two films, Welcome Back, Farewell (2021) by Marcos Yoshi and Papaya (2022) by Dédé Chen. The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with the two directors and Bao (buns) provided by the organizer from restaurants in Chinatown.
Both films have English subtitles.
All the earnings we collected from this event will be donated to the Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal for promoting the well-being of members of the Asian community.
The screening will happen at Chinatown House, 1088 Rue Clark, Montreal, 2nd floor on Thursday, February 8th.
Doors open: 18:30
Screening: 19:00
Q&A: 21:15
If you cannot get the tickets online:
Make sure you show up early on the day of February 8th with 10 dollars in cash. Walk-in seats available for this event.
Welcome Back, Farewell / Bem-vindos de novo (2021, 105 minutes, Country: Brazil, Language: Portuguese)
An autobiographical documentary about a Japanese descent family affected by the immigration flux between Brazil and Japan. After 13 years apart, Marcos Yoshi reencounters his parents. Once together, they face the desire to guarantee the future of the family and the impossibility of remaining together.
Welcome Back, Farewell was selected by multiple film festivals around the world, including Tokyo Documentary Film Festival (Japan), 25th Tiradentes Film Festival (Brazil), 38th Chicago Latino Film Festival (USA), etc.
Marcos Yoshi is a filmmaker based in São Paulo, Brazil. He wrote and directed fiction short films, and “Welcome Back, Farewell” is his debut documentary feature film. He is also a Ph.D. candidate working on first-person documentaries at the University of São Paulo.
Papaya (2022, 11 minutes, Country: Canada, Language: French)
A Sino-Canadian adoptee breaks the silence of incest by responding to her family archives through dance. In the ritual sacrifice of a papaya, she reenacts her traumatic past to emancipate her adult self.
Papaya premiered at Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival 2022, and it was selected and shown at multiple film festivals such as Festival Filministes 2023 (Mention spéciale – court-métrage d’art et d’essai).
Born in Nanchang, China in 1995, Dédé Chen now lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada, where she creates works about the performance of filiation. As an anthropologist, she is interested in autoethnography as a source of creative writing.
JOOK SING MING SING MOVIE CLUB
Presented by Zuk Sing Ming Sing (Murielle / Terry / Monique), Zuk Sing Superstars Cinema Night will be a weekly microcinema program that explores the multilayered experience of Asian diasporic cinema or Asian cinema through a range of filmmakers and their pluralistic expressions.
These films will not be restricted to the trend of stinky-lunch-trauma / make-your-non-actress-mom-cry films that have predominated Asian representation pop culture and that—while effective as starter steps towards a more culturally-equitable landscape—can if incessant trap our holistic journey in a holding pattern. Films shown can be experientially explicit. They can also range from exploring the nuanced existentialism of being a 竹昇 zuk sing (overseas-born / raised Chinese) and addressing the lived experiences of identity that weave into parables both culturally specific to Chinese diaspora and widely accessible to non-Chinese or non-Asian.
On the other hand, we’ll also program works that aren’t necessarily Asian diaspora-produced / centered, but approach them from an angle relevant to the Chinese diaspora programmers’ inspirations in their paths of expression, creatively or socio-politically.
Every Friday from February 2nd to March 15th. Doors at 7pm, screening at 7:30pm. No latecomers will be admitted.
PWYC / free for seniors. A discussion will follow the screening.
See the program below!
MORRIS LUM – “CLAN ASSOCIATIONS”
January 13th, 2024: The LAUNCH of the first public exhibition of the “Clan Associations” series by photographer Morris Lum
@ Chinatown House, 1088 Clark St., 2nd floor.
Artist Talk & Tour starting at 1pm.
Lan Yee – Curation
Parker Mah – Coordination
Over the last decade, Morris Lum has been traveling across Turtle Island to create photographic records of Clan Associations as living archives. From folded chairs and electric fans ready at the side, to fresh offerings on the altars and meeting schedules on the walls, the interior scenes swell with the minutiae of their daily undertakings. In the absence of people in the frame, they become representative not of one person–but of many. Like the portraits of each association’s ancestral lineage at the center of the images, prominence is given to the organizations’ roles across generations.
