My Chinatown is the product of a project that brought together Chinese seniors new to Canada to learn about the history of Toronto’s Chinese community. The project’s goal was to provide an opportunity for the Mandarin-speaking newcomers to connect with and learn from the Cantonese or Toishanese Chinese who came before them. My Chinatown is a collection of essays written by project participants, exploring the history of the Chinese community in Toronto and the development of Chinatowns over time.

For this book, some seniors researched particular aspects of Chinatown’s past, others reflected on their own feelings about Chinatown or their volunteer work in the Chinese community, and still others discussed their ideas of directions for the future success of the Chinese diaspora in Canada. Our project’s aims were for these seniors to build a sense of connection and belonging to the wider Chinese community existing in Canada for over 150 years, and for their ideas and aspirations for the community to become public.

During this process, our seniors attended a series of workshops and field trips where they were able to learn the history of our community. We would like to thank the guest speakers who shared their personal experiences and professional expertise connected to the history and formation of Toronto’s Chinese community. These included: Harvey Low, Tam Goossen, Binh Chow, Dick Chan, Doug Hum, Cheuk Kwan, and Peter Chan. In addition, we would like to thank our field trip hosts: Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library and Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library at Robarts, University of Toronto; Agincourt Public Library; and Dixon Hall.

We are grateful to all the seniors who participated in this project. Special thanks to our editorial team who spent many hours assisting our authors to more clearly articulate the ideas in their essays. The dedication of the seniors involved in this project showed us how meaningful this work was to them, and how important they felt it was to present their ideas to the broader community in the My Chinatown book.

Special thanks to Cathy Zhao’s tireless efforts as the coordinator of this project. Cathy’s dedication, patience and ability to stretch our limited resources were critical to the success of this project. Her passion for the topic and enthusiasm in discussing and debating ideas with our seniors helped to bring out the best in everyone.

Thanks to our translators and proofreaders for their time and attention to detail. Thank you to the Toronto Community Housing Corporation for translating articles written by their tenants. Thanks to our publisher, ToArt Communications Ltd., for their support and generosity.

This project of the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter was made possible with the financial support of the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program.

We hope that you will enjoy what our seniors have to share in the pages that follow.

Sincerely,

Karen Sun

Executive Director

The ideas and perspectives expressed in this book belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter.