Lions and archway

As you enter the Victoria Chinatown Museum, you will be welcomed by the suspended lion heads and colourful archway. The archway once belonged to Ming’s Restaurant, a long-standing social hub in downtown Victoria, where food, celebration, and community life came together.

The lion heads are ceremonial objects, used over many years in lion dances by Victoria’s Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club. Constructed from layered materials, fabric, paint, and decorative elements, they were designed for performance and movement. At festivals and on special occasions, dancers animated the lions with rhythm and coordination, their expressive features and bold colours energizing shared spaces while bringing energy and blessings.

The archway below the lion heads reflects Chinese architectural traditions that use decorative framing to mark thresholds. Such structures often signal welcome, protection, and transition, moving from the street to the interior, from everyday activity into communal space.

Placed at the museum entrance today, these elements create a meaningful continuity between past and present, inviting visitors to enter and experience the stories within.

Safe from Don Mee Restaurant

Standing on your right as you enter the museum, this safe once belonged to Don Mee Yuen Kee Co., a long-standing Chinese restaurant in Victoria’s Chinatown. Its solid weight and worn surface speak to years of daily use—opening and closing, counting receipts, and securing what mattered at the end of each day.

For Chinese-owned businesses, a safe was more than storage. It protected earnings, records, and responsibilities in a time when security and self-reliance were essential. Quiet and unassuming, it supported the visible life of the restaurant while remaining largely unseen by diners.

Time has left its marks here. The scuffed metal, working dial, and sturdy hinges tell a story of repetition and care. Today, the exhibit invites visitors to turn the combination, open the door, and sign the book—transforming a once-private routine into a shared experience.

Moment of reflection

• How did elements of Chinese performance, decoration, and architecture help to shape social life in Chinatown?
• How is cultural expression woven into everyday places, such as restaurants and public celebrations?

A Little Bit Sweet: Confections, Culture and Community

As you enter this exhibit, you encounter more than desserts. You encounter stories of family, adaptation, and belonging told through food.

For Chinese Canadian families in Victoria, sweets are not only treats—they are part of everyday life and cultural memory. Recipes travel across oceans and generations, changing over time while preserving connection. Some desserts come from long-standing traditions in China, while others emerge from encounters with Canadian ingredients, technologies, and cultures.

Western-style cakes, or sai béng, became popular in Hong Kong and Chinatowns worldwide as Chinese bakers adapted European techniques and local tastes. In Victoria, families like that of Chin Nee Young embraced decorated cakes and pastry traditions that blended Chinese and Western styles. His tools, cake tips, and decorating kit reflect the care and craftsmanship behind each creation. For his family, baking was not only work, but part of daily life—cookies, cakes, and memories shared around the kitchen table.

Other sweets tell stories of migration and continuity. Tapioca cake, or chin chéng go, carries symbolic meaning: its many layers represent prosperity and good fortune. Sesame balls (jin deui) are crisp on the outside and soft within, connecting generations through shared preparation and celebration. Rose cookies (jah fa) reflect cultural exchange across continents, shaped by Chinese, Indian, and European traditions. For one family, bringing these cookies to school transformed moments of exclusion into acceptance, showing how food can soften barriers and create connection.

Everyday objects in the exhibit—mixing bowls, molds, flour, and handwritten recipes—reveal the work behind these traditions. These tools supported both home kitchens and family businesses, where baking provided income, stability, and creative expression.

This exhibit invites you to consider how something as simple as a sweet can carry stories of migration, resilience, adaptation, and care. Through baking, families preserve traditions strengthen community in Victoria’s Chinatown.

Reflect & Connect

• What foods connect you to your own family, culture, or memories?

• How can food help people feel accepted, welcomed, or understood?
• What stories might be hidden behind everyday objects in a kitchen?
• How do traditions change while still preserving connection across generations? 

We are proud to showcase this inaugural exhibit curated by a team from the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society. The exhibit was generously sponsored by the Doane Grant Thornton Foundation.