What are generally referred to as ‘Clan Associations’ or ‘Family Associations’ were formed in the early 1900s to help support family members with the same surname that usually came from the same or neighbouring villages in China. These Associations supported newcomers by providing them with boarding, job support, and English classes. Clan Associations also pooled money together to help support each other during a time when systemic discrimination prevented Chinese people from accessing bank loans. The Clan Association essentially acted as a credit union, community center, and social services for its members. They also helped to form smaller community networks within Chinatown.
Today the Associations function more like social clubs, where you can often hear the clanging of tiles from seniors playing Mahjong or the singing of a choir. They’ve become intergenerational conduits for cultural practices, by providing space for knowledge-keepers and youth groups, like those who practice martial arts or perform in lion dances. The Clan Associations usually owned their buildings, a key aspect in understanding why many continue to exist in their original and current locations. They have been functioning similarly to community land trusts, a model of decommodified property that is serving as the inspiration for a growing movement of neighbourhood advocates in Chinatowns across the continent.
These images speak to a complicated history of spaces within ‘North America’ that simultaneously outline discriminatory practices and the strength of community resilience across time.
Open House Visiting Hours:
January 25th, 2024, 10am – 4pm
February 8th, 2024, 10am – 4pm
February 10th, 2024, 11am – 5pm
February 11th, 2024, 11am – 5pm
March 5th, 2024, 10am – 4pm
March 11th, 2024, 11am – 5pm
March 13th, 2024, 11am – 5pm
MORRIS LUM – BIO
Morris Lum, (b. 1983, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Toronto-based photographer and artist whose work explores the hybrid identities of the Chinese Canadian community and the transformation of Chinatowns across North America through photography, documentary practices and archival materials. Lum’s work has been exhibited and screened across Canada, and the United States and has received numerous accolades including CONTACT Photography Festival Burtynsky Grant (2023) and the A&E Short Filmmakers Award (2010).
** Or by appointment. Please email info@jiafoundationmtl.org to visit the exhibition outside of these days.
The JIA Foundation invites you to the first public showing of the travelling exhibition “Connaissez-vous votre Quartier chinois?” produced by the MEM.
The MEM’s new travelling exhibition How Well Do You Know Your Chinatown? is the result of projects carried out with members of Montréal’s Chinatown. Drawing on their voices, the exhibition contextualizes the area and highlights the memories of those who built it and have made it their home. It also invites you to re-examine what you know about Chinatown.
The exhibition was made possible by an agreement between the City of Montréal and the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration as part of the Dialogue with Chinatown project.
Visiting hours are on the following days @ Chinatown House MTL (1088 Rue Clark, Second Floor). No reservation required.
December 7th, 10am – 4pm
December 14th, 10am – 4pm
December 16th, 10am – 4pm
December 22nd, 4pm – 9pm
January 11th, 10am – 4pm
January 12th, 10am – 4pm
January 13th, 10am – 4pm
March 5th, 10am – 4pm
March 11th, 11am – 5pm
March 13th, 11am – 5pm
April 2024
04 / 09, 10:30am – 1pm: Guest Lecture: Linda Zhang + Concordia University final presentations
Don’t miss architect Linda Zhang’s free lecture on Tuesday, April 9th at 10:30 am on the theme “Open Urbanism: community empowerment through technology and collaborative design processes” featuring her project Planting Imagination!
Stay to discover the presentation summarizing the two years of collaboration between the JIA Foundation and the students of Concordia University Urban Planning professor Silvano De la Llata.
Where: 1088 Rue Clark
Time:
10:30am-11:30am: Linda Zhang’s Lecture
11:30am-1pm: Concordia Urban lab presentation
04 / 13, 12pm – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 15 + Screening of Meet and Eat at Lee’s Garden
Chinatown House Montreal will be open from noon-4pm to receive drop-in visitors. Join us at Chinatown House Saturday, April 13 for a special screening of “Meet and Eat at Lee’s Garden”, followed by a Q & A with the director moderated by Rachel Cheng, from 1-3pm.
