In Montreal’s Chinatown, disrupted by seventy years of aggressive urban redevelopment and brutal real estate developments, a citizen mobilization has been building up for two years to defend what remains of the former Faubourg Saint-Laurent of the 19th century, which became a refuge for Chinese immigrants in the 20th century. At the same time, a citizens’ initiative focused on safeguarding a precious collection of objects, witnesses of the integration into Montreal society of the Lee family, pioneers of the Chinese community, and of their food company WING, the oldest factory of Chinese origin still in production.
While the heritage buildings of the WING were sold to real estate developers, citizen action succeeded in convincing the Government of Quebec and the municipal administration of Montreal to adopt measures for their protection, the speakers, Jean-Philippe Riopel and Bernard Vallée, will present the challenges of rescuing, conserving, documenting, and promoting the fragile heritage of objects that have been collected there, excluded from protective measures and threatened with disappearance by the changes in the vocation of buildings and their transformations.
