My journey as an activist: Chinatown Revitalization Part 1

My relationship with Chinatown began as a child. I am a born and raised Edmontonian with a Chinese background, and I grew up closely with the values and traditions of my heritage. To support this, I often went to Chinatown, which became a growing ground for me. From eating dim sum to watching the lion dances during Chinese New Year, I became very familiar with the area, and even as I grew older and visited it less often, it remained close to my heart. As such, I was always proud of my identity; I never viewed my racialized identity as a weakness.

However, a chilling double homicide of two Asian men in Chinatown on May 18, 2022, shook up my world. This hit particularly close to home as those two men were acquaintances of my parents, two men who were the fathers, the sons and the friends of others. And it could’ve been mine or the loved ones of others from my community. Asian hate has always existed; cases of systemic racism, from microaggressive comments to blatant disgust, preexisted the murders. Power has always been institutionalized in a way to benefit some and disenfranchise many others. The model minority myth has also contributed to the narrative of Asians being timid and unlikely to speak up, thus further marginalizing the community. But the pandemic dramatically exacerbated these issues, as people equated Asian peoples to the virus. In 2021 only, of 943 reports of racism across Canada, 51% of them came from East Asians.

This case provoked the realization that if I sit complicit with the expectation that others will deal with these issues, others will likely follow suit, and in the end, no one will take a stand. I had the epiphany that I didn’t have to wait; I could do something about these issues. This became the catalyst that led me on my journey in activism.

Of course, Asian hate is a huge issue embroiled in years of colonial rhetoric, so helping to address this at the local level became an attainable goal. The homicides demonstrated the ripples that racism can cause: people fear Chinatown, believing it to be unsafe for them. As a result, people neglect and avoid engaging with the area and, in its wake, leaves businesses struggling to make ends meet. Ultimately, vibrancy and a vital cultural space are lost, which cycles back and contributes to Chinatown’s deterioration. My understanding and knowledge of issues can be attributed in part to my parents’ involvement with Chinatown revitalization groups, such as the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative and Chinatown and Area Business Association. Their civic engagement helped give me the background to tackle such issues as a youth leader.

To be frank, while these factors facilitated my start in activism, I would say, as a whole, it was kind of accidental. Back in March of 2022, I became president of the KGK: East Asian Studies Undergraduate Students’ Association after being asked to run as a favour for a friend. Prior to my term, the club was a conversation club that didn’t extend far beyond that. However, I saw the club as an opportunity to elevate it into a platform to bring awareness to the issues of Asian racism.

I started my work primarily on engagement-based projects. One of the most prolific of the KGK’s accomplishments has to be the Lunar New Year Festival. Through this event, we were able to give a platform to local Asian organizations and businesses while showcasing the beauty and diversity of Asian cultures to a youth population. It also gave us the opportunity to spread awareness of the Chinatown Revitalization efforts and drew great success. Beyond this, anti-racism messaging has remained a prevalent part of our mission as an organization, and it was through this organization that I’ve been able to interact with youth as a leader in the field.

But even with these achievements, I knew I needed to take the next step in order to grow further and develop my skills beyond what I could learn on my own. Thus, I joined the Canadian Race Relations Foundation’s Anti-Racist Youth Lab as a representative from Alberta. This opportunity has allowed me to grow exponentially as a leader by learning skills like how to build capacity as a leader and create lasting initiatives that will continue even if I’m gone. It also allowed me to meet and connect with youth leaders across Canada, strengthening my network and empowering me with the knowledge that many others stand in solidarity with me in the fight for a better world.

With the work I’ve accumulated thus far, I decided to level up and venture into policy-based work; doing so would allow me to better understand legislative processes and perhaps contribute in a way that could enact change at a more systemic level. I stumbled upon the opportunity to join the Civic Youth Fellowship for the City of Edmonton, where I am undergoing training to eventually work with city offices on a project of interest. In my case, I plan to conduct jurisdictional scans of Chinatowns across Canada to better understand the lived experiences of individuals living in similar spaces and to gain insight into what issues have existed across these Chinatowns. In doing so, the goal is to find possible solutions that can be implemented in our local context and provide a brief that can be utilized for further work in the future.

And nowadays, as I’ve come into my own and built myself up as an activist in the field, I even have the opportunity to share my story and my insight with others through speaking at events and being a panellist discussing these issues, such as the Chinese Benevolent Association Youth Council’s Speaker Series! Having the opportunity to speak alongside other leaders, share my ideas on youth mobilization in social change and interact with peers is something that I take great pride in. In doing so, my hope is to possibly inspire others to take their first steps down this path and begin their own journeys as activists.

As for the future? Who knows? What I do know is that activism has become an integral and fulfilling part of my life and that I will continue to engage in it, whether it becomes a more direct aspect of my career or not. The experiences I’ve made, the people I’ve met and the impact I’ve contributed to have shaped my identity for the better.

With that being said, stay tuned for the next part of this series, where I go further into depth about what civic engagement can involve and how you can incorporate it into your own life!