04 / 18, 12pm – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 16
Chinatown House Montreal will be open from noon-4pm to receive drop-in visitors.
04 / 19, 5pm – 7pm: Chinatown House Reflection Exhibit
JIA Foundation invites you to the Reflection Exhibition of Chinatown House on Friday April 19
We invite you to the Reflection Exhibition of Chinatown House and a community celebration about this special cultural space and community hub created through collaboration with community members and volunteers on Friday April 19.
As this exhibition marks the end of our Chinatown House programs at the current location, JIA Foundation will be launching new initiatives for the summer. Mr. Robert Beaudry, councillor of the Ville-Marie borough, will also join us at this celebration and share the city’s plan and priorities for Chinatown in relation with the Chinatown House.
MARCH 2024
03 / 02, 2pm – 4pm: Long Time No See Poster Workshop
JIA is delighted to invite you to our workshop in collaboration with Long Time No See from Toronto: “Storytelling as Community Resistance.”
This unique workshop is a project initiated by the community art group Long Time No See (LTNS), organized by the JIA Foundation in partnership with the Chinatown Youth Committee and OSLA. Through this project, we hope to explore LTNS’s approach to representing narratives from Chinatown, first in public spaces and later in a gallery setting. On March 2nd, the Chinatown House program will host an in-person workshop with LTNS members.
When: Saturday, March 2nd, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PMWhere: Chinatown House (1088 Rue Clark, second floor)
Join us for this educational workshop where you can learn more about the processes of this inspiring collective.
To register, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/E7ZCx89Zuc2a9dH88
03 / 11, 11am – 5pm: Chinatown House Open House # 12
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
03 / 13, 11am – 5pm: Chinatown House Open House # 13
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
03 / 23, 2pm – 5pm: Traces of the Exclusion Act: Exhibition Launch Event
Join us on Saturday, March 23, for the launching of our new exhibition in collaboration with the Chinese Canadian Museum: “Traces of the Chinese Exclusion Act”.
Hosted by the JIA Foundation, visit our special exhibition tracing the history of Chinese Montrealers during an era of discriminatory laws and then join documentary filmmaker Karen Cho for a fascinating conversation with curator and creator Catherine Clement, and Simon Wing, son of a Montreal head tax payer and advocate for head tax redress.
Where: 1088 Rue Clark, 1st floor When: March 23, 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Exhibit opens at 2pm and the discussion begins at 3pm.
03 / 27, 12pm – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 14
Chinatown House Montreal will be open from 12 – 4pm to receive drop-in visitors.
FEBRUARY 2024
02 / 08, 6:30pm – 10pm: Miao Collective Presents: Rebinding Home: Family in the Diaspora
Miao Collective is very honored to be partnering with Jeunesse du Quartier Chinois and Jia Foundation at Chinatown House for the presentation of this curation in Montreal.
Rebinding Home: Family in the Diaspora presents different facades of being a diaspora by presenting the series of works Miao Collective encountered. We want to stir up the thinking about identity fluidity, consequences of choices, reconciliation between body and culture, family footages and family memories, boundaries of the self, and more.
We will screen two films, Welcome Back, Farewell (2021) by Marcos Yoshi and Papaya (2022) by Dédé Chen. The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with the two directors and Bao (buns) provided by the organizer from restaurants in Chinatown.
Both films have English subtitles.
All the earnings we collected from this event will be donated to the Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal for promoting the well-being of members of the Asian community.
02 / 10-11, 11am – 5pm: Chinatown House Open House # 10 / # 11
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors as part of the Lunar New Year festivities. A knot-tying workshop will be offered on Sunday (currently sold out)
JANUARY 2024
01 / 11-12-13, 10am – 4pm: Special visiting hours for “Connaissez-vous votre Quartier chinois?”
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors. The 11 – 12 – 13th will be the last days the MEM exhibition will be viewable at Chinatown House.
