Essays and photographs that document the anti-Asian riots of 1907 in
the context of contemporary anti-Asian sentiment.*
*
White Riot:
The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver explores the conditions leading
up to and the impact of a demonstration and parade in Vancouver, Canada,
organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League and the ensuing mob attack on
the city's Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadian communities.
Emblematic of a systemically racist era, White Riot reveals the social
and political environment of the time, when racialized communities were
targeted through legislated as well as physical acts of exclusion and
violence.
Based on 360 Riot Walk, a 360-degree video walking tour by artist
and author Henry Tsang, White Riot offers an intersectional approach
to this pivotal moment in the history of racialized communities and a
cultural and social context for understanding for the current wave of
anti-Asian sentiment. It features photographs of the riots colourized by
Tsang as well as those of contemporary Vancouver where the riots took
place. Essays by Tsang and others speak to the colonial times that
preceded and followed the 1907 riots, as well as issues that Chinese and
Japanese communities (and other racialized communities) in North America
are facing today. White Riot poses the question: in the current ethos
of anti-racism and decolonization, what does it take to reconcile our
collective histories within the legacy of white supremacy?
