3 Projects about the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver

Artist Henry Tsang will present three interrelated projects that address as their subject the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver, Canada: White Riot, 360 Riot Walk, and RIOT FOOD HERE.  

RIOT FOOD HERE is a pop-up food art project that was installed along four sites that track the route taken by the white nationalist Asiatic Exclusion League’s parade and demonstration in 1907 that incited a mob to attack Chinatown and the Japanese Canadian community in a riot that lasted two days. Food was served on the street that reflect five cuisines of the people in the area at the time of the riot: European, Chinese, Japanese, Punjabi and Indigenous. 

This project then informed 360 Riot Walk, an interactive 360 video walking tour of the 1907 riots. Participants are brought into the social and political environment of the time, when racialized communities were targeted through legislated as well as physical acts of exclusion and violence.

360 Riot Walk in turn further developed and expanded into the recently released book, WHITE RIOT: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp Press). White Riot offers an intersectional approach and a cultural and social context for understanding for the current wave of anti-Asian sentiment. The book features photographs of the riots and archival documents colourized by Tsang situated within those of contemporary Vancouver where the riots took place. Essays by Tsang and contributing writers speak to the colonial times that preceded and followed the 1907 riots, as well as issues that Chinese, Japanese and other racialized communities in North America are facing today. White Riot poses the question: in the current ethos of anti-racism and decolonization, what does it take to reconcile our collective histories within the legacy of white supremacy?

Henry Tsang is an artist and occasional curator who explores the spatial politics of history, cultural translation, community-building and food in relationship to place. His projects employ video, photography, interactive media, convivial events, and language, in particular, the west coast trade language Chinook Jargon. Presentations take the form of gallery exhibitions, pop-up street food offerings, 360 video walking tours, curated dinners, ephemeral and permanent public art. His book, White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp Press), was recently released in May. Henry is based in Vancouver where he is an Associate Dean at Emily Carr University of Art & Design.