01 / 13, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 8 / Launch of “Clan Associations” exhibition by Morris Lum
January 13th, 2024: The LAUNCH of the first public exhibition of the “Clan Associations” series by photographer Morris Lum
@ Chinatown House, 1088 Clark St., 2nd floor.
Artist Talk & Tour starting at 1pm.
Over the last decade, Morris Lum has been traveling across Turtle Island to create photographic records of Clan Associations as living archives. From folded chairs and electric fans ready at the side, to fresh offerings on the altars and meeting schedules on the walls, the interior scenes swell with the minutiae of their daily undertakings. In the absence of people in the frame, they become representative not of one person–but of many. Like the portraits of each association’s ancestral lineage at the center of the images, prominence is given to the organizations’ roles across generations.
What are generally referred to as ‘Clan Associations’ or ‘Family Associations’ were formed in the early 1900s to help support family members with the same surname that usually came from the same or neighbouring villages in China. These Associations supported newcomers by providing them with boarding, job support, and English classes. Clan Associations also pooled money together to help support each other during a time when systemic discrimination prevented Chinese people from accessing bank loans. The Clan Association essentially acted as a credit union, community center, and social services for its members. They also helped to form smaller community networks within Chinatown.
Today the Associations function more like social clubs, where you can often hear the clanging of tiles from seniors playing Mahjong or the singing of a choir. They’ve become intergenerational conduits for cultural practices, by providing space for knowledge-keepers and youth groups, like those who practice martial arts or perform in lion dances. The Clan Associations usually owned their buildings, a key aspect in understanding why many continue to exist in their original and current locations. They have been functioning similarly to community land trusts, a model of decommodified property that is serving as the inspiration for a growing movement of neighbourhood advocates in Chinatowns across the continent.
These images speak to a complicated history of spaces within ‘North America’ that simultaneously outline discriminatory practices and the strength of community resilience across time.
Lan Yee – Curation
Parker Mah – Coordination
01 / 25, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 9
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
DECEMBER 2023
12 / 02, 2pm – 4pm: Chinatown House Lecture Series #1: Archiving the Memories of Chinatown through Objects
Explore the remarkable journey of Riopel, a professional guide, museologist, and the founder of Objets des Mémoires in Chinatown. Recognized with a medal from the National Assembly, Riopel has been honored for his dedicated efforts in safeguarding the historical memory of Chinatown and contributing significantly to national history.
Son of one of the first community police officers assigned to Chinatown in the 1980s and 1990s, Jean-Philippe Riopel has been walking the streets of the neighbourhood since his childhood. He has deepened the friendship built over the years by his father with Chinese family associations. His study in museology led him to participate in museum projects in Quebec and Nepal. Being a professional guide of Montreal since 2013, he also specializes in the history of Chinatown.
In April 2021, after the developers’ acquisition of a large number of heritage buildings in Chinatown including the Wings Building, he sounded the alarm with Elyse Lévesque. His fight, including the research into the history of the district and the launch of a petition signed by over 7000 people to designate Chinatown as a heritage site, led to the successful Chinatown heritage designation.
Gilbert Lee, the owner of the Wings Company, commissioned Jean-Philipe to establish and direct a collection of more than 1000 objects related to the history of the Wings company and Chinatown since the beginning of the 20th century. This collection is now managed by the Objets des mémoires collective, a museological action group that brings together professionals from the museum and heritage sectors to preserve material heritage at risk of disappearance.
December 2nd (Saturday), 2pm to 4pm at Chinatown House MTL (1088 Rue Clark, Second Floor). No reservation required.
12 / 07, 10am – 4pm: Launch of MEM exhibit “Connaissez-vous votre Quartier chinois” / Chinatown House Open House # 6
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
12 / 14, 2pm – 4pm: Chinatown House Lecture Series #2: Melissa Lengies: Memories + Renewal: Equitable Development for Montréal’s Chinatown
The JIA Foundation, in partnership with Carleton University, invites you to the second Chinatown House Lecture with Melissa Lengies and Dr. Mariana Esponda Cascajares to discuss equitable development for Montréal’s Chinatown.
