ART SHOP

DONNA SETO

Author & Artist

Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History

Buildings are more than just bricks and mortar. They are keepers of secrets and history.

With more than seventy vibrant illustrations, writeups on the buildings, interviews with community members, and select archival photographs, Chinatown Vancouver celebrates the invaluable contributions of the Chinese to Canada. The colourful illustrations portray Chinatown during its thriving days as a commercial hub when iconic businesses such as Cathay Importers, Ho Inn Restaurant, Ming Wo Cookware, and Ho Ho Restaurant were pillars in the community.

Early Chinese settlers in Vancouver demonstrated immense resilience and perseverance in creating a self-sustaining safety net to weather racial hostility, discrimination, and segregation from broader Canadian society. The protection of cultural sites like Chinatown helps us understand our connection to place, the past, and the future. In showcasing the unique architecture, Chinatown Vancouver honours the neighbourhood as an irreplaceable living heritage site and cultural asset for all Canadians.

House of Anansi Press

Shop Local
Indigo
Amazon


RECOGNITION
 #1 Book of British Columbia 2025 – Indigo Best Regional Books of 2025
Diverse Non-Fiction Award, 2025 – Sunshine Coast Book Award for BC Authors

Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History received support from the Canada Council for the Arts & the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.

Upcoming Events

Memory and Place – Chinatown Vancouver

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 – 630-8pm – Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre

RSVP

Writers in the Classroom – Vancouver Writers Fest

Friday, December 5, 2025 – Point Grey Secondary

ACWW Dim Sum & Reading

Monday, December 15, 2025

Media/Interviews

Advance Praise for
Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History

“Lovingly illustrated and written with concision and meticulous research, Chinatown Vancouver is a nostalgia-tinged triumph worthy of our Chinese ancestors, who made Canada their home despite so many unwelcoming forces. It shows us how much history still lives in Chinatown’s streets and in its buildings’ bones. Donna Seto has written a book to treasure.”
KEVIN CHONG
author of The Double Life of Benson Yu

“In Chinatown Vancouver, Donna Seto has achieved a rare alchemy: reaching back in time to a Chinatown that now only lives in memory, while simultaneously breathing life into the shared recollections of a community whose deep roots in Canada are often invisible or dismissed. Donna’s illustrations made me smile and, sometimes, tear up. Every wash of colour is an emotion. Every stroke is a reminder for us to carry our past into the future. A beautiful, accomplished, gorgeous book.”
JEN SOOKFONG LEE
author of Superfan and The End of East

“Donna Seto’s vibrant watercolour paintings of historical buildings in Vancouver’s Chinatown are deeply rooted in a specific community but will resonate with anyone who grew up near a Chinatown in North America. Her work speaks to the resilience of the loh wah kiu and how they built self-sustaining communities despite anti-Asian hostility. Every building, every story, is a testament to our ancestors and their lasting impact.”
TERESA WONG
author of All Our Ordinary Stories

“An exquisite book. At a time when Chinatowns are at risk of disappearing forever and anti-Asian racism is rampant, Donna Seto’s Chinatown Vancouver is an important historical archive of Chinese settlement in Vancouver – not only of the hardships and exclusion but also the vibrant community and legacy. The art is a testament to the unique, sophisticated, and aesthetic beauty the Chinese diasporic community has cultivated in urban spaces. The carefully researched stories folded among the art give voice to the generations before us that have paved the way, teaching us to continue to honour our elders, our past, but to also stand firm and be proud of who we are and where we have come from. As I witness the closures of many places where my family held Red Egg parties and celebrated milestones in my own community’s Chinatown, I treasure Donna Seto’s work for capturing the fleeting past and providing a beautiful narrative that contests harmful historical depictions of Chinese diasporic communities.”
JAMIE CHAI YUN LIEW
author of Dandelion

“Utterly unique in blending personal memoir, family history, interviews, and historical commentary with stunning original watercolours and photographs, writer and artist Donna Seto presents a heartfelt, candid, and meticulously researched history of Vancouver’s Chinatown. This book offers a thoughtful glimpse of a once vibrant past, a hopeful present, and a future for a vital gentrified location. Nostalgic, informative, and richly detailed, Chinatown Vancouver effortlessly transports readers with wonderful visual storytelling and an investigative journey. Necessary and important. I was transported to my own childhood.”
LINDSAY WONG
author of The Woo-Woo and Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality

“Chinatown Vancouver is an extensive current-day inventory of where the economic, political, and social life of the city’s Chinese Canadian community took place. It provides an important document of a once-thriving neighbourhood now struggling to position itself for the future. Donna Seto’s delicate, sensitive, and vibrant illustrations of historical buildings are complemented by research and archival photos of each of those sites. They capture not only the facades but also the fragility of Chinatown today as it its in the crossroads between competing forces and desires.”
HENRY TSANG
author of White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver

“Donna Seto’s vibrant illustrations, coupled with grainy photos of historical Vancouver, deliver a powerful meditation on the resilience of the Chinese community as they navigate discrimination and hardship, weaving themes of continuity and hope into its visually resplendent pages. This is history that can be tasted, smelled, and embraced. It is a profoundly poignant and vital work that will resonate with readers interested in history and human resilience.”
WAYNE NG
author of Johnny Delivers