Chinatown and Beyond: Transforming Our City After The Apology
On April 22, 2018, Vancouver City Council convened a Special Council meeting in Chinatown where Mayor Gregor Robertson delivered a formal apology for past discrimination against people of Chinese descent. City Council also adopted a set of recommended legacy actions from the Historical Discrimination Against Chinese People (HDC) Advisory Group. The core recommendation was to develop an inclusive process towards a UNESCO World Heritage designation for Chinatown. With these commitments in mind, the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC (CCHSBC) along with the Vancouver Public Library has invited Melody Ma of #SaveChinatown YVR and Wendy Au, Consultant for the City of Vancouver Chinatown Initative to join current CCHSBC President Sarah Ling for a provocative discussion on what has happened in Chinatown since the Apology, and how we can transform our city.
Date: Thursday, October 4, 2018
Time: 7:00PM - 9:00PM
Location: Alice McKay Room, Central Library (VPL), 350 West Georgia Street
Click here to download the poster.
Chinatown and Beyond: Transforming Our City After the Apology is the second session of CCHSBC’s Paul and Eileen Lin Commemorative Lecture.
Date: Thursday, October 4, 2018
Time: 7:00PM - 9:00PM
Location: Alice McKay Room, Central Library (VPL), 350 West Georgia Street
Click here to download the poster.
Chinatown and Beyond: Transforming Our City After the Apology is the second session of CCHSBC’s Paul and Eileen Lin Commemorative Lecture.
Panelists
Wendy Au was the former Assistant City Manager, and currently a consultant for the City of Vancouver Chinatown Initiative. Wendy retired from City of Vancouver in June of 2018 after 39 years with the City. She has always been a strong advocate of diversity and social justice, and her work at the City included providing leadership on Hastings Training Institute on Diversity, the Vancouver Agreement: an Intergovernmental initiative, City of Reconciliation and the recent formal apology to the Chinese community. Wendy has extensive experience working with governments as well as in the community, in particular, she has a long term working relationship in Strathcona and Chinatown neighbourhoods.
Sarah Ling is the current President of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC. At the University of British Columbia, she works as a Project Manager with a focus on developing Chinatown and Indigenous educational initiatives. Her graduate work focused on the history of Chinese market gardening in the Musqueam community and stories of UBC-First Nations relations. She co-facilitated the naming and storytelling committees for three residence buildings at UBC that now carry place names in the Musqueam language, hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓. She is the Lead Producer of the documentary film All Our Father's Relations, and co-editor of Journeys of Hope: Challenging Discrimination and Building on Vancouver Chinatown’s Legacies, 希望之旅: 挑戰歧視及宣揚溫哥華唐人街的歷史文化遺產.
Melody Ma is a neighbourhood advocate for Vancouver’s Chinatown, leading a campaign called #SaveChinatownYVR and coordinating the Chinatown Summer Events series. She has been advocating for better municipal urban planning policy and thoughtful development throughout Chinatown and more recently greater Vancouver, while inspiring Vancouverites to recognize the importance of the historic area to our collective history and its current residents. She also is an active writer on urban issues and her opinion editorials have appeared on the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail.
Moderator
Hayne Wai is a longtime advocate, researcher, and author on Vancouver’s Chinatown and Strathcona. He is a founding member and past president of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC and a former board trustee of the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden and continues his involvement with both organizations. Hayne worked for the federal and provincial governments and was more recently a sessional instructor at UBC’s Faculty of Education. He has served on government, post-secondary and community committees on anti-racism, diversity, human rights and multiculturalism including the recent city advisory committee on Historical Discrimination Against Chinese in Vancouver.
City of Vancouver Representative
Baldwin Wong is a Senior Social Planner at the City of Vancouver, and is the Co-Lead of the City's Chinatown Transformation Team. He has worked on issues and initiatives related to diversity, multiculturalism and immigration since the 1990s. A central part of his portfolio involves working with City Council and civic departments, other levels of government, funders, NGOs and stakeholder groups to find solutions to key social issues in the city and ensuring that policies and programs are implemented in culturally appropriate ways. In 2001, he launched the multilingual Newcomer’s Guide to Vancouver. Since 2005, he has been the lead staff supporting the Mayor’s Working Group on Immigration, which advises the Mayor and City Council on issues regarding immigrants and refugees. In 2009, he initiated and implemented the Vancouver Dialogues Project to strengthen relations between Aboriginal and immigrant communities in Vancouver. In 2013, he was project lead for the Welcoming Communities initiative which launched two digital guides for newcomers. Currently, he is project lead for Vancouver’s Local Immigration Partnership initiative.