Chinatown Collective

Conversations between Chinatown’s tangible and intangible heritage

Cecilia Lo

Inge Roecker    Douglas Robb    Helen Ma    Karen Wan-Gauthier    Wan Qi

This thesis seeks to represent the relationships between culture, heritage and identity through storytelling.

As a first generation Chinese-Canadian settler immigrant, I look to investigate the forces of the built environment that has shaped my personal identity and the forces that are shaping others perception of my identity. I situate my investigation in the context of North American Chinatowns, one of the most glaring examples of a Chinese-Canadian space.

I use storytelling to explore how heritage can be spatialized and how its representation reframes culture and identity. Stories take us places, they allow us to understand different perspectives, memories, becomings and truths. It is through this story that Chinatown is explored as a place. Chinatowns are seen, felt, heard, smelt, understood and lived in through memories, meaning, culture and people. Its meaning is continually being written and rewritten. Its understanding changes as the community's perspectives continually diverge and converge.

The story of Chinatown is a collective. 

This graphic novel is just one fragment of a collective memoir.