Blog # 117…May 2021
Early in 2020, around the time rumours of the corona
virus started creeping into our consciousness, I was on a Toronto street car
and saw a couple of people move away from an Asian woman, one even pulling her
coat collar up over her mouth and nose -
I’m sure the woman noticed too. It
was the first of many such incidents, some much more direct and hurtful. And tragically, six Asian women were targeted and murdered in Atlanta by a white man
earlier this year. The pandemic did originate in Wuhan, China, drastically
affecting their population before moving on to us. Systemic racism dates back a couple
of centuries and has always lurked just below the surface; it’s now raised its
ugly head and become part of a public discourse.
My friend Margaret,who was born in Seattle of Japanese parents, reports verbal abuse being hurled by young men passing her house in a car…not brave enough to confront a tiny, solitary 90 year old woman in person! She describes this and her family’s experience being interned during WWll in her wonderful video An Extraordinary Gift. Take a look and see what bravery looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=TLGGExz5mH4vjZwxMTAyMjAyMQ&v=FxikA8Akk7E&feature=emb_title
Asian artists have stepped forward to confront the situation with political expression, forming Tea Base, an arts collective to explore experiences of anti-Asian racism as well as the joy of community. Three Toronto artists with connections to Chinatown use their art to explore aspects of their identity, being perceived as foreign although they may be, feel and identify as Canadian.
The Anti-Displacement Garden created an
intergenerational neighbourhood hub in the lower courtyard of the Chinatown
Centre mall, replacing a pile of bricks with zucchini, corn, broccoli, lemongrass,
bok choy, mint and an array of herbs. Tea Base, located inside the mall, is
co-directed by conceptual artist Florence Yee (a third generation Canadian) who
documented the lush garden last summer and had the images printed on white
cotton. Yee says ”The garden is an example of how taking care of a space
creates some connections between us, the neighbouring businesses and the people
that come by.”
Photographer Morris Lum has travelled across North
America recording the unique architecture and community institutions in cities
with a significant Chinatown - restaurants, mom and pop stores and cultural
hubs that may be invisible to passersby. His goal is to document how gentrification,
economic challenges and settlement trends of more recent Chinese immigrants are
affecting the look and feel of these neighbourhoods. Lum, who was born inTrinidad and grew up in Mississauga,
uses his lens to focus on these community institutions before they disappear,
providing an appreciation for how these unique but similar Chinatowns made it easier for future
generations to move to North America.
Christie Jia Wen Carriere, the other director of Tea Base, is a painter and
illustrator who uses her art to explore her Chinese-Canadian identity, the long
history of sexualizing Asian women and cultural appropriation. In her more
recent work, The Chinatown Mall Project she’s finding ways to showcase joy
within the Chinese community and Chinatown. A series of vibrant paintings
feature shopkeepers in the Mall surrounded by the special wares they sell –
jade, traditional Chinese herbs or Hello-Kitty branded snacks. Pain and trauma
are under the surface, but survival and joy
shine through.
Inspiration for this
blog came from a piece sponsored by the Goethe Institute and featured in The
Kensington Issue of the West End Phoenix.
WEP is a great indie newspaper, leaning to the west and the left, on
issues that concern us all. Check it out
at www.westendphoenix.com and read the
whole piece - Political Expression…or better yet subscribe, you won’t regret
it.
I’m sending this on May 1, International Workers’ Day, I’ve already expressed my concerns about workers. So, on a lighter note - since I've been able to walk around with my new hip, I've been delighted by the whimsy of the many fairy doors comceived and constructed by my neighbours.
THANKS, whoever you are!
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