Join us for an evening with our knowledgeable and illustrious Museum Interpreter and Tour Guide, Elwin Xie, as he shares his lived experience growing up in Vancouver’s Chinatown and his familial ties with the feature exhibition "The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act."

Drawing on his conversations with visitors to the Chinese Canadian Museum since opening on July 1, 2023, Elwin will discuss how his encounters have helped clarify some family questions and illuminate colourful stories within the pioneer overseas Chinese community (Lo Wah Kiu 佬華僑) in Saltwater City 鹹水埠 (Vancouver) that came searching for their mythological Gold Mountain (Gum San 金山).

Elwin Xie is one of the inaugural museum assistants at the Chinese Canadian Museum, leading acclaimed tours and providing interpretation of exhibitions for visitors. Elwin was born in Vancouver Chinatown and raised in the family business, Union Laundry (274 Union Street), during the 1960s. Like most Chinatown children, Elwin attended the inner-city schools of Strathcona Elementary and Britannia Secondary. Alongside his siblings, he worked in the family laundry after school and on weekends.

Elwin’s family story is a quintessential first-wave immigrant Chinese Canadian one. His deep family roots run parallel to the history of the Chinese in Canada: railroad construction, head tax, 1923 Exclusion Act, “Paper Sons”, even with an indentured servant girl (mui tsai 妹仔) within the narrative. The multi-generational family did sustenance labour to survive in Canada, including work in Hastings Sawmill, laundry, diners, restaurants, and waste disposal. His fluency in Yin-Ping Cantonese, a dialect of the Gold Mountain (Gum San 金山) trailblazers, remains a work in progress.

Watch the full video here.