Like many Chinatowns in Canada, Montreal’s Chinatown has been heavily impacted by a history of urban renewal, speculation and depopulation, prompting the visible decline of Chinatown. Despite an ever-present community with strong ties to the neighbourhood, newer developments increasingly obscure the vibrant history and spirit of Chinatown, resulting not only in the further displacement of residents and businesses, but the loss of valuable social networks and cultural representation.
Recognizing the need for sensitive development, this lecture will present the outcomes of Lengies’ recently completed Master of Architecture thesis titled, “Memory + Renewal: Equitable development through the adaptive reuse of historic buildings in Montreal’s Chinatown” (2023). The presentation will delve into the different ways building reuse can contribute to sustainable development in the culturally-sensitive context of Chinatown while preventing further loss of the built fabric and its associated memories.
As an academic case study, this presentation will also look at a conservation-based and community-oriented approach to the reuse of the Wing Noodles Building and its adjacent buildings – which had been purchased by a local developer in 2021 – to support the revival, evolution and safe-keeping of Chinatown as a living community, as an economic and social hub, and as an important part of Chinese-Canadian history. Its aim is to prompt an open conversation about the future of this significant part of Chinatown, and will be followed by an interactive community discussion.
December 14th (Thursday), 2pm to 4pm at Chinatown House MTL (1088 Rue Clark, Second Floor). No reservation required.
12 / 16, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 7
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
NOVEMBER 2023
11 / 03, noon – 3pm: Guided visits and discussions with the ASA
In collaboration with the American Studies Association, Chinatown House will offer tours to two tour groups from their annual conference and to members of the public.
11 / 07, 1pm – 5pm: Séance publique sur le projet d’identification du Lieu historique du Quartier chinois
Le Comité consultatif en reconnaissance a été mandaté par le conseil municipal le 16 octobre dernier pour tenir une séance publique concernant le projet d’identification du Lieu historique du Quartier chinois en vertu de la Loi sur le patrimoine culturel.
Cette séance publique est ouverte à tous. La population est invitée à assister à la présentation du projet, à émettre des commentaires et à poser des questions aux responsables du projet.
Nous invitons toutes personnes intéressées à prendre la parole lors de cette séance à s’inscrire sur la plateforme Réalisons Montréal. Il sera également possible de s’inscrire sur place le jour même. La documentation relative au projet y est disponible. Cette page permet de plus de transmettre des commentaires écrits ou des mémoires.
11 / 09, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 3
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
11 / 15, 2pm – 4pm: Visit and presentation with Champlain College Students
2 groups of students in Chinese History and Philosophy from Champlain College will be in attendance.
11 / 19, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 4
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
11 / 23, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 5
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
11 / 25, 1:30pm – 6pm: Presentation and workshop with the cohort of the project “What Travels Through Us” with Super Boat People
Super Boat People presents, in collaboration with articule and Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, a series of 10 workshops enabling a cohort of ten participants of Cambodian, Vietnamese and Laotian origin to reclaim their past. Through a participatory approach combining oral history, artistic practice and co-creation, participants will:
- Document their own family histories through oral history;
- Explore different artistic media to create from their own stories;
- Share the process with a wider public through mediation activities.
This is the first collaboration between SBP and the JIA foundation in the context of this project.
11 / 28, 10:30am – 12pm: NGCI Concordia Lab Presentation
With Professor Silvano de la Llata.
OCTOBER 2023
10 / 04, 9am – noon: Sui Sin Far: sa vie et son oeuvre
A presentation offered in French by Murielle Chan-Chu for U de M students and the public.
10 / 17, 10am – 4pm: Chinese-language pop-up exhibition tours
Guided tours will be offered at 10am (Cantonese) and 2pm (Mandarin) for groups of recent immigrants wishing to visit the pop-up exhibitions. A facilitated discussion will follow.
10 / 19, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 1
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors.
