This Lunar New Year, we welcome the rabbit and its offerings of stillness, softness, and reflection.

We include a digital 門聯 (mùhn lyùhn) to hang on doors and walls as words of blessing. This year, it reads, 棄舊兔新 (translation: turning over a new leaf). Print it out and hang it to welcome the good luck and prosperity of the rabbit to your home for the new lunar year. When you do, tag us @huafoundation to show us where you’ve hung yours!

The Lunar New Year begins on January 22nd, 2023. While many communities will be celebrating the Year of the Rabbit, some zodiac animals vary by region or culture. This year, those who follow the Vietnamese zodiac and Gurung zodiac will be honouring the Year of the Cat, and we’ve partnered with local Vietnamese artist Triet Pham to welcome them both for 2023! 

In the spirit of the rabbit, we have been reflecting on all that we’ve been able to accomplish with your support. 

This past year, we piloted a program in collaboration with Be You Counselling called Reorienting Our Trauma. A group healing space by and for Asian youth, we collectively explored themes of cultural reclamation, intergenerational and racialized trauma, diasporic angst, and more. Based on group therapy practices, participants embraced healing as a collective, helping individuals make sense of their own racialized trauma and experiences by sharing, listening, and learning together. Our hope is to continue providing this program free of cost to Asian youth—destigmatizing access, removing barriers, and equipping them with the knowledge to begin journeys of healing. Find resources compiled from the first cohort’s learnings and reflections here. 

We also published the Asian Community Convener Project Report and Community Catalogue, which focused on establishing a baseline understanding of where and how anti-racism work was being advanced by Asian community organizations in the province of British Columbia. These documents (downloadable here) are the result of this year-long process. The Report explores how representation is important but has its limits, how arts and culture is a powerful conduit for re(connecting) with our heritage but can silo opportunities for community organizations, and it details a pronounced vision for continuing to work intergenerationally and across different groups. Our Catalogue is a supporting document to the Report that features snippets of raw interviews from the many organizations who shared words of wisdom with us.

Following our COVID-19 response work, we launched our Language Access Project to address the growing need for cultural competency and language accessibility in government and public institutions. Keep an eye out for our resource guide and toolkit for communications and engagement professionals, launching this spring! In 2023, we are looking forward to activating these learnings with project partners at Metro Vancouver, the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the Province of BC through our upcoming community of practice. While our short term aim is to work collaboratively towards better language policy, our hope is that this process will create long lasting relationships between communities and institutions, that build and maintain momentum for broader systems change work.

And finally, with support from the City of Vancouver and the Law Foundation, we have formalized our community capacity building portfolio—which is something that has been in development off the side of our desks for many years. From the beginning, we have helped seed initiatives like the Chinatown Cares Grocery Delivery Program, supported the buildout of organizations like Chinatown Today, and provided administrative support to a wide range of BIPOC youth-led projects. This work spans mentorship, ‘how-to’ workshops and guides, and provides convening spaces for community members to collectively learn and support each other.

This past year has been incredible. As a team, we’ve been materializing program dreams into program realities, putting our energy towards creating social policy that results in systems change and equity for the most marginalized, and we’ve been strengthening relationships with our community, across communities, and beyond.

So if you can help our small team to continue this pivotal work on building spaces of healing, anti-racism, systems change, and capacity building, please consider starting a monthly donation or make a one-time contribution. Monthly donations not only make it possible for us to keep existing programs running, but also to dream bigger and imagine brighter, more sustainable futures for our work. A special thank you to those who already support our work financially and beyond—it means a lot to us to be in such a generous community.

Hopping towards a new day, thanking the past. We plan for future years, hoping they will be better than the last! Thank you 感謝, and Happy Lunar New Year! 恭喜發財! 🐇✨

With care,

Christina Lee 李嘉明, Kevin Huang 黃儀軒, and Kimberley Wong 黄壯慈; with

A. Mylvaganam 麦英, Arina Sin, Betty Yeung 楊家琪, Guneet Pooni, Joty Gill, Joyce Deng 邓玉书, JP Catungal, Kailey Tam 譚慧儀, Kathleen Anne Ravalo Zaragosa, Mandy Huynh 黄闵媛, Mimi Nguyễn, Suki Xiao 肖斯琦, Victoria So 蘇美馨

And Crecien Bencio, Elaine Su 蘇依泠, Emily Huynh, Jessica Wang 王衍華, Joanne Li 李亚君, Joyce Liao 廖釆約, Miranda Eng 伍文莊, and Yara Younis يارا يونس from the board