Montreal filmmaker documents race to save vanishing North American Chinatowns
Chinatowns across North America don't just share a similar look — they also face similar existential threats and David-versus-Goliath-like battles for survival.
Whether it's residents of New York City's Chinatown protesting a proposed mega jail in their community, or Montreal's Chinese diaspora fighting to save heritage buildings or struggling to keep family restaurants alive during COVID-19, these common threads are a recurring motif of Karen Cho's documentary "Big Fight in Little Chinatown."
Cho, a fifth-generation Chinese Canadian with roots in the Chinatowns of Montreal and Vancouver, documents how these urban pockets of Chinese culture across North America are facing similar pressures from gentrification.
In an interview, Cho said the neighbourhoods are prime targets for redevelopment due to their age and proximity to downtown, but also to what she calls "the intersection of racism and urban planning."
Urban renewal projects, she said, are disproportionately located in racialized or immigrant communities.
"Again and again and again, wherever the Chinatown would be, these are neighbourhoods where freeways are driven through them, light rails and stadiums dropped onto them, prisons put into them," she said in a phone interview.
"(These are) the priorities or the choices that the city makes of who gets to stay and who gets displaced."
Cho's hometown of Montreal is a focal point of the documentary, which she said wasn't part of her original plan.
She had long been concerned about the luxury condo towers sprouting up around Montreal's Chinatown gates, but her initial conception was to focus on the bigger Chinatowns on the continent, in places like Vancouver and New York.
That changed in 2021, when news broke that a developer purchased buildings on one of the most historic blocks of Montreal's Chinatown — including the Wings building, named for a noodle factory that has long operated there.
"The Wings noodle building got bought, and I had a really tough time," she said. "I couldn't reconcile this idea that I was gonna film the erasure of my own Chinatown."
Cho was a member of the Montreal Chinatown working group, formed in response to development pressures.
In early 2022, the activists won a significant battle when the province signed an official notice to grant heritage status to the “institutional core” of Chinatown as well as to two of its best-known buildings, including the Wings factory. That status protects buildings from being demolished or significantly altered without permission.
She said the move was a good first step in protecting what's left of Montreal's Chinatown, which she said was "one condo project away" from complete erasure after decades of urban redevelopment projects that had already led to the demolition of every building where her family had ever lived or worked.
However, Cho's film makes it clear that saving Chinatowns is about more than preserving buildings or their facades.
Much of her documentary shows the day-to-day lives of Chinatown residents in places like Montreal, Vancouver and New York: business owners preparing food to sell, young people rehearsing a dragon dance, seniors gathering in parks.
She said she wanted to show that Chinatowns are not just places selling souvenirs and dim sum to tourists, but also providing important community spaces, activities and culture for the people who live there.
Equally important, she said, was to break the "tourist facade" and tell the story from the residents' point of view.
"I follow a lot of intergenerational businesses, people that have been there for a long time, but instead of us as tourists looking through the shop window, it's like they're actually looking from the inside out to see the changes in their neighbourhood."
Cho's film tour has taken her across North America, with stops in Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Los Angeles.
Stops include a showing at the Edmonton Chinatown Multi-Cultural Centre on Sunday and at Hot Docs cinema in Toronto on May 30.
The documentary is also scheduled for broadcast on TVO and Radio-Canada.
She said most of her screenings take place in Chinatowns, where she's had the opportunity to speak with community leaders about their efforts to preserve their districts. The response, she said, has left her hopeful.
"There is a 150-year tradition of resistance in those neighbourhoods, and I saw that firsthand," she said. Seeing those "pockets of resistance" has reminded her of the strength within those communities, despite the odds stacked against them.
"Chinatown really is like this kind of blade of grass that grows in the cement," she said. "You know, it's not supposed to be there, but it's thriving."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.