Celebrating Chinese-Canadians in Sports

Table tennis anyone? That's the question!

Last weekend we checked out the latest exhibition at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Chinatown that is coincidentally sort of tied to the World Cup in Vancouver.

Entitled Momentum: Power and Identity in Sports, the exhibition showcases Chinese-Canadian athletic talent in all kinds of disciplines, like ice hockey and basketball, Canadian football, figure skating, snowboarding and swimming.

Many cool items on display at the exhibition

It's a fantastic way to celebrate these people who have excelled in their sport at the highest level. There's Patrick Chan, who has medalled three times in the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics, Lori Fung, who won the first gold in rhythmic gymnastics in 1984, and Norman Kwong the first person of Chinese heritage who played football for the Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Eskimos, and was even the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta.

On display are Chan's ice skates and one of his medals from Sochi that looks banged-up, Fung's gymnastic suit and ribbons, and a giant pair of sneakers that Zach Edey wore while playing for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA! Edey's mother is the daughter of Chinese immigrants in Toronto.

There's also some other Asian artists whose work are in the show. Visitors are first greeted by an indoor tennis table that has the words "Tomorrow Is The Question" in caps by Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. I've seen his work over the years, with other tennis tables written with "Demain Est La Question".

Tiravanija's thought-provoking message

But most interesting are Tiravanija's works where he takes newspapers from a specific city and writes thought-provoking messages. 

The first and most memorable one I saw at Art Basel Hong Kong one year featured the message, "Freedom Cannot Be Simulated" written on the pages of the South China Morning Post newspaper.

There's also a funny animation called "Furry Ball" about what happens to a golf ball by Hong Kong artist Wong Ping, and photographs of young female field hockey players by Canadian-Malaysian artist Felicia Chang.

Momentum: Power and Identity in Sports is on until July 19, 2026.

Chinese Canadian Museum

51 East Pender Street

Vancouver

 

Vancouver Chinatown's Largest Restaurant Shutters

Floata has been struggling financially since the pandemic

It was a shock to hear on Monday that Floata Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown was closed.

Maybe it wasn't a surprise after all, since it was either jam packed during Chinese New Year banquets and fundraising dinners for organisations like Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, the Chinese Canadian Museum and Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden, or it was practically dead.

The 1,000 seat restaurant opened in 1995

There were occasions I have come to Floata for dinner and there were only two tables occupied, or dim sum for lunch and a fraction of the 1,000-seat restaurant occupied. 

Floata was opened in 1995 and was the largest restaurant in Chinatown. A family friend held their wedding banquet here, occupying the entire place. At fundraisers, politicians from three levels of government, and of all stripes came here to "press the flesh" with the Chinese community.

But since the Covid-19 pandemic, Floata has been struggling to pay the rent, apparently owing some $300,000. The space is owned by the City of Vancouver and one wonders why it didn't give the restaurant an opportunity to devise a payment scheme.

As community leader Fred Lee said to me tonight, there will never be another restaurant of this size in Chinatown again; and where are groups in the community going to hold their fundraising dinners now? It would be so odd to go to a restaurant in Richmond...

Place either jam packed or practically empty

Lee also feels sad for the staff who have worked there for so long, wondering what will happen to them. 

While this is another sign that Chinatown is still struggling to bring people back to the neighbourhood, we have to honestly say Floata didn't serve the best Chinese food!

But it was a place that brought people together, and this giant space is gone... unless someone has a brilliant plan to remake it into something new...

Museum Celebrates Cantopop with Fundraiser

Museum CEO Melissa Lee addressed attendees

The Chinese Canadian Museum will celebrate its second anniversary on Tuesday, and the other day I attended Spark Community Dinner fundraising gala at Floata Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown. 

Seven hundred and fifty people were in attendance, and it was quite the struggle to meet and greet people as tables and chairs were close together. The numbered tables were randomly placed all over the room which made it hard for me to find where I was sitting!

