(NOT) MADE IN CHINA – The Work of Migration Series

Artists: Johnson Chan, Viola Chan, Eugene Lin, Nancy Fong, Robert Parungao, Heather Joan Tam, Levan Trieu, Araya Vivorakij, Zizian Zhong

Seeing Past Our Skin is a collective self-portrait of eight self-identified Chinese Canadians, represented through a selection of personal effects. Working against the simplistic homogenization and racialization of peoples who are read socially as ethnically Chinese, 8 Chinese Canadians identifies the so-named individuals not through widely recognized Chinese iconographies, motifs, and apparent racial markers, but by objects that reveal traces of their owners’ intellectual interests, cultural backgrounds, hobbies and talents, interpersonal relationships, social and professional networks, and rights and privileges; aspects of our lives that shape our complex, shifting identities.

Twospeak is a two-channel audio recording that attempts to correct an omission in a local Canadian historical narrative. Using material from former Bowen Island Historian Bob Cathro’s research into a 1910 explosion at Bowen’s Tunstall Bay Western Explosives Factory, including the previously omitted names of the Chinese Canadian workers killed in the explosion, this sound piece exposes the racist and racializing terminology used in the original Vancouver Daily Province article and inserts the five men’s names into this re-imagined news report in a retroactive effort to recognize the workers’ dignity and individuality.

Artist Talk
November 7, 6-7pm, Gallery Gachet
Members of New Voices will discuss the process behind the creation of Twospeak and the challenges encountered in attempting to correct a historical narrative using incomplete historical records and reports.

Book Re-Launch
November 25, 1pm, Vancouver Museum
“NEW VOICES: An Anthology’ Art & Writing by Chinese Canadians of Post-1967 Diaspora in Lower Mainland BC. Plus celebrate a book launch of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC (CCHS), and tour the Museum’s Maleta display.