Born in Taiwan and living in Montreal since 2002, Chih-Chien Wang is an artist who uses photography, video and objects and at times integrates text, performance and sound into his work, which explores the ordinary moments of everyday life that reflects his understanding of people, society and the city where he lives. He has shown his work across Canada and the United States. In this episode, learn about Chih-Chien’s "Travelers Came with Hope," a new photography installation on display at the Chi...
Jun 13, 2025•31 min•Ep. 20
Born in Hong Kong, raised in Lagos and Thunder Bay, Vancouver based artist Howie Tsui works in ink brush, sound sculptures, lenticular lightboxes and installation, constructing tense, fictive environments that undermine venerated art forms and narrative genres, often stemming from the Chinese literati tradition. He employs a stylized form of derisive and exaggerated imagery as a way to satirize and disarm broadening regimes and their programs of cultural hegemony. Tsui has exhibited his work thr...
May 22, 2025•27 min•Ep. 19
Based in Vancouver, Stella Zheng is an artist and illustrator who utilizes a mix of traditional Chinese art-making tools and digital mediums to create illustrations that explore the intricacies of the Chinese diaspora and her identity. She strives to use illustration to present honest, multifaceted, and nuanced representations of Chinese culture that are often ignored. Her previous works include art installations and the catalogue for A Seat At the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia...
Apr 03, 2025•18 min•Ep. 18
A second-generation settler of Chinese heritage, Janet Wang is a Vancouver-based visual artist and educator working within a traditional painting practice, integrated with sculptural installation practices and digital media. Her creations explore the construction of identity through the appropriation and disruption of social patterns and familiar gestures. Wang pays homage to the canons and traditions of history, both the artistic and the quotidian, in order to use the familiar as a meeting poin...
Mar 13, 2025•26 min•Ep. 17
Morris Lum is a Trinidadian-born photographer and artist whose work explores the hybrid nature of the Chinese-Canadian community through photography, form and documentary practices. His work also examines the ways in which Chinese history is represented in the media and archival material. Currently based in Mississauga, Ontario, Lum’s work has been exhibited and screened across Canada and the United States. In this episode, learn about Morris’s "Finding C.B. Wand," a new photography installation...
Feb 13, 2025•18 min•Ep. 16
Karen Tam is a Montreal-based artist and curator whose research focuses on the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities. In her installations, she recreates Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops and other sites of cultural encounters. Tam’s deep engagement with archival and collections research has also led her to question whose histories get to be collected and told, and to interrogate the narratives that have been constructed around the Chinese diaspor...
Jan 31, 2025•14 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Strathcona is Vancouver’s oldest residential neighbourhood. Bordering Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside, it has historically been home to the working class, including the Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, Irish, Ukrainian, and Black communities. While gentrification has caused significant change and displacement of some of these communities, the neighbourhood’s diverse makeup continues to be as evident today as ever before, with the majority of residents speaking a non-English heritage language. On t...
Dec 26, 2024•24 min•Ep. 15
How do Chinese diasporic experiences in South Africa differ from those in Canada? In this episode, Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee sits down with Dianne Leong Man, co-author of "Colour, Confusion, and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa", to learn about the country with the highest population of Chinese living in Africa and its community. They discuss the reasons for early Chinese settlement in the country and the South African Chinese Exclusion Act of 1904, the various racial classif...
Nov 27, 2024•32 min•Ep. 14
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 is the only immigration law in Canadian history to have prevented a particular group from entering the country on the basis of race, specifically barring people of Chinese descent from legally entering Canada from 1923 until 1947 with very few exceptions. Preventing entry denied many prospective Chinese people opportunities for new experiences and economic gain in Canada. However, it also meant that the Chinese already in Canada were prevented from having their ...
Oct 25, 2024•30 min•Ep. 13
Dr. Lillian Eva Quan Dyck’s life has been one of many firsts. The first Indigenous female senator, first Canadian-born senator of Chinese descent, and first Indigenous woman in Canada to earn a PhD in science. Lillian has blazed trails in the sciences and Senate for her work in reforming the Criminal Code to consider harsher penalties for crimes against Indigenous women, the restoration of Indian Status for Indigenous women who had married non-Indigenous men, and her career as a neuropsychiatris...
Sep 23, 2024•27 min•Ep. 12
The Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984 marked the first time an Olympic gold medal was awarded to a Chinese Canadian athlete. Lori Fung’s gold in the newly debuted sport of rhythmic gymnastics not only made history as the first Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadian gold medalist, but also as the first ever rhythmic gymnastics gold medalist. On this episode, Lori talks growing up in East Vancouver and Canadian representation in sports, her Olympic experience, and her big screen debut as an aeri...
