Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s–2000
Chinese Canadian Museum, Vancouver, BC - To May 31, 2026
Pop culture enthusiasts are accustomed to art trends with a national flavour. Film’s French New Wave and rock ’n’ roll’s British Invasion enlivened North American cinemas and concert halls in the 1960s, influencing many of the continent’s filmmakers and musicians, not to mention those who designed their clothes, their cars and the homes they moved into. Two decades later a similar phenomenon, this time from Asia: Cantopop and Mandopop.
Though expressly more language based than nationally affiliated, Cantopop (songs sung in Cantonese) and Mandopop (those sung in Mandarin) gave voice to many North American diasporic communities, allowing those with roots in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong a connection to both a common past and a shared present. In Dream Factory, these links are highlighted through the union of three thematics: music, fashion and film.
Central to the exhibition is a floor-to-ceiling LED sound wall featuring a 1980s-style speaker system and a video projection playlist that includes performances by superstars Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung and Faye Wong. Also in the spotlight are works by six Canadian fashion designers: Charlotte Chang, Bev Huynh, Stephanie Kong, Tina Tam, Rick Yuen and the legendary Modernize Tailors, a business that opened in Vancouver’s Chinatown in 1913. Film works include the premiere of a period documentary by Black Rhino Collective; a stage installation by Ming Wong, in collaboration with Liam Morgan; and visual artworks by Bagua Artist Association and Ho Tam.
Dream Factory is curated by Melissa Karmen Lee with Yilin Chen and Bofei Zhang. The exhibition had support from the Province of British Columbia, Din Tai Fung, Fairchild TV, Talentvision, Fairchild Radio and Fête Chinoise.
