Reawaken the Chinese Unicorns in Chinatown with the Hakka Association
Learn the qilin dance with the Hakka association + Ink & Unity recap
It’s not a lion, it’s not a dragon, it’s the qilin 麒麟, the Chinese unicorn!
Chinatown’s qilins have been asleep for almost a decade in the attics of the neighbourhood, so we’re excited to announce a special workshop to reawaken the qilins with the Vancouver Tsung Tsin Hakka Association 溫哥華客屬崇正會 at the Sun Yat Sen Courtyard on Saturday, April 13 at 3:30pm.
The qilins, also known as Chinese unicorns, are an integral part of the Hakka 客家 people’s traditional culture. The qilin dance is rare and unlike the Chinese lion and dragon dance. There’s currently a global movement to revive this 450-year-old Hakka tradition, including in Singapore.
At the event, you’ll get to see a qilin dance demonstration by a dance master and a new dance team composed of Chinatown community members, learn a bit about the history and culture, and then do the qilin dance yourself!
The Hakka people 客家人 is unique subgroup of Han Chinese people with distinctive language and cultural practices. They are one of the few Chinese subgroups not named after a geographic region as they were historically refugees constantly fleeing social upheaval and genocide. Even though Hakka people are perpetually known as “guests” wherever they are since “Hakka” 客家 literally means “guest family”, there are now Hakka people all over the world, including Vancouver. Despite historical repressions, the Hakka people continue to practice and conserve its unique ancestral traditions to this day, including the qilin dance.
Situated by Chinatown and started in the late 60’s to 70’s, the Vancouver Tsung Tsin Hakka Association is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to enhancing connections within the Hakka community and preserving Hakka culture in Canada. Join us as we celebrate the continuation of Hakka culture in Chinatown through this special event.
This gathering goes beyond just dancing—it's a chance to forge connections, pay homage to cultural roots, and reclaim and breathe new life into the public spaces of Chinatown. As a community, we stand united against the encroaching threat of gentrification that looms over our vibrant cultural tapestry. The qilins, symbolic creatures embodying principles of righteousness and compassion, serve as our guiding light in this endeavour. Like the Hakka people continuing the qilin dance to this day, practicing our culture in Chinatown is a powerful statement of resistance against gentrification's erosion of cultural heritage.
Let's unite to reawaken the qilins, celebrate heritage, advocate for fairness, and safeguard the soul of Chinatown by harnessing the transformative power of dance and the strength of our collective unity.
Everyone is welcome to this all-ages and multilingual event (English, Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin). There will be snacks and beverages.
WHEN: Saturday, April 13 2024, 3:30pm - 5:30pm
WHERE: Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Courtyard, 565 Columbia St
This event was made possible with the support of Vancouver Parks Board, the City of Vancouver, and generous community donors like you!
Ink & Unity Event Recap
We had so much fun yesterday at the Ink & Unity masterclass with calligraphy master Su at the Chinatown Plaza Mall. We learned how to write the zodiac animals in an old calligraphy form, listened to pipa music and sipped on traditionally prepared tea — a dog even received their own Chinese name in hot orange calligraphy!
Help us sustain Chinatown Together to the end of the year!
We’ve hosted over 30 events since July last year, and on track to hold even more before the end of June. Despite having one of the smallest budget and team in the neighbourhood, we’ve not only hosted more events, but much more accessible events than all of the large visible organizations in Chinatown.
But Chinatown Together doesn’t just host events, we push boundaries when we can. In the last 6 months, we’ve already:
Marched in the 50th anniversary Chinatown Spring Festival Parade as Chinatown Together with our friends at Lunar New Year for All who were the first official queer and trans contingent in the history of the parade, despite initially facing insurmountable barriers;
Hosted the 20th anniversary commemorative lecture (and first and only one) for the Chinatown Memorial Monument with the 80-year-old sculptor;
Revived the two-day Chinatown Winter Solstice celebration with a tong yuan workshop with a legacy Chinatown business, and an intergenerational arts festival;
Protested the locking of the eastern Sun Yat Sen Park gate to the public and occupied the park with a tea and paint event to bring awareness to the issue;
Went rouge and hosted a Chinese School Lunch and Learn event at the dead City-owned Chinatown Plaza Mall to reclaim the space with culture in protest. That eventually led to working with the City in the past month to reactivate the underutilized space with regular cultural events like tea and paint, tai chi, and calligraphy workshop.
Brought broader awareness to Chinatown’s gentrification issues through the Big Fight in Little Chinatown film at the Heart of the City Festival, New Westminster, UBC, and other upcoming Lower Mainland-wide screenings.
Partnered with the Hakka association to reawaken the qilins (Chinese unicorns), a rare and diminishing traditional martial arts dance of the Hakka people who faced historical repressions.
And we’re not stopping there. We have more in store to keep challenging the status quo and resist gentrification in Chinatown with culture while it faces active erasure from gentrifier developments like 105 Keefer that serve gentrifier Karens who think Chinatown is a shit hole.
But in order to continue this work until the end of the year, we need your help. We run out of funding at the end of June with no confirmed sources of sustainable funding. A significant part of our budget comes from generous donations from community members like yourself.
Please consider donating to the Chinatown Together Cultural Fund so we can continue to push boundaries with culture.