Migration, Memory, Land: A Panel Discussion

Join us on Saturday, February 6, 2021, at 2:00 PM PST, online, for “Migration, Memory, Land: A Panel Discussion.”

Register HERE.

This panel discussion brings together presentations by Dr. Chris Lee (Associate Professor of English and Director of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program, University of British Columbia), Dr. Xiaoping Li (author of “Voices Rising: Asian Canadian Cultural Activism”), and artist Mr. Gu Xiong, in the context of Mr. Gu’s exhibition, The Remains of a Journey, which is currently on view at Centre A and Canton-sardine until February 13, 2021.

Dr. Lee’s presentation thinks through how the exhibition presents a relationship to land and place that challenges the dictates of settler colonialism. He will discuss Mr. Gu’s depiction of D’Arcy Island in terms of an aesthetics of exposure and orientation that recurs throughout the show. In his talk, he will also consider the relevance of Gu’s work in light of the resurgence of anti-Asian racism over the past year. Dr. Li’s presentation will focus on Chinese Canadian history as a resource that can be and has been used by different parties within and beyond the Chinese diaspora. Mr. Gu will speak further about his exhibition, which focuses on six sites in B.C. significant to the history of Chinese immigration to Canada.

The panel discussion is followed by a Q & A, and moderated by the exhibition’s curators Henry Heng Lu (Centre A) and Steven Dragonn (Canton-sardine).

Learn more about the exhibition HERE.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Chris Lee is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program (ACAM) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He is the author of The Semblance of Identity: Aesthetic Mediation in Asian American Literature (2012) and currently serves as Associate Editor of American Quarterly. His current research focuses on diaspora Chinese writing during the Cold War and the cultural politics of Chinese Canadian fiction; he received a Killam Research Prize in 2015.

Dr. Xiaoping Li is a first-generation immigrant trained as a social scientist. Her book, Voices Rising: Asian Canadian Cultural Activism, documents the efforts made by several generations of Asian Canadian artists to construct an Asian Canadian culture. She is currently working on a book project that analyzes the media that serve first-generation Chinese immigrants in the Canada-China nexus.

Gu Xiong, a multimedia artist originally from China, has exhibited nationally and internationally, including more than 70 solo exhibitions and three public art commissions. He has participated in over 100 prominent national and international group exhibitions. His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the China National Museum of Fine Arts, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, among many other museums and private collections. He has published two books, seventeen solo exhibition catalogues. His work has received significant critical recognition.