Aug 09, 2024•27 min•Ep. 11
Chun Hon Chan was the first Chinese Canadian to compete in the Olympic Games, participating in the weightlifting competitions at the Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972 Summer Games. Standing at just 5'2" and weighing in at 120 pounds, his appearance and strength defied expectations during a time when Chinese men were stereotyped as physically weak. On this episode of the School Room, Debbie and Derek Chan, children of Chun Hon Chan, recount memories of their father, including his journey to Canada...
Jul 19, 2024•29 min•Ep. 10
Shelley Niro (Mohawk) is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist, best known for her work in photography, painting, sculpting, beadwork, multimedia, and independent film. On this special episode celebrating National Indigenous History Month, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee and Shelley discuss the challenges surrounding representations of Indigenous peoples, stereotypes, and identity in her works, including in her latest film Café Daughter. To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tic...
Jun 27, 2024•19 min•Ep. 9
Charlayne Thornton-Joe is perhaps best known for her stint as a city councilor in Victoria, where she tirelessly advocated for diverse cultural groups, including that of her own Chinese heritage. Today she serves as the Visitor Experience and Facilities Coordinator for the Chinese Canadian Museum’s Victoria exhibition in Fan Tan Alley, working together with a team of dedicated volunteers to uplift the Chinatown community. Join Charlayne and host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee in discussing the initiativ...
May 23, 2024•23 min•Ep. 8
For many, Newfoundland is not usually the first place that comes to mind when thinking of the Chinese Canadian diaspora. While Canada and the United States closed their doors to Chinese immigration until the 1940s, Newfoundland, still a British colony, was the last place in North America to remain open to Chinese, albeit immigration came with a hefty head tax as an entry fee. Gordon Jin, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Head Tax Redress Organization, joins The School Room to discuss th...
Apr 18, 2024•23 min•Ep. 7
What does it mean to serve your community? On this International Women’s Day special episode, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee sits down with Arlene Chan, author, historian, activist, and daughter of Jean Lumb – the first Chinese Canadian woman to be inducted into the Order of Canada for her own community activism. Tune in to learn about the work these two generations of women have undertaken for the Chinese Canadian community at large, the evolution of Toronto’s Chinatowns, and what it was like to s...
Mar 07, 2024•31 min•Ep. 6
What do a photo album restaurant directory, steamed broccoli, and an autofiction novel have in common? All three were used by William Ping in reconnecting with his late grandfather, William Ping Sr, who was one of about 300 Chinese men to settle in Newfoundland when the Newfoundland Chinese head tax was in effect. On this month’s episode, William Ping, CBC journalist and author of Hollow Bamboo, talks tracing family history and the St. John’s culinary scene with host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee. Curi...
Feb 16, 2024•18 min•Ep. 5
Chinese Canadian magician Tony Eng (1946-2008) was a beloved fixture in the Victoria, B.C. bar, restaurant, and entertainment scene for more than thirty years. His long list of accomplishments include running his own magic shop that was frequented by locals and tourists alike, establishing his unique magic show that drew inspiration from his Chinese heritage, and mentoring successive generations of up-and-coming magicians. On this episode, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee sits down with one of Tony’s...
Jan 24, 2024•23 min•Ep. 4
Though museums typically house pieces of history, rarely are museums themselves housed within historic buildings. The Chinese Canadian Museum is a unique exception to this with its location inside the Wing Sang Building, the oldest brick building in Vancouver Chinatown and a heritage building listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. On this episode, join host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee as she chats with Mel Yip— grandson of the man who established the Wing Sang Building and resided in the...
Dec 21, 2023•28 min•Ep. 3
During World War II, thirteen Chinese Canadian men were hand-picked to serve as the first recruits of Force 136, a British Special Operations Executive unit whose mission was to blend in and infiltrate enemy lines in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia. On this Remembrance Day special episode, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee is joined by Rick Wong, whose father, Henry "Hank" Wong, was one of the original members of Force 136, and mother, Myrtle Wong, was one of the few Chinese allowed to enter Canada w...
Nov 10, 2023•29 min•Ep. 2
In this inaugural episode of The School Room, the podcast of the Chinese Canadian Museum, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee sits down with curator Catherine Clement to discuss her exhibition, The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act. To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum and book tickets, visit https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/.
Oct 27, 2023•32 min•Ep. 1
