Media Releases

Revisiting Chinese Canadian communities

September 14, 2010

TORONTO, ON – Five dis­tin­guished schol­ars, includ­ing Sen­a­tor Vivi­enne Poy, Pro­fes­sors David Lai, Eric Fong, Jack Leong and Joseph Wong, to engage in a pan­el dis­cus­sion on Chi­nese Arch­ways, the chal­lenges of social inte­gra­tion and res­i­den­tial co-eth­nic clus­ter­ing of Chi­nese in Toron­to, on Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 16, 2010 at the Richard Charles Lee Cana­da Hong Kong Library, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.

DISCUSSION TOPICS

1. Chi­nese Gate­ways in Chi­na and Cana­da

Dr. David Chuanyan Lai, Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus of Geog­ra­phy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vic­to­ria, in B.C., is a promi­nent schol­ar on the geog­ra­phy of Chi­na­towns and rede­vel­op­ment projects across North Amer­i­ca.  He notes that the free-stand­ing “Chi­nese Arch” or gate­way, has a par­tic­u­lar func­tion and con­struc­tion in the estab­lish­ment of a Chi­na­town and reflects the socio-cul­tur­al her­itage of its peo­ple. “The Chi­nese Arch is not an arch archi­tec­tural­ly, but instead is a free-stand­ing gate­way.” Explains Dr. Lai.

2. Res­i­den­tial Clus­ter­ing of Chi­nese in Toron­to

Dr. Eric Fong, Pro­fes­sor of Soci­ol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, talks about his study of immi­grant clus­ters in co-eth­nic neigh­bour­hoods. He claims that co-eth­nic pref­er­ence is direct­ly relat­ed to co-eth­nic clus­ter­ing of Chi­nese when income and resources are con­sid­ered.  With no rela­tion to the eco­nom­ic resources of immi­grants, lev­els of co-eth­nic clus­ter­ing are irrel­e­vant.

3. Chal­lenges of Social Inte­gra­tion for Chi­nese Immi­grants

Dr. Jack Leong, the Direc­tor of the Richard Charles Lee Cana­da-Hong Kong Library, dis­cuss­es his find­ings about the lev­el of social cohe­sion of the Chi­nese immi­grant com­mu­ni­ty in Cana­da and their expe­ri­ence of dis­crim­i­na­tion and inequal­i­ty, and how these chal­lenges could be over­come in the con­text of a mul­ti­cul­tur­al soci­ety.

Dis­cus­sant

Dr. Joseph Wong, Direc­tor of the Asian Insti­tute at the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs.

Open­ing remarks by the Hon­ourable Sen­a­tor Vivi­enne Poy.

Book dona­tion cer­e­mo­ny with Dr. David Chuanyan Lai and Ms Car­ole Moore, Chief Librar­i­an of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.

Light refresh­ments.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHAT: Pan­el dis­cus­sion: Revis­it­ing Chi­nese Cana­di­an Com­mu­ni­ties

WHEN: Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 16, 2010 from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

WHERE: Richard Charles Lee Cana­da-Hong Kong Library,

130 St. George Street, Rm. 8001

-30-

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Dr. Jack Leong
416–946-3892
jack.leong@utoronto.ca