STORY CO-CREATED BY MEI CHIU, ALISON HOMER, NATHAN LI, AND ERIKA MASSOUD
In Montreal’s Chinatown, protecting the neighbourhood’s future has become inseparable from strengthening a sense of belonging. What began as a movement to safeguard Chinatown from development pressures has grown into a community-wide effort to ensure that people from many different backgrounds can help shape the neighbourhood and feel welcomed within it.
Several years ago, development proposals threatened the future of one of Montreal’s smallest and most historically significant neighbourhoods. Community members understood that Chinatown represented far more than a collection of buildings and businesses. It was a place where culture, relationships, traditions, and memories were woven together. Preserving the neighbourhood meant preserving the social connections that make community life possible.
The successful Save Chinatown Movement brought together a remarkably broad coalition. Long-time residents joined youth, artists, cultural workers, queer Asian communities, and non-Chinese Montrealers, united by a shared commitment to Chinatown’s future and its place in the city.
With the immediate threat addressed, the Montreal Chinatown Roundtable turned its attention to a broader question: what kind of community did it want Chinatown to become?
Community members explored how Chinatown could remain vibrant, welcoming, and relevant for future generations. This work involved strengthening opportunities for participation and ensuring that people who had not traditionally been included in community leadership or decision-making could contribute their perspectives and experiences.
The Roundtable intentionally built relationships with Indigenous partners, youth, seniors, unhoused residents, artists, cultural workers, and organizations from across the city. Through these relationships, the neighbourhood has become a place where people learn from one another, share resources, and work together toward common goals.
The impact of this work can be seen in the changing perceptions of who belongs in Chinatown. Prior to this organizing, queer groups were not always openly welcomed in the neighbourhood. Today, Chinatown regularly hosts public events that celebrate diversity and inclusion. During Montreal Pride, Paifang, an Asian queer intercultural and intergenerational collective, hosted a successful afternoon of performances in Chinatown, demonstrating how the community has expanded its understanding of belonging while remaining rooted in its cultural identity.
One of the strongest examples of this approach is the community’s collective garden. Created on land that had sat unused for more than two decades, the garden has become a gathering place where relationships flourish alongside vegetables and medicinal plants. Indigenous partners helped shape the design, including the creation of a medicine wheel and the planting of Indigenous medicines. The majority of the garden grows Asian vegetables that are meaningful to local seniors and reflect the cultural traditions of the neighbourhood.
An intergenerational team of volunteers, many of whom are young people, oversees the garden’s activities. Monthly workshops bring together Chinese seniors, Indigenous participants, youth volunteers, and community members through shared interests in food, gardening, health, and traditional knowledge. Participants exchange stories, learn from one another, and build relationships that extend beyond the garden itself.
The garden has also become an important community gathering place. Events such as the Decolonial Chinese New Year celebration regularly draw between 60 and 80 participants, creating opportunities for people from different cultures and generations to come together, learn from one another, and celebrate shared values of community and belonging.
The importance of these connections extends beyond the garden itself. Canada’s Quality of Life Framework identifies sense of belonging as a key measure of quality of life, highlighting the importance of connection, participation, identity, and inclusion. Statistics Canada data from 2017 found that 69% of Indigenous people aged 15 and older in Quebec reported a deep sense of belonging to their Indigenous group, compared with 59% nationally. Initiatives such as the collective garden create opportunities for people from different cultures, generations, and life experiences to build relationships, strengthen connections, and contribute to a shared sense of community.
The garden has also helped surface emerging community needs. Through ongoing engagement, organizers became increasingly aware of food insecurity among Chinese seniors. This insight has led to research efforts aimed at understanding the issue more fully and identifying long-term solutions that can strengthen both food security and social connection within the community.
Leadership development has been another important area of progress. The Roundtable created dedicated opportunities for youth participation, including a youth seat on its board. Over time, this investment in leadership helped inspire the creation of an independent youth organization that now develops its own programs, secures funding, and contributes to the broader Chinatown community. Young people who were once participants have become leaders, organizers, and advocates in their own right.
One youth member of Vietnamese origin described what the Roundtable has meant to them:
“Chinatown Roundtable is a reminder that there is a living community that’s ever evolving, filled with not only Cantonese elders and speakers but also Vietnamese speakers. The fight to keep Chinatown as accessible as possible is why I keep trying to find more ways to connect to the elders and others who see Chinatown as a gathering space for community.”
Their reflection captures one of the Roundtable's most important contributions: expanding perceptions of who belongs in Chinatown while strengthening connections across generations, cultures, and languages.
The Roundtable’s work also demonstrates how belonging grows through shared responsibility. Community organizations, housing advocates, residents, businesses, family associations, youth groups, seniors, and cultural initiatives all contribute to shaping the neighbourhood’s future. The organization serves as a connector, helping these groups build relationships, coordinate action, and work toward shared priorities.
Today, the community continues to navigate challenges that include funding uncertainty, housing pressures, food insecurity, and growing polarization around issues such as homelessness and neighbourhood development. Throughout these challenges, the Roundtable remains focused on strengthening relationships and maintaining a vision of Chinatown that reflects inclusion, solidarity, and community wellbeing.
As the Montreal Chinatown Roundtable continued to strengthen its work, the Tamarack Institute and its partners provided learning opportunities, connections, and resources that complemented the community’s locally driven efforts. The relationship began when Roundtable members participated in Tamarack’s October 2024 Seeking a Future of Belonging conversation in Montreal, helping to inform the resulting Forging a Future of Belonging report.
In 2025, the Roundtable joined Tamarack’s Foundation of Greater Montreal cohort. Through the cohort, the Foundation provided seed funding that helped launch the community garden while also supporting participation in learning opportunities. Team members attended a one-day Tamarack training in Montreal and accessed resources focused on belonging, anti-Black racism, decolonization, and community building. As a member of the cohort, the Roundtable continues to engage with Tamarack’s network of practitioners and learning opportunities as it advances its work.
The long-term potential of this work extends far beyond Chinatown. Stronger relationships between Chinese, Indigenous, and other racialized communities are creating foundations for lasting collaboration. Youth leadership continues to grow. Food security initiatives have the potential to address emerging needs while building community connection. The lessons learned through this work offer valuable insights for other communities grappling with gentrification, social division, and questions of belonging.
The story of Montreal’s Chinatown demonstrates the power of everyday actions to strengthen community. People create shared spaces, invest in relationships, welcome new voices into leadership, and work together toward a common future. Through years of collaboration, the Montreal Chinatown Roundtable has helped cultivate a neighbourhood where people feel connected, valued, and invested in one another’s success. In doing so, they are showing how a community can protect its history while continuously expanding the circle of people who help shape its future.
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