The concern over the future of Chinatown has been felt in Calgary, as well as Chinatowns across Canada and the United States.
With a protest in 2016 over the proposal of a new building complex, community members in Calgary, along with the city itself made a concentrated effort with the Tomorrow’s Chinatown Advisory Group that over a two-year period put together a new Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) and Cultural Plan that will serve to guide development in the neighbourhood going forward.
(Full disclosure: I served as a member of the Tomorrow’s Chinatown Advisory Group and continue to be active in Calgary Chinatown)
While local efforts are being made for preserving Chinatown, similar forces are being felt in Chinatowns across North America, which the film Big Fight in Little Chinatown by director Karen Cho addresses for a wider audience.
“The idea for the film started about 20 years ago when I made the film In the Shadow of Gold Mountain,” says Cho. “I filmed in Vancouver and Montreal, so I knew the communities quite well.”
“Twenty-years later, Chinatowns are in a period of decline, so I wanted to explore disappearing Chinatowns.”
Cho’s family on her Chinese side dates back 5 generations to the early arrivals from China.
Filmed if 5 different Chinatowns, New York, Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and San Francisco, the Chinatowns are facing gentrification, and various pressures from developers and urban renewal projects. The past few years of the Covid pandemic have been hard for all the Chinatowns.
In New York City, there is currently a fight against the building of a 39-storey jail in Manhattan Chinatown.
Cho spoke to owners of legacy businesses, such as the Wing On Wo & Co porcelain shop who is the 5th generation owner of the store.
In Vancouver Chinatown, William Liu gave up a career as an opera singer to takeover business Kai Wai Dim Sum that is affordable to the seniors and community who live nearby and are low-income.
By capturing the stories of Chinatown, it is to preserve in film memories of Chinatown, what is happening in the current times, and the work put into making the places of residence and business viable to newcomers and younger generations of the Chinese and Asian diaspora.
Big Fight in Little Chinatown will be playing as part of the Fascinasian Film Festival which will be in two cities in Winnipeg and Calgary in May. The film will screen in Winnipeg on May 6th at 5:30 pm CDT at the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural & Community Centre.
When in Calgary, the film will be shown at two locations: Calgary Central Library on May 14 at 3:30 pm MST, and at Bù Vintage Shoppe on May 16 at 6 pm.
For more information on the festival visit www.fascinasian.ca