Communities of Resilience: Chinatown Vancouver

Place and Memory - Donna Seto 

Join us for a talk by Donna Seto, the author of Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History. Donna's talk explores the resilience of communities that inhabit cultural sites like Vancouver’s Chinatown and helps us understand how our connection to place, the past and the future preserve these communities.

Mapping Communities of Resilience 

Following the talk, participants are invited to locate their own communities of resilience on a Metro Vancouver map by guided place and memory prompts to produce a map of collective communities that are tied our wellbeing, resilience and identity. This exercise attempts to leverage our personal histories and memories tied to the built environment to develop a collective and visual representation of resilience rooted in place, in communities, and in conjunction to one another. 

Author Biography: Donna Seto 

Many at UBC know Donna as the Manager of Research and Strategic Initiatives in the Department of Civil Engineering, but her work extends far beyond that role. She is also a writer, self-taught artist, and occasional academic. Growing up, Donna accompanied her parents on regular ventures through the bustling streets of Vancouver’s Chinatown, where they bought groceries, ate dim sum, purchased newspapers, and visited her poh-poh. Her childhood, heritage, and long-lost passion for art influenced her new book,  Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History (House of Anansi, 2025). Donna also holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations but dreams of being a poet.