Nevertheless, it was good to see a handful of familiar faces and meet new ones, and some politicians who came out in force, including Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, Hong Kong-born Prince George Mayor Simon Yu, federal, provincial and municipal politicians too.

My friend sitting next to me remarked how it was only in Chinese gatherings were politicians given a lot of time to speak on stage (while everyone else in the room chatted); I suggested perhaps because the hosts were reliant on them for donations and handouts?

A lot of speeches were made before the evening finally kicked off, and perhaps the highlight was Lawrence Mok, who won a karaoke competition, sang two songs that brought everyone back to 1980s Cantopop with Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing's Monica. Everyone remarked how laser discs, reminders of karaoke machines, were suspended from the ceiling. 

Wish Mok could have sang a few more songs to keep the lively atmosphere going, because the tone shifted to how there were 750 people in the room and we all had to chip in to keep the museum going.

First was a live auction that was not particularly exciting partly because the prizes didn't quite match the crowd, and the starting bids were stratospheric. Oh and every single person had their own personal paddle too. Luckily these were all sold. 

Then if that wasn't enough, the emcee Fred Lee suggested that it was time that people start matching donations. MLA George Chow wasn't able to make the dinner, but pledged CA$10,000 and challenged others to do the same. Eventually four others raised their hands and gave $10K each.

That wasn't all -- Lee began soliciting for $5,000 donations, then $2,500, $1,000, and $500. When he got to the last amount of $250, two people at my table shot their paddles up, and I followed suit. 

But there needs to be an incentive to get people to donate -- just promising a tax receipt isn't a good reason. How about offering two free admission tickets, T-shirts, a sneak preview to something or an exclusive event? 

In the end the museum managed to raise over $300,000, but is that enough to keep this cultural institution going? We don't want to see it shutter either...

Celebrating the Museum's First Birthday

Did tonight's event spark serious donations for the museum?

This evening the Chinese Canadian Museum held a low-key fundraising dinner at Floata Seafood Restaurant in Vancouver's Chinatown. The event marks the one-year anniversary of the museum's opening, which also coincided with the 100th anniversary of the 1923 Exclusion Act, when the Canadian government refused the entry of ethnic Chinese people into the country until 1947.

Tonight's event was called Spark Community Dinner and it had all the trappings of a big gala -- the invitation encouraged people to wear Chinese outfits, and some 800 people turned out including politicians from all three levels of government. Interesting to note Premier David Eby was not available, nor was Mayor Ken Sim... was he at the Missy Elliott concert tonight?

We were all starving by the time dinner started; two people at our table didn't show up and then two more people left half way -- Elenore Sturko who is a provincial-level politician and her aide -- so only six of us had food for 10 people. 

The museum needed to raise money to keep itself going, but a raffle where C$50 for three tickets isn't going to raise a lot of cash. The museum was too shy to ask for more money beyond the raffle and individual donations.

But then Bob Rennie stepped up. He is the real estate marketer who bought the Yip Sang building, spent C$22 million to renovate it and then the provincial government shelled out C$25.5 million to purchase the building, the oldest one in Chinatown.

Rennie came on stage and immediately got down to business. He spontaneously asked the biggest sponsor of the dinner, Onni Group onto the stage and said that if he himself donated C$10,000, would Onni do the same? 

They immediately had C$20,000 and now could 40 individuals donate C$500 each? or each person in the room donate C$25?

Rennie pointed out that the infighting in Chinatown had to stop, "or Hastings is going to win," he said, referring to the Downtown Eastside which is filled with homeless people and drug addicts.

That got a lot of applause. Then Rennie added he was running for mayor, which got him more applause but then he said he was just joking.

Nevertheless it took a gweilo, a non-Chinese to tell a room full of Chinese people to put their differences aside and get their act together to fight for Chinatown. Part of it is generational, but mostly it's political. He's right, but will they listen? 

And did the museum get C$40,000 by the end of the evening? 

Lighting up Chinatown

There will be 16 of these neon signs installed

Vancouver's Chinatown looks brighter in the run-up to the Lunar New Year on February 10. Mayor Ken Sim unveiled a neon sign featuring a dragon that are being installed on the street lamp posts on East Pender Street between Main and Carrall streets.

