Exhibit Opening and Panel: Let's Build a Collective Memory of Chinatown!

Planting Imagination invites you to the opening of the exhibition “Let’s Build a Collective Memory of Chinatown!” at the City of Toronto Archives.

This project presents miniature models of seven important Chinatown sites, assembled from community memory and archival records, alongside some of the records used in their creation. In 2024 and 2025, the models were the focus of intergenerational storytelling sessions where memories of Toronto’s Chinatowns were shared by over 200 people across four generations at Cecil Community Centre and Scadding Court Community Centre. Together, these memories honour Chinatown’s past while reminding us that Chinatown’s story is still being written every day.

Join in for the exhibition opening and panel discussion with historians, researchers, and community members Arlene Chan, Koby Song-Nichols, Melanie Ng and Linda Zhang alongside architectural researchers and model-makers Samira El Badaui, Kayla Estacio, Lana Dang, Cindy He, Jenny Hu, Khadeejah Kazi, Avory Lai, Alisa Lau, Jhony Li Feng, Tina Lin, Nathan Man, Areeba Saleem, Derek Shin, Jacquelyne Jane Villaspin.