Using oral history testimony, historical photographs, and artifacts collected from community members across Canada, the MHSO exhibit, “They gave up themselves for the next generation”: The Working Lives of Chinese Canadian Women, 1923-1967, explored the domestic and paid labour of Chinese Canadian women during a period of closed and then restricted immigration to Canada. Their efforts and contributions as homemakers, restaurateurs, doctors, and business owners were extremely important to the economic well-being of their families and communities. A number of successful Chinese Canadian women were profiled in the exhibit including Dr. Madeline Chung, obstetrician, Ruth Lor Mallory, photojournalist, and Susan Chew, fashion designer. The voices and images highlighted in the exhibit, as well as the ideas presented, were adapted from the MHSO website, Chinese Canadian Women 1923-1967: Inspiration – Innovation – Ingenuity. The exhibit was produced in partnership with Black Creek Pioneer Village in a joint attempt to broaden the conventional understanding of ‘pioneer’. It opened in June 2012, and it remained on view in the gallery of the Village’s Visitor Centre until July 2017. A travelling display was subsequently produced using selected content from this exhibit augmented by new content prepared by community historian and author, Arlene Chan.
