Asian Heritage Lessons

It’s been an interesting journey putting together the Asian Heritage Month Exhibition and Day of Celebration.

I learned a lot about the various Asian cultural groups that exist in Vancouver, and unearthed a surprising amount of historical tidbits about their history in Vancouver and Canada. And I was really gratified by the response that I’ve gotten from everyone, from the media sponsors I approached, the tenants and even just people who happened to pass by as I was setting up the various displays. So many people interrupted me in the middle of set up to ask about the event and the display, and it was so nice to be praised for planning the whole event.

What really amazed me was how many people stepped forward to offer to lend me genuine traditional outfits from their closet, so that their culture would be represented. They made it possible for me to go from only having one outfit per the top three Asian minority groups to being able to present twelve whole outfits. It really made me feel that the event was worth all the craziness and lack of sleep that I endured for the last three weeks. It was even kind of fun trying to wrestle the mannequins on stage in the middle of the mall, and trying to follow YouTube videos to put the outfit on correctly.

Looking forward to tomorrow, even if it does mean having to work on a Saturday!