{"id":68998,"date":"2023-02-12T16:41:04","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T23:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=68998"},"modified":"2023-02-12T16:41:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-12T23:41:04","slug":"s1-stories-from-chinatown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/02\/12\/s1-stories-from-chinatown\/","title":{"rendered":"We Were and Still Are Here: The Story of Chinatown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Down Memory Lane:<\/strong> Daisy Eng, left, and Carolyne Walker, right, are a mother and daughter in Calgary, Alta., who enjoy spending their time learning about Chinese history. Eng and Walker were at the Gasoline Alley Museum on Jan. 22, 2023, browsing through the museum and reliving history as they share first-hand experiences of their early arrivals in Chinatown. (Melodie Mutombo\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span> he exhibit We Were Here: Stories from Early Chinatown <\/a>takes Calgarians on a historic journey exploring the hardships of Chinese newcomers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Gasoline Alley Museum<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is hosting a four-month exhibition dedicated to educating Calgarians about the history of early Chinese residents in <\/span>Chinatown.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“I like that the Chinese culture is being taught to other cultures,\u201d\u00a0 said Bin Feng, a recent immigrant to Canada and volunteer at the Gasoline Alley museum. \u201cIt is not only limited to Europeans, as we all contributed to the history of Canada.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Feng is among many others at the museum including storyteller\u00a0<\/span>Lexie Angelo<\/span><\/a>, illustrator <\/span>Jarett Sitter <\/span><\/a>and staff and organizers who hope this exhibition will serve as a reminder that Chinatown and its people are a vital part of Calgary’s downtown history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother is Chinese, growing up in Chinatown I didn’t think there was enough information out there about the history of the Chinese within Canada,\u201d said illustrator and animator Jarett Sitter. \u201cDespite all the early contributions they made, it was a thing that I wasn’t taught a lot\u2014basically nothing about it in school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sitter also recalls the difficulties he experienced creating visuals for the Chinese exhibition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“One of the challenges with illustrating events associated with that early time period, especially in relation to the Chinese community, is that there’s not a lot of photo documentation I can reference,” said Sitter. \u201cThe history of Chinatown, which is a vital part of what makes up our city and such an important piece of history, isn’t talked about enough.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/span>n the midst of the challenges, Sitter hopes his visuals will <\/span>encourage people to take the initiative to look into the history themselves and listen to the stories of what Chinese people had to endure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daisy Eng, a Chinese Calgarian, also shares a similar struggle being a Chinese Canadian, born and raised in Calgary.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m dealing with stereotypes, dealing with what people perceive as normal, whatever that would be for a Chinese,” said Eng, whose<\/span> grandparents immigrated to Canada during the time of the <\/span>Chinese Exclusion Act<\/span><\/a>. “<\/span>People make assumptions that because you’re not Caucasian, you must be a recent immigrant to Canada, and therefore are not familiar with social norms, societal rules and things that pertain specifically to Calgary. – Daisy Eng<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lexie Angelo, the author behind George Lam’s story, From Canton to Calgary<\/em>, hopes the exhibition will emphasize the importance of educating the youth to preserve Chinatown as the older generations are retiring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Chinatown is not a place that gets to be here forever. It’s always at risk of development. So having the next generation of business owners and people in that area is really important to maintain the parks, heritage, and streets,” said Angelo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The exhibition is located at the Gasoline Alley Museum in Heritage Park and is open to the public until Apr. 30, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Gasoline Alley Museum in Calgary, Alta. is hosting a four-month exhibition dedicated to educating Calgarians about the significant history of early Chinese residents in Chinatown.\u00a0 [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":796,"featured_media":68999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Stories From Chinatown ","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,212,9,13],"tags":[1077,1742,1743],"class_list":{"0":"post-68998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-downtown","9":"category-life","10":"category-news","11":"tag-chinatown","12":"tag-chinesehistory","13":"tag-chinesepeople"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68998"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69467,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68998\/revisions\/69467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}