A hundred Joys (2021)

Movie poster for “A Hundred Joys”, a short film about Toronto’s East Chinatown.

A Hundred Joys can be watched online now at: https://librarylab.co/story/a-hundred-joys

"A Hundred Joys" is a film about the main intersection of Toronto’s East Chinatown, a community whose stores spread out onto the streets. 

Within its seemingly small area, it shares an important history of entrepreneurship in the face of migration and dispossession. When the expropriation of the original downtown Chinatown began in the 1950s, Chinese businesses were forced to relocate. The city of Toronto was adamant to push them out from the area, and more than two thirds of the area was subsequently razed from existence. Many Chinese and Vietnamese Canadians migrated to Toronto’s east end, initially forming around a Chinese butcher shop on Broadview Avenue. 

This documentary pairs cinematic impressions of the East Chinatown neighbourhood alongside interviews with neighbourhood residents and business owners, giving voice to their experiences of community, identity, anxieties, and hopes for the future.