Chinatown Storytelling Centre Opens the Learning Lab on its Fifth Anniversary

The new immersive space welcomes visitors to time travel through Chinatown, where the past speaks and the future listens

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Chinatown Storytelling Centre marks its fifth anniversary with the opening of the Learning Lab, a vibrant new 4,000-square-foot space that brings the history of Vancouver's Chinatown to life through historic facades, immersive environments, and cutting-edge digital displays.

The space features a presentation theatre, a media studio, and workshop space that support hands-on learning. It will serve as a dynamic hub for educational programs, tours, and community gatherings.

When the Chinatown Storytelling Centre opened its main floor five years ago, it told the story of how Chinese migrants came to British Columbia: the journeys, the sacrifices, and challenges they endured. The Learning Lab carries those stories forward.

“The Chinatown Storytelling Centre and Learning Lab are a bridge connecting generations to inspire hope in the community,” says Carol Lee, Chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation. “These spaces showcase how Chinese Canadians built community after overcoming the many barriers they faced, offering a powerful reminder of what Chinatown can become again.”

By recreating Chinatown storefronts, artifacts, photos, and interactive digital experiences, the Learning Lab reveals a community that established businesses, created institutions, and forged a vibrant urban neighbourhood against significant odds. This was a community that built a neighbourhood on its own terms.

An Immersive Experience

The Learning Lab offers an engaging, sensory experience that makes Chinatown's history feel immediate and personal. Visitors step into a vivid Chinatown streetscape that brings to life the neighbourhood's heyday in the 1950s to the 1980s - its restaurants and nightclubs, herbal shops and general stores, newspapers and community organizations.

Visitors can discover a cutting-edge digital wall filled with stories where they can interact with a full-wall screen to explore individual objects and their significance in Chinese Canadian history. Everyday objects are given new meaning, becoming unexpected storytellers that bring Chinatown’s past into vivid focus. Additionally, Stories Within, a reimagined herbal apothecary cabinet, shares personal stories of migration and settlement. Visitors can open drawers to discover objects revealing how immigrants built new lives by founding transpacific businesses, driving taxis, and opening restaurants. The cabinet also traces how the next generation forged identities that carry both their parents’ heritage and a sense of belonging in Canada.

Five Years of Growing Impact

Now celebrating its fifth anniversary, the Chinatown Storytelling Centre has welcomed thousands of visitors, preserved over 200 community stories, and engaged more than 1,000 students annually through its education programs. Its permanent collection of over 10,000 artefacts continues to safeguard the living history of Chinatown. Guided by its mission: "Honouring Our Past, Shaping Our Future," the Learning Lab opens new space for creativity, dialogue, and community storytelling.

Members of the public are always welcome to host their next event, school visit, or group experience at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre and Learning Lab. The space is open for tours, rentals, and school programming. From hands-on student programs to customized tours for all ages, the spaces offer flexible booking and rental options.

Join us for the opening weekend celebration on May 23 and 24, 2026, where admission to the Chinatown Storytelling Centre will be by donation, including timed tours of the Learning Lab, subject to availability. Visit https://learninglabopening.eventbrite.ca/ to secure your spot. Starting May 25, 2026, admission to the Chinatown Storytelling Centre will include access to timed tours of the Learning Lab. To learn more and book your tour or rental today, visit https://www.chinatownstorytellingcentre.org/.

About the Chinatown Storytelling Centre

The Chinatown Storytelling Centre is the cultural hub of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, a charity dedicated to revitalizing Chinatown since 2011. Through stories of adversity, resilience, and triumph, it celebrates Chinatown’s legacy and the contributions of Chinese Canadians. Honouring the past while shaping the future, the Centre brings history to life through interactive exhibits, programming, collections, and a dynamic Learning Lab. It serves as a vibrant, multi-use hub for cultural preservation, creativity, and intergenerational connection in Chinatown.

Media Contact
Emily Larman
Talk Shop Media
emily.larman@talkshopmedia.com

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