The School Room

Mar 13 2025 18 ep. 25 mins 6
The School Room Podcast artwork

Recorded inside the historic school room in the Wing Sang Building, The School Room shares stories connected to the Chinese Canadian Museum’s exhibitions and programming. Join host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee, CEO of the Chinese Canadian Museum, and a special guest each month as they go in-depth on Chinese Canadian experiences.

  Education
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Janet Wang | Making Art in Chinatown About Chinatown

Mar 13 2025 25 mins  
A second-generation settler of Chinese heritage, Janet Wang is a Vancouver-based visual artist and educator working within a traditional painting practice, integrated with sculptural installation practices and digital media. Her creations explore the construction of identity through the appropriation and disruption of social patterns and familiar gestures. Wang pays homage to the c

Morris Lum | Behind the Scenes: The Photography of C.B. Wand

Feb 13 2025 18 mins  
Morris Lum is a Trinidadian-born photographer and artist whose work explores the hybrid nature of the Chinese-Canadian community through photography, form and documentary practices. His work also examines the ways in which Chinese history is represented in the media and archival material. Currently based in Mississauga, Ontario, Lum’s work has been exhibited and screened across C

Karen Tam | “Made in China”: The Chinatown Curio Shop

Jan 30 2025 14 mins  
Karen Tam is a Montreal-based artist and curator whose research focuses on the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities. In her installations, she recreates Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops and other sites of cultural encounters. Tam’s deep engagement with archival and collections research has also led her to question whose histories

Marjorie Young | Chinatown Connections: Strathcona and Beyond

Dec 26 2024 23 mins  
Strathcona is Vancouver’s oldest residential neighbourhood. Bordering Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside, it has historically been home to the working class, including the Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, Irish, Ukrainian, and Black communities. While gentrification has caused significant change and displacement of some of these communities, the neighbourhood’s diverse makeup contin

Dianne Leong Man | Connected Across Oceans: The South African Chinese Diaspora

Nov 27 2024 32 mins  
How do Chinese diasporic experiences in South Africa differ from those in Canada? In this episode, Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee sits down with Dianne Leong Man, co-author of "Colour, Confusion, and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa", to learn about the country with the highest population of Chinese living in Africa and its community. They discuss the reasons for ear

Janet Bradley Worthington | Family Separation: The Story of Mah Tin Yick and the Oriental Home and School

Oct 25 2024 30 mins  
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 is the only immigration law in Canadian history to have prevented a particular group from entering the country on the basis of race, specifically barring people of Chinese descent from legally entering Canada from 1923 until 1947 with very few exceptions. Preventing entry denied many prospective Chinese people opportunities for new experiences and

Lillian Dyck | Stubborn Advocacy: Growing up Chinese-Indigenous

Sep 23 2024 27 mins  
Dr. Lillian Eva Quan Dyck’s life has been one of many firsts. The first Indigenous female senator, first Canadian-born senator of Chinese descent, and first Indigenous woman in Canada to earn a PhD in science. Lillian has blazed trails in the sciences and Senate for her work in reforming the Criminal Code to consider harsher penalties for crimes against Indigenous women, the rest

Lori Fung | Olympic History: The First Chinese Canadian Gold Medalist

Aug 09 2024 26 mins  
The Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984 marked the first time an Olympic gold medal was awarded to a Chinese Canadian athlete. Lori Fung’s gold in the newly debuted sport of rhythmic gymnastics not only made history as the first Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadian gold medalist, but also as the first ever rhythmic gymnastics gold medalist. On this episode, Lori talks growing u

Chun Hon Chan: The First Chinese Canadian Olympian

Jul 19 2024 29 mins  
Chun Hon Chan was the first Chinese Canadian to compete in the Olympic Games, participating in the weightlifting competitions at the Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972 Summer Games. Standing at just 5'2" and weighing in at 120 pounds, his appearance and strength defied expectations during a time when Chinese men were stereotyped as physically weak. On this episode of the School Room,

Shelley Niro | Cafe Daughter: A Story of Chinese-Cree Identity

Jun 26 2024 18 mins  
Shelley Niro (Mohawk) is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist, best known for her work in photography, painting, sculpting, beadwork, multimedia, and independent film. On this special episode celebrating National Indigenous History Month, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee and Shelley discuss the challenges surrounding representations of Indigenous peoples, stereotypes, and identity in