Chinatown East: Zhong Hua Men Gate

[bleeepbluuup]

I don't think it's wrong for us to be inspired by other cultures, but it's extremely unimaginative and tacky, quite frankly, in my opinion to do so in such a literal way. The experience of Chinese Canadians here in Canada, or of any other Canadians for that matter, is enormously different from that of those in China. Why not use that difference of reality and experience to find or develop a language of design and expression that represents that community/neighbourhood honestly, fairly and creatively and that thereby offers something new and unique for the city?

I think "new and unique" is not a big priority in these situations.

 

[bleeepbluuup]

Curiously, Chinese people in Markham or Scarborough or even Spadina and Dundas really don't care about the Chinatown gate, which I think is because there are so many reminders of Chinese culture in these areas that a gate isn't really necessary. Chinatown East, on the other hand, is fighting a battle to keep its identity as a Chinese community (it has frequently been seen as a dying Chinatown). I see the Chinatown gate, in a way, as a reminder to the Chinese-Canadians in that neighbourhood of their Chinese heritage.

I can buy that. The one in Mississauga was built some 20 years ago when there was much less of a Chinese presence in the area, so it was more a TA-DA! moment than anything else. That plaza contained the first Asian supermarket in 'ssauga... it was quite the event. Now there are at least 8 of them.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Having lived in the neighbourhood for many years, I think wylie's assessment is dead-on. It would be most unusual for that particular BIA to surprise us by commissioning something by a contemporary artist, for instance. Within a few years of starting their annual street festival, on Gerrard between Broadview and Logan, they were sending out questionnaires to local residents asking us what we wanted their festival to include in future years. It reminded me a bit of what happened to the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights organization in the States, who ended up by asking straight people to run it and took quite homophobic political positions. With a traditional monument like this - a brutalist marvel at the moment, but that'll change when it's finished - the BIA's role seems to be more about trying to reverse Chinatown East's decline, or manage it as well as possible, than doing anything new or original.

 

[Tewder]

I agree US, and wouldn't it have been wonderful if a Chinese Canadian artist from the community had been commissioned to do something new and meaningful. Instead the community opts for what essentially feels like a stage prop that screams 'we're Chinese, come and shop here!' I suppose that's the objective in the end, and there's nothing wrong with it either as far as I'm concerned, yet I can't help but feel that these sorts of trite cliches are not what real multiculturalism is about, and that far more Torontonians would in fact be far more engaged by an authentic Chinese-Canadian neighbourhood than would be by this kind of Epcot-Centre approach to neighbourhood branding.

 

[mangasparky]

Time-travel back a scant quarter century, to the intersection of Albion + Islington. Its strip malls were still humdrum blue-collar white-trash, Radio Shack and all--maybe as multicultural as it got was an Italian bakery or two. Now it's a Little India to the bone...

I do believe I find this comment offensive..

 

[egotrippin]

Seriously...

Is there even anything today that can be said without "offending" at least one person?

 

[shilly]

I'd like to see another monument to the thousands of Irish that came and died here. But that might be xenophobic.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I'd like to see another monument to the thousands of Irish that came and died here. But that might be xenophobic.

Have you been to Ireland Park?

 

[bleeepbluuup]

I agree US, and wouldn't it have been wonderful if a Chinese Canadian artist from the community had been commissioned to do something new and meaningful. Instead the community opts for what essentially feels like a stage prop that screams 'we're Chinese, come and shop here!' I suppose that's the objective in the end, and there's nothing wrong with it either as far as I'm concerned, yet I can't help but feel that these sorts of trite cliches are not what real multiculturalism is about, and that far more Torontonians would in fact be far more engaged by an authentic Chinese-Canadian neighbourhood than would be by this kind of Epcot-Centre approach to neighbourhood branding.

Stage props and trite clichés?! Oh my. Them's fightin' words. :

You don't like it, you don't find it engaging -- that's understandable, that's fair. But to dismiss it as an inauthentic cliche because it reminds you of something you saw at Epcot Centre is not fair. If Epcot built a copy of downtown Toronto, would that make our entire city a cliche too?

Authenticity is a no-win game anyway. How do you even decide what is authentic, or who is qualified to judge what is authentic, or who is qualified to present an authentic experience... it's hopeless. Culture is too messy.

 

[TKTKTK]

And what are authentic Chinese-Canadian symbols anyway? Sleds pulled by Fu dogs? Igloo Temples? Concentration camps? Sticks of dynamite and railroad ties?

 

[3Dementia]

^ Anything designed/cooked by Susur Lee.

But even he finally left town... so like all super-famous Canadians, he's gone uncover in the U.S.

 

[adma]

And what are authentic Chinese-Canadian symbols anyway? Sleds pulled by Fu dogs? Igloo Temples? Concentration camps? Sticks of dynamite and railroad ties?

Sook-Yin Lee having real sex in Shortbus. Duh

 

[Tewder]

Stage props and trite clichés?! Oh my. Them's fightin' words. :

I know, I must have been hopped up on something

Authenticity is a no-win game anyway. How do you even decide what is authentic, or who is qualified to judge what is authentic, or who is qualified to present an authentic experience... it's hopeless. Culture is too messy.

True, I'm simply saying that once you take it out of China it is no longer 'authentic'. It's like those mediterranian-style suburban mansions you see around Hamilton, or the faux-chateaux along the lakeshore in Oakville/Burlington. Yuck. Hey, it's everybody's right to build what they want, and if it helps them think fondly of the 'old country' where's the harm? I just think there's a better and more interesting regional approach to achieve the same thing that's less literal.

 

[digi]

I'm simply saying that once you take it out of China it is no longer 'authentic'. It's like those mediterranian-style suburban mansions you see around Hamilton, or the faux-chateaux along the lakeshore in Oakville/Burlington.

....or white people in the western hemisphere...

 

[Tewder]

And what are authentic Chinese-Canadian symbols anyway? Sleds pulled by Fu dogs? Igloo Temples? Concentration camps? Sticks of dynamite and railroad ties?

Actually on the west coast I've noticed a growing design/art aesthetic that is very much a blending of asian styles/forms with local influences (aboriginal and 'canadiana') that uses regional materials (red cedar etc) and that takes its inspiration from the surrounding geographic context (the mountains and sea etc). The fusing of these influences combines to create something that feels very new and organic.