Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver will be first to focus on Chinese-Canadians and their history

The museum, in a 133-year-old building once home to a Chinese businessman, his three wives and 23 children, is set to open in summer 2023

Its CEO calls it a ‘once in a lifetime’ chance to tell her people’s story; the first exhibition will focus on institutional racism targeting early Chinese migrants

4-MIN READ4-MIN

The Wing Sang Building, home of the new Chinese Canadian Museum, is the oldest building in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Photo: Chinese Canadian Museum

Published: 7:45am, 26 Nov 2022Updated: 7:58am, 26 Nov 2022

When the Chinese Canadian Museum was looking for a space, the instinctive choice was to set up shop in the oldest building in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

But the building was owned and occupied by the city’s top real estate marketer, Bob Rennie, who bought it in 2004 and spent C$22 million (about US$18 million at the time) and five years to renovate part of it as an exhibition space for his vast art collection.

However, a deal was struck, and in February this year the British Columbia provincial government helped buy the building for C$27.5 million (US$20.6 million). Rennie donated C$7.8 million to help get the museum up and running.

The museum is the first in Canada to focus on Chinese-Canadians in the country.

“We are based in Chinatown, and we’re committed to Chinatown revitalisation, but we also have a provincial mandate,” says Melissa Karmen Lee, the museum’s CEO. “So we currently have an exhibition in Victoria’s Fan Tan Alley [the Chinatown neighbourhood of British Columbia’s provincial capital Victoria]. And we are committed to the different Chinese communities across Canada.”

Melissa Karmen Lee, CEO of the new Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Photo: Chinese Canadian Museum

Although the museum doesn’t open until summer 2023, it has already begun holding exhibitions, such as the one in Victoria, and another a few doors down from the museum, called “A Seat at the Table”.