Tell your rural Chinese restaurant stories to Royal Alberta Museum

Posted on: Aug 13 2010 | Posted in: Arts, Culture, & Heritage


Exhibit to pay homage to province’s ‘iconic institutions’

BY BILL MAH, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM AUGUST 3, 2010

EDMONTON — As Albertan as chop suey, ginger beef and green onion cakes, the Chinese restaurant will be the main dish of a new exhibit planned for the Royal Alberta Museum.

Chinese restaurants are “iconic institutions” of nearly every Alberta community, from the smallest farming village to the bustling Chinatowns of Edmonton and Calgary, and now the museum wants to hear from Albertans who have stories or objects they’re willing to share.

Linda Tzang, the museum’s curator of cultural communities says she would like to hear both from customers as well as people who worked in and owned restaurants.

“Traditionally, we’ve always looked at this story from the Chinese point of view — the families who owned restaurants — but for me, the really exciting thing about Chinese restaurants is that they’re really a North American story.

“They’re about the community that supported them as much as about the family.”

There are more Chinese restaurants in North America than all fast-food outlets combined, Tzang said.

A travelling exhibit will tour small museums across the province starting in October, to allow Albertans to contribute stories and artifacts.

These loans or donations will be used to develop a larger exhibition opening in 2012 at the Royal Alberta Museum.

bmah@thejournal.canwest.com

Twitter.com/MahSpace

© Copyright © The Edmonton Journal

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