“Activating Food”: Cultivating Culture & Delivering Connections
—A Panel Inspired by the Exhibition “A Seat at the Table” and Featuring Activists and Researchers from Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Community—
How can museums navigate the mobilities of living foodways and intergenerational connections in a place like Vancouver’s Chinatown? How are places and intersections shaped by the activisms and lives of those who cultivate and deliver culturally appropriate foodstuffs? How do gardens, food couriers, and the restaurant industry intersect in ways that shape community connections? These and other questions will be addressed by a panel of community activists and researchers who mobilize museum practices to meet the needs of this dynamic intersection between peoples, places, and foodways.
The panel is inspired by “A Seat at the Table”, an exhibition co-curated by Denise Fong, Viviane Gosselin, and Henry Yu. The collaboration between the Museum of Vancouver and the University of British Columbia challenged the physical and intellectual boundaries of the museum to tell historical and contemporary stories of cultural growth, resilience, and the foodways underpinning the Chinese Canadian community in Vancouver.
Please join us for this Zoom webinar on Thursday, April 29th from (12:00-2:00) PDT / (3:00-5:00) EDT. Chaired by Henry Yu of the University of British Columbia, and moderated by Toronto Chinatown historian and author Arlene Chan, the panel will include “A Seat at the Table” exhibition co-curator Denise Fong (UBC) and programmer Jenny Lu (UBC); Christy Fong—co-director of the 2016 documentary film Under Fire: Inside a Chinese Roasted Meats Shop in Vancouver; representatives of the hua foundation, which works on food access and security across spaces and generations; and Queer and Trans Chinatown Youth activist volunteers who operate a mobile food delivery service bringing culturally-appropriate foods to seniors in a low-income neighbourhood in Vancouver's Chinese Canadian community.
This panel has been co-developed by the Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies at the University of British Columbia; Master of Museum Studies, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto; and the Culinaria Research Centre, University of Toronto, Scarborough. We are grateful to our community partners in Toronto and Vancouver for their generous sharing of their stories, experiences, and time.
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/activating-food-cultivating-culture-delivering-connections-tickets-149572524447. *Please note that this session will be recorded and circulated publicly.