CHINESE CANADIAN MUSEUM'S "DREAM FACTORY" RECOGNIZED WITH 2025 CANADIAN MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: EXHIBITIONS
This prestigious national award honours excellence in museum exhibition initiatives across the country; Dream Factory is now extended through July
VANCOUVER, BC , Feb. 5, 2026 /CNW/ - The Chinese Canadian Museum is proud to announce its feature exhibition Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s–2000 has been recognized with the 2025 Canadian Museums Association Award for Outstanding Achievement: Exhibitions, a national honour presented to institutions that have demonstrated excellence in museum exhibition initiatives. In celebration of this award, Dream Factory, originally scheduled to close in May, will now extend its run until July 19, 2026.
"The Chinese Canadian Museum is deeply honoured to receive this award," says Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee, CEO of the Chinese Canadian Museum and curator of Dream Factory. "Dream Factory brings to light a largely overlooked chapter of Canadian popular culture -- one shaped by Cantopop and Mandopop and woven into the everyday lives of Chinese Canadian communities. These musical worlds are part of Canada's cultural fabric, even if they have often existed outside the mainstream record. This recognition affirms the importance of uncovering, preserving, and reintroducing these cultural references before they disappear, allowing museums to tell fuller, more nuanced stories of Canada -- where popular culture, memory, and migration intersect to create a richer national history."
The Award for Outstanding Achievement: Exhibitions recognizes excellence in exhibition planning, development, and delivery, celebrating projects that meaningfully and distinctively deepen public understanding.
"The Chinese Canadian Museum created a very innovative exhibition that was participatory and engaging. The narrative of the exhibition felt incredibly integrated with the community and wove together the present, past and future, telling living stories pulled from their deep relationships." -- CMA Awards Jury.
First opened on May 28, 2025, Dream Factory brings together newly commissioned fashion costumes, original music scores, immersive art installations, paintings, film, a bespoke karaoke room, and interactive listening stations to explore how popular music shapes diasporic identity. Both entertaining and deeply resonant for visitors, the exhibition also makes an important contribution to Canada's cultural archives -- preserving languages, emotions, migration stories, and ideas of modernity. In doing so, it traces rich cultural flows connecting Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and Canada.
"This award belongs to the Asian immigrant generation who arrived after 1967 and built new lives in Canada, far from their original homes," adds Lee. "It honours the parents who listened to this music while raising children who grew up with the voices of Sally Yeh, Leslie Cheung, and Roman Tam. This recognition is for them."
The Chinese Canadian Museum is located in the historic Wing Sang Building in Vancouver Chinatown at 51 E Pender Street. For information about the Chinese Canadian Museum's current exhibitions and events, please visit chinesecanadianmuseum.ca.
For more information about the Canadian Museums Association, please visit www.museums.ca.
The Dream Factory exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Province of British Columbia, Din Tai Fung North America, Fairchild TV, TalentVision, AM1470, FM96.1, and Fete Chinoise.
About the Chinese Canadian Museum | chinesecanadianmuseum.ca
The Chinese Canadian Museum Society of British Columbia is an independent, non-profit organization established in March 2020 to create a museum honouring and sharing Chinese Canadian history, contributions, and living heritage. Guided by its mission statement "Connecting to the Chinese Canadian story – addressing inclusion for all", the Chinese Canadian Museum aspires to provide an invigorating and transformative experience for present and future generations through its exhibitions and educational programming throughout B.C. and Canada.
The first of its kind in Canada, the Chinese Canadian Museum opened to the public in 2023, and is located in the historic Wing Sang Building in Vancouver Chinatown.
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SOURCE Chinese Canadian Museum
Media Contact: Sophia Cheng, [email protected]
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