New Voices Project

A project started by University of British Columbia students in Vancouver, the New Voices Project is a student-initiated, non-profit community project that is aimed to publish an anthology of literary and artistic works by self-identified Chinese-Canadians. The purpose of this project is to give voice to new Chinese-Canadians currently living in the Lower Mainland. The idea for this project grew out of a discussion between several Chinese-Canadian university students from UBC on the politics behind the representation of Asians in mainstream North American culture. Realizing that the so-called “Chinese-Canadian community” is actually a very limited representation, the project is about challenges the “railway narrative”, originating from previous generations of Chinese who came to Canada up to 150 years ago to escape poverty and political plights, and continuing on Chinese who descended from these pioneers.

ACWW Neighbours Go Down In Flames

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The Mount Pleasant Area has been home to ACWW's Ricepaper Magazine for many years now. It's been the heart of the artist community in Vancouver, the hub of magazine production in Vancouver, the soul of one of trendiest community in North America. But alas, two recent fires have destroyed the homes of our two closest neighbours in the area of Main and Broadway. A three-alarm fire on Christmas Day engulfed several stores, restaurants and artist spaces at the Kingsway-and-Broadway hipster hub of Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.

Among the East Broadway businesses destroyed were two Chinese restaurants — the New Maple Wonton House and the King and I Restaurant — plus a new Mexican restaurant, a health-food store, a pizza outlet, a martial-arts operation and a medicinal cannabis storefront. Disturbingly, the fire came just six weeks after another fire one block away destroyed several cafés and restaurants, including the popular Slickety Jim’s Chat ’N’ Chew. Artist studios such as Carrie Walker's have been destroyed as a result of the fire. The Main and Broadway intersection is one of the hottest neighbourhood in the city now, demanding inordinate amount of real estate speculation.

The two recent fires leaves us in an uneasy about the fate of the gentrifications of the neighbourhood. The fate of Vancouver's arts community is at a crossroads. Let's hope and wait that better news is to come our way.

The State of Asian Canadian Publishing

The state of Asian Canadian publishing is still a work in progress. Journalism, creative fiction, cinema, filmmaking, theatre, dance, comedy, are just a few of the genres which still lack a defined niche in contemporary Asian Canadian arts and culture. Not only are they interdependent, they are reliant on a medium to expose, examine, and intellectualize their quest for art. Experiments have been made, but not to much avail, and certainly not enough. This poses difficult questions for the industry: who's reading Asian Canadian content? Is there a need for it? Ryerson School of Journalism graduate Justin Lee wrote a fascinating article about the state of flux of Asian Canadian magazines.

Miguel and MacLean are researching an upcoming Jasmine article on the lack of pornography available for Asian females. The topic raises the obvious question of whether Asian women even view pornography. Similarly, are second-generation Asian-Canadians even interested in magazines like Banana and Jasmine? After speaking to many Asian-Canadian female friends, the general consensus is, despite being thrilled to see a magazine catering solely to them, most wouldn't buy it. Criticisms include mediocre writing, uninspired or trivial topics and an overall lack of focus. Even Jasmine's own Miguel is not impressed. "There's no central article that makes me want to pick up the magazine," she says. "[The first issue] was very scattered. Jasmine's still trying to find its footing."

Six years later, things have changed, but to what degree? The plethora of magazines that the article mentions no longer exist, and only one continues to survive, although in different shape and form. There seems to be a real need for a leader in the publishing industry, something that can define a niche for Asian Canadians.

East is East in Vancouver, BC

East is East is a middle-eastern and Indian restaurant located in the heart of Vancouver, BC. Produced by University of British Columbia students, Anoop Randhawa, Bikram Singh, Gavin Atwal, Ivy Islam, and Paul Aulakh in their History 485 - Asian Migrant Communities in Vancouver Restaurant Group Project 2009, East is East Broadway documents the multicultural diversity that food presents in an urban city.

Welcome to the Revised Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop

This is the new Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop (ACWW). What is "Asian Canadian?" Canadians of Asian ancestry comprise the largest visible minority in Canada, at 11% of the Canadian population, and is the fastest growing. Most "Asian Canadians" are concentrated in the urban areas of southern Ontario, the Greater Vancouver area, Montreal, and other large Canadian cities. In Canada, the term 'Asian' is pan-continental, in contrast to the United States which uses a Sino-centric definition of "Asian". According to the Statistics Canada in 2006, East Asian and Southeast Asian population is 7%, South Asian population is 4%, and West Asians make up the rest of the total Asian population. If you're interested in Asian Canadian issues, this is the site to come to.

In 2007, UBC officially launched the Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian studies (INSTRCC). Built from the ground up by students over a three year period, INSTRCC is the first stage of a permanent commitment to teaching and research focused upon the role of Asian Canadians in the building of Pacific Canada. Supported by the commitment of its participating students, faculty, and community donors, INSTRCC focuses on recovering the complex story of “Chinese Canada” as both a geographical concept--capturing the long-standing ties of the west coast of Canada with the Pacific region--and as a historical framework built from processes of migration and trade that have linked North America to Asia and the Pacific for hundreds of years.

This is an exciting time in Asian Canadian Studies. A new generation of writers, cultural producers, visual artists, filmmakers, and academics are being bred. Stay tuned for more!

What is Pacific Canada?

What is “Pacific Canada”? Pacific Canada is a perspective on Canada’s history, present, and future that recognizes the crucial importance of our long standing links to the Pacific region. As a corrective, it recovers histories that have been ignored or erased, and offers a new vision of Canada’s present and future. The first stage, focused on the central role of Chinese Canadians in our collective history, inaugurates a long term commitment at UBC to explore Pacific Canada. Over the next ten years, an academic historian at UBC, Henry Yu, will guide his students in creating oral history projects that will engage community with digital technologies in re-creating and remembering the past for the present. Here is one of INSTRCC's earliest student projects, "Eating Global Vancouver."