“Saltwater City” – The Beginnings with Paul Yee

The Chinese Canadian Museum is proud to support “Saltwater City” – The Beginnings with Paul Yee.

Join the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC (CCHSBC) for a special evening reflecting on and celebrating the work of acclaimed writer, archivist, historian, and 2020 CCHSBC Honouree Paul Yee. Paul will take us back to the beginnings of the “Saltwater City” exhibition he curated in 1986 which was featured at the Chinese Cultural Centre as part of Vancouver’s centennial celebrations. “Saltwater City” was the first exhibition to showcase artifacts, oral histories, and written records of Chinese Canadians living in Vancouver in the 19th and 20th centuries. His subsequent publication “Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver” (1988) won the Vancouver Book Award in 1989.

Speaking virtually from Toronto, Paul will also have a conversation with Jeffrey Wong from the Wong’s Benevolent Association of Vancouver. They will explore Wong’s journey to document traditional practices in the association, archive generations of aging materials, and activate the society’s buildings in Chinatown with cultural activities.