Chinatown Recreation Mall
唐人街大百貨
Chinatown Recreation Mall 唐人街大百貨
Historically, discrimination and prohibitions in Western societies restricted the overseas Chinese to Chinatowns, places that, through resilience and cooperation, grew into self-sustaining, flourishing communities. Fast forward to today, waves of immigration after the 1990s have brought a new undercurrent to Chinatowns around the world, as well as to the Chinese diasporic discourse...
Chinatown Recreation Mall is an ongoing project that explores objects of the Chinese diaspora through a contemporary lens. The project investigates small businesses and their merchandise in Vancouver’s Chinatown. These objects embody diasporic significance and may illuminate the area’s layered histories, evolving sociopolitical contexts, and intimate personal narratives rooted in place.
Diasporic objects are those that transcend the boundaries of geography and time, that carry a sense of belonging, or more literally, that have journeyed across oceans and mountains through successive waves of migration.
Chinatown Recreation Mall
唐人街大百貨
Chinatown Recreation Mall 唐人街大百貨
Chinatown Recreation Mall Project, Exhibition View, Hexiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2023.
Collection of previously used signage from Second Floor Jade Shop (now permanently closed)
Chinatown Recreation Mall Project’s initial research stage was made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.