After the 1907 Chinatown Riots in Vancouver, 2020
Karen Tam, After the 1907 Chinatown Riots in Vancouver, 2020, from the Ruinscape Drawings series, pencil on Strathmore, 22.86 x 30.48 cm, private collection. Photo credit: Karen Tam.
Created by Karen Tam in 2020, this drawing is based on a well-known photograph of the aftermath of the 1907 anti-Asian riots in Vancouver. Many Chinese-owned businesses and homes were badly damaged by white locals who regarded the Asian population as an economic and social threat. Led by the newly established Asiatic Exclusion League—whose members included the mayor and several city councillors—a mob of about 9,000 people participated in the riots on September 7, engaging in destruction and violence in Japanese and Chinese neighbourhoods over the course of two days. For Tam, the process of drawing is a method of processing her emotions around recent anti-Asian attacks and reflecting on the extensive history of anti-Asian discrimination and violence in Canada.
Gallery
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From Yiwu to you (detail), 2015–present