Chinese Canadian intergenerational trauma and resilience: A participatory visual research project

Victoria’s Chinatown, the oldest in Canada, carries a long history of Chinese exclusion with lasting effects on the community. Because many families do not speak openly about difficult histories, the impacts of trauma can feel isolating and pass through generations. This project asks how intergenerational trauma (IGT) and resilience shape Chinese Canadian wellbeing, identity, and relations.
Working with the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society, this project explores these issues through storytelling. I will collaborate with Chinese Canadian stakeholders to develop a self-directed digital storytelling program, through which participants can reflect on intergenerational trauma, resilience, and mental health in their own terms. With participants’ consent, selected digital stories will be shared in museum-based exhibitions, creating opportunities for public dialogue and collective learning.
We hope this project will create stories that break silences around racism and historical trauma and to develop tools that support healing across generations. The project may inform culturally relevant mental health practices, guide future community and museum programs, and inspire research on IGT, resilience, and mental health.