The School Room

When Walter Wu’s parents enrolled him in swimming lessons at age 7, they never thought that a family hobby would launch one of the most successful careers of a Canadian Paralympic athlete. Born with less than ten percent of his vision, Walter Wu is considered legally blind – a diagnosis he only received at 17 years old. As a Class 13 Para swimmer, Walter is a 14-time medalist across four Paralympi...

Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 is a homegrown collective and archive based in New York City’s Manhattan Chinatown. Started in 2018 by DJ historian yiuyiu 瑶瑶, Chinatown Records has evolved into a collective effort to preserve and bring to life the memories and histories that come with our favourite songs. Tune in to learn more about the work Chinatown Records has been doing in New York Chinatown and...

If you’ve ever wandered through Montréal Chinatown, you’ve likely seen the glowing neon sign of Wing Noodles.  Founded from an import/export shop in 1897 and later reimagined as a noodle factory during WWII, Wing’s became the last remaining Chinese food manufacturer in Montréal Chinatown — and the first producer of fortune cookies in eastern Canada. The Lee family’s business nourished generations...

As 2025 comes to a close, host Melissa Karmen Lee and producer Rosalie Gunawan join forces for a special episode reminiscing on the last two years of The School Room podcast.  Tune in for a journey across Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Australia to look back on some of our favourite stories about overseas Chinese communities that stuck with us. To learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum...

Ann Hui (Hui On-wah) is one of the leading figures who ushered in the Hong Kong New Wave – a new age of Hong Kong cinema that began in 1979. With a career spanning more than 4 decades and 28 feature films, Ann has cemented her name as one of the greats of Chinese language cinema. Her work often focuses on ordinary people and their daily lives, speaking to themes of human consciousness, politics an...

Rainbow Chan is an award-winning vocalist, producer, and multi-disciplinary artist. Since moving to Australia with her family in 1996, Rainbow has built a celebrated career while tracing her maternal roots to Weitou people—one of Hong Kong’s indigenous groups who settled in the region prior to British colonization in 1898. Her creative practice, deeply informed by ideas of homeland and diaspora, h...

Leading up to the handover of Hong Kong from British rule back to Chinese sovereignty between 1984 and 1997, over 300,000 Hong Kong people emigrated to Canada. For them, they not only brought over their families and dreams for a better future, but also the sounds of home through Cantopop and the laserdiscs of their favourite artists came to life. On this episode of the School Room, host Dr. Meliss...

Born in Taiwan and living in Montreal since 2002, Chih-Chien Wang is an artist who uses photography, video and objects and at times integrates text, performance and sound into his work, which explores the ordinary moments of everyday life that reflects his understanding of people, society and the city where he lives. He has shown his work across Canada and the United States. In this episode, learn...

Born in Hong Kong, raised in Lagos and Thunder Bay, Vancouver based artist Howie Tsui works in ink brush, sound sculptures, lenticular lightboxes and installation, constructing tense, fictive environments that undermine venerated art forms and narrative genres, often stemming from the Chinese literati tradition. He employs a stylized form of derisive and exaggerated imagery as a way to satirize an...

Based in Vancouver, Stella Zheng is an artist and illustrator who utilizes a mix of traditional Chinese art-making tools and digital mediums to create illustrations that explore the intricacies of the Chinese diaspora and her identity. She strives to use illustration to present honest, multifaceted, and nuanced representations of Chinese culture that are often ignored. Her previous works include a...

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 canons and tradit...

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 Canada and the Unit...

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 get to be collect...

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 continues to be as evident...

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 early Chinese settl...

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 economic gain in...

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 restoration of Indian...

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 up in East Vancouve...

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, Debbie and Dere...

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 her works, incl...

Charlayne Thornton-Joe is perhaps best known for her stint as a city councilor in Victoria, where she tirelessly advocated for diverse cultural groups, including that of her own Chinese heritage. Today she serves as the Visitor Experience and Facilities Coordinator for the Chinese Canadian Museum’s Victoria exhibition in Fan Tan Alley, working together with a team of dedicated volunteers to uplift...

For many, Newfoundland is not usually the first place that comes to mind when thinking of the Chinese Canadian diaspora. While Canada and the United States closed their doors to Chinese immigration until the 1940s, Newfoundland, still a British colony, was the last place in North America to remain open to Chinese, albeit immigration came with a hefty head tax as an entry fee. Gordon Jin, president...

What does it mean to serve your community? On this International Women’s Day special episode, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee sits down with Arlene Chan, author, historian, activist, and daughter of Jean Lumb – the first Chinese Canadian woman to be inducted into the Order of Canada for her own community activism. Tune in to learn about the work these two generations of women have undertaken for the C...

What do a photo album restaurant directory, steamed broccoli, and an autofiction novel have in common? All three were used by William Ping in reconnecting with his late grandfather, William Ping Sr, who was one of about 300 Chinese men to settle in Newfoundland when the Newfoundland Chinese head tax was in effect. On this month’s episode, William Ping, CBC journalist and author of Hollow Bamboo, t...

Chinese Canadian magician Tony Eng (1946-2008) was a beloved fixture in the Victoria, B.C. bar, restaurant, and entertainment scene for more than thirty years. His long list of accomplishments include running his own magic shop that was frequented by locals and tourists alike, establishing his unique magic show that drew inspiration from his Chinese heritage, and mentoring successive generations o...