New York Times – Guided Historical Chinatown Tours with Judy Lam

See the World, in Canada

By Elaine Glusac, New York Times, July 21, 2021

Beginning Aug. 9, Canada plans to reopen its border to nonessential American visitors — including tourists — as long as they are fully vaccinated. The decision comes after months of public pressure, largely from states and communities that share the 5,500-mile border and experienced more than a year of family separation, lost work and social upheaval. In recent weeks, Canada’s vaccination rate has surged – Oxford University’s Our World in Data site shows Canada leading the world in vaccinations — with 70 percent of residents at least partially vaccinated, approaching Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vaccine targets for reopening. Americans traveling to Canada must be fully vaccinated with one of the vaccines approved in Canada – including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson – and submit proof via the government’s ArriveCAN app or website. They must also provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival in Canada.
With the relaxed restrictions, tourism officials are banking on an influx of visitors, not just to see family and friends, but to travel in a vast country rich with cultural influences from around the world. Read more…

The Top Doctor Who Aced the Coronavirus Test

Catherine Porter, The New York Times, Updated June 12, 2020

That Tuesday in March was the day Bonnie Henry had been preparing for her whole life.

Overnight, 83 people had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and three more had died. The pandemic had officially broken out in British Columbia.

Standing inside the provincial legislature’s press gallery, the preternaturally calm top doctor of Canada’s westernmost province declared a public health emergency. Under her orders and recommendations, schools closed, bars shuttered and social distancing measures were put in place. Read more…

A Costco in Burnaby used wood pallets to help shoppers observe social distancing in April. By Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

Wayson Choy, 80, Whose Books Are Windows on Chinese-Canadian Life, Dies

Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, May 3, 2019

Wayson Choy, who wrote of the Chinese-Canadian experience in memoirs and novels like “The Jade Peony,” which became a mainstay in Canadian classrooms and led to a revelation about the writer’s own past, died on April 28 at his home in Toronto. He was 80.

Denise Bukowski, Mr. Choy’s agent, said the cause was a heart attack brought on by an asthma attack. He had nearly died from heart attacks related to asthma in the past, episodes he wrote about in “Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying” (2009).

“The Jade Peony,” his debut novel, published in 1995, when he was 56, was one of the first to detail life in a Chinese-Canadian community. It follows a Chinese immigrant family in Vancouver in the 1930s and ’40s as they struggle to make a home in a sometimes hostile country, drawing what support they can from shared traditions, community and folklore. Read more…

“The Jade Peony,” published in 1995, was one of the first to detail the Chinese immigrant experience in Canada. It has become a mainstay in Canadian classrooms.CreditDouglas and McIntyre

On Brink of Sale, Family Shop in Chinatown Stays in Family

By ALEX VADUKUL, OCT. 7, 2016

When the narrow streets of Chinatown overflow on weekends, a few tourists always end up in Wing on Wo & Co. to browse porcelain antiques and jade ornaments. But they rarely stay long, quickly leaving to join dozens in the line outside a trendy new ice cream shop down the block. Read more…

The family behind Wing on Wo & Co., which is headed by Nancy, 86, and Shuck Seid, 92, at center. Credit Alex Wroblewski/The New York Times