In total there will be 16 of these neon signs just in time for the Year of the Dragon.

Mayor Sim unveiled the design for CNY

The initiative was from the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Association, which began planning this idea two years ago. 

"Chinatown used to be famous for its neon signs and its unique designs. And it really is an homage to the past. Even though it took all that time to get here, it's appropriate that it comes out at the start of the new Year of the Dragon," said Jordan Eng, president of the Vancouver Chinatown BIA.

He hopes the signs will stay up for at least six months, and possibly remain a permanent fixture.

"It'd be nice to have something on a more permanent basis, just because of the amount of time it takes to produce and go through the process to get it certified, and all the engineering effort that goes into it to get it to where we finally installed it," Eng said.

The Lunar New Year will be celebrated in Chinatown on Sunday, February 11 with a multicultural parade through the area. Places like the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden and the Chinese Canadian Museum will have various workshops and demonstrations, from lion dances and calligraphy lessons, wood block prints and street food.

East Pender Street with neon dragon signs

Here's to hoping these new light fixtures not only hark back to Chinatown's glory days, but also inspire people to come back to the neighbourhood more often.

A New Landmark in Chinatown

Eight lions ready to open the museum

Today was a momentous occasion -- the opening of the first national Chinese-Canadian museum in Vancouver's Chinatown. 

Some 300 guests assembled on East Pender Street where the museum is, across from the Chinese Cultural Centre. The street was blocked off for the event, with police cars and officers making sure the riff raff were kept out.

Eby speaking at the opening ceremony

Numerous dignitaries were there, from federal, provincial and municipal, all having played some role in helping launch the museum, along with wealthy donors, and who's who of Chinatown.

For the politicians who spoke, it was an opportunity to recount their political role in getting the museum off the ground, with much gratitude to former BC premier John Horgan who supported it with lots of funding to purchase the building, renovate and keep it going.

Mayor Ken Sim swaggered on stage and challenged people in the audience not to be moved by the inaugural exhibit, which marks the 100th anniversary of the 1923 Exclusion Act, a dark period in Canadian history when the Chinese were singled out for excessive documentation.

The show features hundreds of CIs or Chinese Immigration certificates that have black and white photographs of people, men, women and children who not only came from China but also born in Canada. In total just under 60,000 Chinese were registered with the Canadian government.

Mel Yip lived at Wing Sang building

The building the museum is housed in is also full of meaning. It is the Wing Sang building, the oldest in Chinatown. It was owned by Yip Sang, a young man from southern China who first tried to make his fortune in California, and then went up north to British Columbia and eventually settled in Vancouver's Chinatown.

Yip was considered the unofficial mayor of the neighbourhood and was so successful that he had three wives and 23 children. They all lived together in the back of the Wing Sang building and one of Yip's grandsons, Mel Yip remembers being there for the first 15 years of his life.

He talks fondly of never not having playmates around, rollerskating down Columbia Street and going to the movies with his numerous cousins.

Yip Sang died in 1927 just as the Great Depression was coming. While the rest of the family continued to live there, they vacated the building in the early 2000s due to disrepair.

Condo marketer supremo Bob Rennie bought the Wing Sang building in 2004 and many feared he would tear it down, but he poured money into it to fix it up structurally and to make it almost museum quality to showcase his massive art collection. Upstairs he kept one room intact -- the small schoolroom where the Yip children were educated by tutors hired from Hong Kong.

Catherine Clement gives media a tour of the show

He then sold the building to the museum for less than what he paid to renovate it and even donated money too, which is why Mayor Sim joked Rennie made the worst business decision when he sold the building. Har har...

Hopefully the new museum will not only be a new landmark in Chinatown, but also be a place to exchange ideas and discuss what it means to be Chinese-Canadian today, not just in the past.

Chinese Canadian Museum

51 East Pender Street

Vancouver, BC

(604) 262 0990