Permanent new Vancouver exhibit honours contributions of Chinese-Canadian soldiers

The contributions of Chinese-Canadian soldiers during the Second World War are being highlighted in an immersive new Vancouver exhibit timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the conflict’s end.

Titled “A Soldier for All Seasons,” the exhibit is a collaboration between the Chinese Canadian Military Museum and Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Museum, where it will be on permanent display.

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Randall ‘Bud’ Wong, president of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum and a retired B.C. Supreme Court judge, said the war was a transformational moment for Chinese-Canadians’ acceptance in Canada, anchoring their successful fight for civil rights.

“It’s important for young Chinese-Canadians to learn their history, and also for the public to understand why multiculturalism is so important in Canada today,” he said.

“Over 600 volunteered to join and serve in the army, navy, air force and also in the commando unit behind Japanese lines … when they came back, they said we fought in one war and we achieved two victories: one was to defeat canada’s enemies, and the second was to obtain the right to vote … and also, to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act, which separated Chinese-Canadian families for 24 years.”

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The Chinese Exclusion Act, which replaced the racist Chinese head tax by banning immigration from China, was repealed in 1947, and all Asian Canadians won the right to vote the following year.

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The exhibit, which opens to the public on Wednesday, shares heartfelt and untold stories of soldiers who risked their lives to serve a country that, at the time, considered them second-class citizens.

One of its more innovative elements is a “holobox” that contains life-sized 3D representations of Chinese-Canadian soldiers retelling the experiences of real wartime servicemembers.

“We hired Chinese-Canadian actors in order to tell the stories of these soldiers that have never been told before in a museum setting,” said Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee, the museum’s CEO.

That’s a feature Rick Wong, whose father was a part of Operation Oblivion, an elite guerrilla unit that operated behind Japanese lines, said will help get the museum’s stories through to younger audiences, like his daughter.

“She has told me she doesn’t mind looking at artifacts, doesn’t mind looking at pictures, but doesn’t want to read a lot of text, so having the 3D hologram thing, I think, is a great step forward — it really brings things to life,” he said.

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He said the contribution of Chinese-Canadian troops has long been underrepresented in Canadian retellings of the war, something he hopes having a permanent exhibit in the museum will help address.

He also hopes the exhibit can steer visitors across the street to the Chinese Canadian Military Museum, which includes a more fulsome collection, but is a little more off the beaten path.

“It is kind of an intro into some of the greater stories that are across the road,” he said.

Organizers also believe the new exhibit can help draw more tourists to the area, helping to kickstart the ongoing revitalization of Vancouver’s historic Chinatown.

“Chinatown in many ways is improving,” Lee said.

“We see more people on the streets, we see more restaurants and shops opening, different generations of people coming.”