10 / 24, 10am – 4pm: Chinatown House Open House # 2
Chinatown House Montreal will be open all day to receive drop-in visitors. Special activities are planned with the students and teachers from the Urban Planning department of Concordia University and the Next Gen Cities Institute including a design charrette.
10 / 27, 6pm – 8pm: Eighty Thousand Steps Podcast Launch Event
Eighty Thousand Steps, a walking podcast series produced by Crystal Chan and Parker Bert, launches officially at Chinatown House.
10 / 28, 10am – noon: Guided tour and lecture with curator/ artist Lan Yee
Lan Yee, artist and curator, will give a guided tour of the pop-up exhibitions, followed by a presentation about their work at the intersection of art and activism. Lan Yee curated the exhibitions currently on display.
Pop-up Exhibitions: September – November 2023
A series of pop-up exhibitions showcase the work of our collaborators who have been engaged in uncovering the community history of Montréal’s Chinatown and the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act on the neighbourhood, as well as those working to envision new futures and possibilities for Chinatown. Celebrated Visual Artist Lan Yee has worked to bring these pop-ups under one roof allowing visitors to understand the past and envision the future of Montréal’s Chinatown through these unique pop-up exhibitions.
Explore Chinatown’s early history and community figures, like author-journalist Edith Eaton (Sui Sin Far) and the Ho Sang Kee and Wing Sing families who shaped and impacted the neighbourhood, through an exhibition curated by Mary Chapman with University of British Columbia graduate students Delaney Anderson, Meghna Chatterjee, Ethan Xi Hao Eu, Amanda Law, Camille Lopez, and Thomas Playfair, with assistance from descendants. The exhibition is designed by Sydney Lines.
This pop-up version of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal-based artist and curator Karen Tam’s beloved McCord Museum exhibition will for the first time bring the community stories and forgotten histories of Montréal’s Chinatown and its women back to the neighbourhood to be shared with residents and visitors alike.
Re-Imagine Clark Street, Sun Yat Sen Square and its surroundings with the students of Professor Silvano De la Llata’s Urban Laboratory class who worked closely with the Chinatown community over the past 2 semesters to bring together a series of innovative ideas and visionings for the revitalization and equitable development of these spaces. Check out the designs, renderings and innovations that were developed through community conversations and a charette of ideas.
Chinatown goes virtual with Concordia’s Next-Generation Cities Institute, veteran videogame developer Chris Gibbs and a group of student interns who’ve developed “CityPlayer”, a video game platform that allows audiences to envision and build a more livable and sustainable city. Players can visualize infrastructure changes to building heights, adding more bike or car lanes, planting greenery and more. Described as “Sim City with real science,” this urban simulation platform is a great tool for re-imagining the future for Chinatown.
2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act – a dark period of Canadian history where all immigration from China was banned for a period of 24 years. This law decimated Chinese Canadian communities, who could not reunite with their families, and emptied Chinatowns across Canada. The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act is the inaugural exhibition of the newly-opened Chinese Canadian Museum in British Columbia. We will bring satellite programming exploring the impact this racist law had on Montréal’s Chinatown community, in addition to actively collecting and scanning community Head Tax, Exclusion Act and other Chinese immigration certificates to be added to the community archive collection at the University of British Columbia Library.
Things + Time x JIA Foundation
Things + Time is a new community initiative that aims to democratize the archival process by providing education and resources. T + T developed a web platform that facilitate the 3D scanning, tagging, and digital storage of artefacts for archival purposes. JIA Foundation will have a scanning station on-site to enable this community archiving within Chinatown.
Launch of the Chinatown Youth Committee
The committee representing the youth of the Chinatown Roundtable is collaborating with JIA to renovate the youth space at Chinatown House. This is an opportunity for you to discover the committee’s mission and its vision for the future of the neighbourhood. Explore the room designed to foster intergenerational connections, with a dedicated area for children (under parental supervision), and admire the beautiful posters produced by the committee.
PARTNERS
The JIA Foundation thanks the Ville de Montréal // Quebec Government for their financial support for Chinatown House.
