Ishie Wang: The name behind the face 改寫海外華裔模特兒歷史的王旖溪

You may recognize Ishie Wang’s face immediately: she is one of the prominent Asian models in Canadian advertisements for Roots, Hudson’s Bay, Sporting Life, and The Shopping Channel. From an early age, her family clearly envisioned a cultivated life of aesthetics and artistic appreciation for her. Ishie began learning piano at the age of 3 1/2, studied calligraphy and Chinese painting at the age of 4, and learned erhu at 6 and percussion instruments at 8. By the age of 11, she had completed her Grade 9 Piano certification and was recognized in numerous musical competitions.

Personal Stories, Art and FashionFête ChinoiseJune 7, 2022Asian Representation, Personal Stories, ArtComment

Discovery With Her Camera: Sophia Chew

Currently 18 years of age, Sophia had an interest in the arts since childhood. It was, however, the pandemic that really pushed her into creating pieces when she was at home. In 2015, Sophia’s father gave her a Nikon D60 and lent her his camera gear. Prior to the pandemic, this camera was a constant companion, making an appearance everywhere on trips, hang-outs with friends, and neighbourhood walks.

Long Reads, Personal Stories, Art and FashionFête ChinoiseJune 6, 2022Asian Representation, Art, artists, fashionComment

Conquering hate with art + Love 用愛與藝術征服仇恨 PART No.2

Art reflects our ever-changing culture and has the ability to shift society's values and views. Racism and injustice have been a huge topics during the pandemic, magnified by the heartbreaking discovery of thousands of unmarked childrenís graves at Indigenous residential school sites, the Black Lives Matter movement, and anti-Asian racism, discrimination and violence in North America.

Conquering hate with art + Love 用愛與藝術征服仇恨 PART No.1

Art reflects our ever-changing culture and has the ability to shift society's values and views. Racism and injustice have been a huge topics during the pandemic, magnified by the heartbreaking discovery of thousands of unmarked childrenís graves at Indigenous residential school sites, the Black Lives Matter movement, and anti-Asian racism, discrimination and violence in North America.

Conquering Hate with Art and Love: on FORGIVENESS

In 2008 my mother Isabel Sun Chao and I began a decade-long journey digging into our family’s past, which we recounted in our family memoir Remembering Shanghai. My maternal grandfather Sun Bosheng was born in China in 1894, a year whose cosmological confluences portended conflict, instability and disaster. Two months before his birth, a great fire in Shanghai destroyed over one thousand buildings, and the First Sino-Japanese War broke out shortly after. By all accounts he was born with silver chopsticks; yet war, famine and political upheaval dogged him throughout his life.

Personal Stories, Design DialogueGuest UserMay 16, 2022Asian Representation, Personal Stories, ArtComment

These Eyes of Mine

I am often too focussed on how the world sees me that I sometimes forget to see myself. As a Chinese woman, one of my defining features are my eyes. These are the same eyes that were ridiculed when I was a child. I still remember the chant about them which made me feel ugly. It resides in my mind as the first time I realised I looked different from everyone else. Yet, I now love these imaginative eyes that, when closed, take me to faraway lands and places I never thought I would see. Now, I am proud of these almond eyes, eyes that guide me to paint, draw and create. I cherish them for the beauty that they let me see, in others and over the years, in myself and my journey.

Personal Stories, Art and FashionGuest UserMay 13, 2022Asian Representation, Personal Stories, ArtComment

The Comeback of Chinese-Canadian Music Icon: Wanting Qu 愛上‧曲婉婷

In 2012, her megahit “You Exist In My Song” catapulted her to superstardom, earning her numerous awards such as Best New Artist, Best Music Composer and Best Song from many top Asian platforms. To date, the track’s official music video has over 170 million views on YouTube, a staggering figure that might not even fully reflect her extensive following in China. Capping off her meteoric rise, Wanting performed in front of a live television audience of close to one billion viewers at the 2013 annual Spring Festival Gala, sharing the stage with the legendary Celine Dion.

Personal StoriesFête ChinoiseApril 26, 2022Asian Representation, singer, Music, chinese musicComment

The Inno-Visionary: Kevin Au-Yeung 創新令世界變得更好:歐陽浩東

We wondered aloud how Chinese principles have molded Kevin’s personal journey. Again, he pauses to consider his answer before sharing that his main, guiding sense of duty comes from witnessing how the Chinese community values and cares for seniors. He adds that “While this may not directly affect my business decisions, it moves me deeply as a person. Western communities spend so much time thinking about the future but don’t think about the past enough.” He credits the values that were instilled in him back in Hong Kong in his early days, which is that honouring, revering and respecting seniors is of supreme importance. And that this is something that the younger Chinese generation could do to remember...

Long Reads, Personal StoriesFête ChinoiseApril 19, 2022Asian Representation, BusinessComment

Putting Food and Compassion on the Table: Tina Lee 李佩婷：你吃了嗎？

Tina Lee’s pandemic experience has been all about people. From the thousands who are her work family, to the millions that her twenty-seven stores serve, to her own family at home; every one of these people was the reason Tina persevered and prevailed through the most challenging two years of her career. As CEO of T&T Supermarkets, Tina has faced many hurdles before, but nothing like when COVID-19 entered Canada. Almost overnight, Tina and her grocery staff became frontline workers. And just like all first responders, her employees could not stay at home; instead, they showed up day after day, driven by an overriding sense of civic duty.

Long Reads, Personal Stories, Community & PeopleFête ChinoiseApril 12, 2022Asian Representation, BusinessComment

Manfred Yuen: Daring to Be Different 阮文韜: 敢為人先的建築「覺‧渡」

The theme of this edition of Fête Chinoise resonates strongly with Manfred. He believes that proper perspective is the key to doing things the way they are meant to be. “Because most of us are now accustomed to seeing and feeling designs the wrong way. When judging something, it is common to add external factors into the equation — be it finances, politics or ethnic background for example. If we only relied on our five senses instead, I think we would find everything more enjoyable.”

Long Reads, Personal Stories, History & ArchitectureFête ChinoiseApril 6, 2022Asian Representation, ArchitectureComment

Justin Wu 吳一縉 : Representation in Image Making, Media and Film 圖像媒體中尋真我

My name is Justin Wu. My mother is a fine-art painter and my late father was a doctor. Both grew up in Hong Kong before emigrating to Canada to seek a better life. Typical of many first generation Chinese-Canadians, I felt obligated to attend university and enroll in sciences and business to satisfy my parents’ desire for me to follow in my father’s footsteps. However, much to their disappointment, I tore up my medical school application at the eleventh hour and chose to pursue my passion for the arts instead.

Long Reads, Personal Stories, Film & BooksFête ChinoiseMarch 30, 2022Asian Representation, Art, artists, FilmComment

Chef Mickey Zhao 趙健彬: Baking Bread, Breaking Boundaries「用心」烘焙無邊國度

Chinese bakeries are famous around the world for their unique selection of ‘Chinese Western Pastries’: buns, cakes and tarts that are best described as a combination of Chinese bakers’ imaginations and Western-style baked goods. Colonial life in Hong Kong brought together different ethnicities and demographics whose cultures and ideas inevitably co-mingled over time. Egg tarts, pineapple buns and coconut cocktail buns are perfect examples of this gastronomic mélange and can be credited to the legions of bakers colloquially referred to as ‘beng lou’ or ‘min baau lou’ — this literally translates to ‘bakery men’ or ‘bread men.’

Long Reads, Personal StoriesFête ChinoiseMarch 22, 2022Asian Representation, Food, PastryComment