Don’t Look Back in Anger
Welcome to Chinatown series
Hand make wooden cratebox with backlit vinyl print light box
110.5×128.5×8 inch (280x337x20cm)
1+1AP
2024

Don’t Look Back in Anger
Welcome to Chinatown series
Hand make wooden cratebox with backlit vinyl print light box
Inkjet print on Archival paper
56×67 inch (142x170cm), edition of 3 (+2AP)
40×48 inch (100x122cm), edition of 9
2024

Whether it is Vancouver at large or its specific Chinatown, the city feels caught at a historical intersection. The myth persists that Chinatown is a monolingual enclave, yet in my eight years here, the balance between English and Chinese in my daily life has become equal. Chinatown has evolved into a multicultural hub—a transformation that feels passive, driven by forces that need little explanation.

However, beneath this veneer of diversity, older power structures remain entrenched. In every corner, there is a lingering assertion of “who is really in charge.” In Canada, “multiculturalism” is often a rhetorical device used in relation to the white majority, but in Chinatown, the opposition is far more complex and internal. This friction—at once helpless and deeply ironic—is what I aim to capture. I chose to title this work after the classic anthem Don’t Look Back in Anger, serving as a final, bittersweet summary of this cultural tug-of-war.

Installation view in the group exhibition Reverse Chinatown, Centre of International Contemporary Art./ Documentation photo by Dennis Ha

Installation view in the group exhibition Reverse Chinatown, Centre of International Contemporary Art.