Reshaping Collections: Where History Meets Art
Chinese Canadian Museum, Vancouver, BC - To Sep 28, 2025
The way CEO Melissa Karmen Lee tells it, the inspiration behind the Chinese Canadian Museum’s latest exhibition “actually came from being told no,” she says with a laugh. Initially, the idea was to bring the University of British Columbia’s Chung Collection to Vancouver’s Chinatown, Lee told Preview. One of the foremost Chinese Canadian historical collections in North America, it contains about 25,000 rare objects, records and archives.
“They told us no because the Chung Collection is deemed a national treasure, and if you’re borrowing it … you have to have Class A museum status,” says Lee, a process that takes between one and two years. To collaborate in a different way, the CCM bought a 3-D scanner and, with the permission of UBC, scanned objects from the collection and 3-D printed them at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
“It’s a really cool, innovative use of technology,” says Lee. These pieces were then incorporated into new artworks commissioned by the museum from six Chinese Canadian artists: Morris Lum, Karen Tam, Howie Tsui, Chih-Chien Wang, Janet Wang and Stella Zheng.
The commission represented an opportunity to work with ceramics, says Tsui. One of the 3-D-printed objects he used was a suona or dida, a wind instrument often played in ceremonies like funeral processions. Using a plaster cast, Tsui made multiple clay versions that were later integrated into other forms. “Given that my work speaks to funerary practices by Chinese Canadian railroad labourers, they kind of linked up,” he says.
The artists’ new works, located on the gallery’s first floor, use a range of objects and materials, from photography to penjing rock sculpture, inscription, illustrations and printed silk scarves. The exhibition also features animation, film and child-friendly wall text.
“It doesn’t make any sense to separate history, art and culture. It should all be together in one museum,” says Lee, adding that because this exhibition combines history, visual art and technology, it appeals to a broad range of visitors.
