By Michelle da Silva for Now Toronto on January 25, 2017
Note: this article is not specifically focused on Vancouver’s Chinatown, but it is very relevant and features our very own Kevin Huang.
“So many of us who grew up here have some internal battles of who we are and what being Chinese Canadian means,” Huang says. “That’s shifting as we gain more visibility in shows like Fresh Off The Boat and Kim’s Convenience, but there’s still room for localized history, and that’s sort of the purpose of Chinatown.”
The sense of familiarity I experience when exploring Chinatowns in every city I’ve lived in and visited informs my identity. As with Wong and Yu and millions of others, the smells and sounds not only remind me of home, but of who I am.
The distinctiveness of Chinatown is that it’s historical as much as it is in flux, rooted in a tradition that gets rebuilt with each new generation. It’s not as clean as Yorkville or as trendy as West Queen West or as flashy as Yonge and Dundas, but there’s something about it you can’t get anywhere else in Toronto. It’s what Wong missed most while living in Paris.
“I used to be ashamed of my background, but now I own it, I embrace it and I feel good about it,” he says. “Chinatown reflects that.
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