In Fall 2022, artists Andrea Nann, Sarah Chase, Cindy Mochizuki, Annie Katsura Rollins and creative producer Kelsi James began hosting a series of embodied relational gatherings in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown.  During these events individuals would meet and share time together, enjoying tea, food, participatory arts practices, conversations and guided embodied activations — awakening sensations, observations, connections, and imaginations.  If individuals wished, they could also record their impressions, memories and stories of lived experiences in Vancouver’s Chinatown.  One event has become Chinatown Stories Audio Tour:  Roving Conversations Between Intergenerational Pairs.  For this, we gathered, made introductions, moved together as a group, then paired folks of different generations and invited them to chat and share stories while traveling down a street in Chinatown in tandem.  Guided by Jasper Sloan Yip, the participants' conversations were recorded, and, with their consent, edited to become part of a distinct collection of audio recordings that we are sharing now with the public through Heart Of The City 2024. These experiences were part of a year-long public outreach initiative supported by Canada Council for the Arts called Firehorse and Shadow in Community.  

We express deep gratitude to our Chinatown Stories Audio Tour guides and conversationalists: Lori Chong, Shon Wong, Ryan Iu, Owen Maize, Beverly Nann, Lynda Sing, Jasper Sloan Yip, Lance Lim, Isaiah Gilson, Carolyn Mathews, Alger Ji-Liang, Andrea Nann, Kelsi James, Maxi the Dog.

Thank you sound artist/composer: Jasper Sloan Yip; videographers: Ran Zheng and Dan Loan; and Audio Tour home-base: Strathcona Community Centre and Adrianna Teoh.

Thank you Firehorse & Shadow in Community collaborators, partners and funders: Canada Council For The Arts, Mercury Films, Chinatown Storytelling Centre, ExplorAsian, Left of Main, and plastic orchid factory.