“Big Fight in Little Chinatown: Vancouver and North America’s Historic Chinatowns Fight for Survival”

Revitalization efforts for Vancouver’s Chinatown have gained momentum with Karen Cho’s documentary, Big Fight in Little Chinatown, which premiered at the city’s Documentary Film Festival. The film highlights the resilience and resistance of historic Chinatown communities in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and New York against gentrification, rising real estate prices, and city planning. As the fight for Chinatown continues, Vancouver’s city council and the federal government have committed nearly $2.8 million for graffiti removal, lower parking rates, and a public washroom. However, Chinatown is not just a museum, but a vibrant, human-scale tapestry of connections that make it important to the city and its residents. Cho and Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, stressed that Chinatown’s cultural heritage is key to unlocking its future and that there is a lot of vibrancy and potential to be had.