Silence and separation: Exclusion Act exhibit opens in Victoria’s Chinatown

Eating Bitterness: The Canadian Journey from Exclusion to Inclusion was officially unveiled on July 15 at the Victoria Chinatown Museum, shedding light on the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the generations that endured it.

“It’s emotional. This is one of four exhibit locations, but this one feels different,” says Teresa Woo-Paw, chair of Action! Chinese Canadians Together, the group behind the exhibition. “To have it here, in Canada’s oldest Chinatown, makes it all the more powerful.”

Victoria, along with Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto, will host the exhibit.

Teresa Woo-Paw stamps a postcard as part of one the several interactive activities featured. Tony Trozzo/Victoria News

The exhibit took roughly six months to come together, coordinated by Dr. Grace Wong Sneddon, chair of the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society, alongside Woo-Paw and curators from across Canada.

It blends timelines, personal stories, documentary video, and interactive installations to unpack the legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act – a 1923 law that banned most Chinese immigration for nearly 25 years.

For Woo-Paw, three stories stand out.

The first is Won Alexander Cumyow, the first Chinese Canadian born in Canada.

Despite being born a citizen, he had his rights stripped under the Chinese Exclusion Act and didn’t regain them until shortly before his death, decades later. He voted in the 1890 federal election but was barred from voting again for 50 years, until 1949. That made him the only Chinese Canadian known to have voted both before and after disenfranchisement.

“To me, that’s the Chinese Canadian story in one life,” she says. “Citizenship taken away, years of silence and separation, and then finally being recognized.”

The second is Vivian Jung, she was the first Chinese Canadian woman to become a certified teacher. But the path there wasn’t easy.

At 21, while working toward her teaching diploma in Vancouver, she was required to complete a lifesaving swimming course. But when she tried to enter Crystal Pool at Sunset Beach – the city’s only public pool in 1945 – staff turned her away. The pool was still racially segregated.

Refusing to back down, Jung returned with her coach and classmates, who stood by her side as she attempted to enter again. That act of solidarity forced the pool to let her in – and sparked a wave of protest that helped end the discriminatory policy later that year.

The storytelling timeline at the Eating Bitterness exhibit traces key events and personal stories from the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Tony Trozzo/Victoria News

Joyce Chin was born in 1931 and lived through the Exclusion Act firsthand. She didn’t meet her father until 1952, when her family was finally allowed to reunite in Canada.

“We cried the first time we met,” she says. “Now our family is together. The children and grandchildren go to school, they speak freely, they’re happy.”

Chin’s family history in Canada stretches back to 1905.

She remembers her grandmother’s bound feet and her aunt being kept from school simply for being a girl. Her father made repeated trips back to China – every seven years – each time fathering a child and leaving again. That cycle of separation defined their lives.

“This is about more than history,” Woo-Paw says. “It’s about what we’ve been through – and how we build a more inclusive Canada together.”

Admission is by donation, with the museum open Thursday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit will run in Victoria until Oct. 26.