招牌志 Signs of the Times:
Chinese Signage in the Making of Richmond
招牌志 Signs of the Times:
Chinese Signage in the Making of Richmond
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Chinese Signage in the Making of Richmond
This artistic archival exhibition explores the shifting, layered meanings of Chinese business signage in Richmond across four visual eras, combining historical photographs from the Richmond Archives with new photographic works by 乜介 Mud Gai Art Collective. Through these signs, and supported by research into City of Richmond council minutes and local media, the project traces how Chinese diasporic identity, linguistic politics, and public space have evolved in response to migration patterns, urban development, and transnational geopolitics.
Richmond Plaza pylon sign, No. 3 Road -- [1989]. Photo: City of Richmond Archives, Photograph #2008 39 2 129
Hong Wo & Co. store -- [ca 1970]. Photo: City of Richmond Archives, Photograph #1988 18 93
Historical Context
Richmond has undergone significant demographic change since the late 20th century, becoming one of the most Chinese-populated cities in North America. With this came an increase in Chinese-language signage across storefronts, malls, and civic spaces.
As early as the 1980s, Chinese signage began attracting scrutiny from English-speaking residents, local politicians, and media commentators. Concerns were raised that signage “only in Chinese” created barriers to integration, threatened public cohesion, or rendered urban space illegible to non-Chinese residents. These complaints often echoed in city council debates and local newspapers, where Chinese signage was framed as a “problem” to be regulated.
Yet Chinese signage in Richmond has a much longer history, dating back to the late 19th century. In this context, Chinese signage is beyond the functional, as it tells stories of migration, belonging, racialization, place-making, cultural capital, and linguistic power.
Our Approach
This exhibition offers a visual and research-based inquiry into the aesthetics, politics, and cultural functions of Chinese business signage in Richmond across four key eras. Drawing on archival photographs, municipal records, and contemporary photographic works by 乜街 Mud Gai Art Collective, the exhibit explores how signage has served not just as a commercial marker, but as a layered expression of diasporic identity, linguistic negotiation, and spatial belonging.
The exhibit will feature archival photographs selected to represent distinct phases in Richmond’s signage history: early Chinese settlement, Orientalist aesthetics under the white gaze, waves of Hong Kong migration, and post-2010s shifts in regulation and transnational demographics. Each image will be accompanied by interpretive captions that highlight the social, linguistic, and political dimensions embedded in the design and public reception of signage from its era. Together with records from city council proceedings and local media, the exhibition traces how signage has evolved in response to broader cultural and policy dynamics.
The exhibit will be accompanied by three public programs. A moderated panel discussion or community roundtable will bring together local business owners, designers, cultural workers, and community members to explore how signage shapes everyday experiences of language, identity, and belonging in Richmond. A hands-on youth and family workshop, titled “Create Your Own Storefront Sign,” will invite participants to make bilingual signs using Chinese characters and English text, encouraging intergenerational dialogue about place-making and diasporic identity. A guided signage walking tour will lead visitors through a Richmond commercial district to examine how signage encodes layers of migration, economy, and cultural adaptation into the urban landscape.
The research and programming aim to foreground Chinese signage as an important but often overlooked lens through which to understand migration, regulation, and cultural expression. By examining the ways Chinese signage has been praised, contested, policed, and defended over time, the exhibit invites visitors to consider how visual language continues to shape civic life, memory, and power in the everyday built environment.
Era 1: Late 1800s–1900s: Scripts of Settlement
Interior of Hong Wo store. Photo: City of Richmond Archives photograph 1987 22 179
Era 2: 1900s-1960s: Under Predominant White Gaze
Canton Wun Tun Seafood House, Time Square -- [1993]. Photo: City of Richmond Archives, Photograph #2008 39 2 286
Era 3: 1970s–Early 2000s: Hong Kong Home
Aberdeen Centre entrance -- [ca. 1992]. Photos: City of Richmond Archives, Photograph #2008 39 2 184
Era 4: 2010s–Now: Networked Characters
Westminster Highway, 2025
What's Next
As this project develops, we plan to expand our archival research, deepen community partnerships, and seek collaboration with local museums to host the full exhibition.
A publication or digital resource will accompany the exhibit, documenting signage histories in Richmond and offering frameworks for other communities to explore language, identity, and public space on their own terms.
Partners & Acknowledgements
We thank City of Richmond Archives and 乜介 Mud Gai Art Collective for their images that are invaluable to the creation of this project.
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