Federal government pledges $5M to Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver

The Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver has received about $5 million in new federal funding ahead of its opening on July 1. 

Federal International Trade and Economic Development Minister Mary Ng says the new funding will go toward renewal of the museum's permanent space at the Wing Sang Building in Vancouver's Chinatown, as well as supporting the facility's first exhibit.

Museum CEO Melissa Karmen Lee says half of the building is ready to be opened as a museum for July. The funding will allow them to convert the rest of the building to museum space with a completion date set for 2025. 

"We are feeling pretty elated," said museum CEO Melissa Karmen Lee. "This federal funding has come at a crucial time."

Ng made the funding announcement on the sidelines of the U.S.-Canada Chinatown Cultural Preservation and Revitalization Conference, which is hosting representatives from 18 Chinatowns from across North America.

Ng says efforts such as the museum and the conference are key to keeping a crucial part of North American history alive and to allow people to "appreciate the diversity of our society."

The museum will feature an exhibition titled "The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act," with the July 1 opening date coinciding with the centennial of the passing of the act which effectively halted all immigration from China.

Lee says the museum will target a national audience.

"We're based in Vancouver Chinatown, but we're really a national museum," Lee said. "We tell the stories of [people] across Canada and we hope Canadians from all over the country come and visit us here." 

The Chinatown conference Tuesday and Wednesday in Vancouver is gathering representatives from other Canadian cities including Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto, as well as U.S. cities including San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York.