Vancouver mourns artist and long-time activist Sid Chow Tan

The beloved documentarian was a founding director of Head Tax Families Society of Canada

By Gail johnson

Sid Chow Tan. Photo by David Cooper

VANCOUVER IS MOURNING the loss of long-time documentarian, activist, and organizer Sid Chow Tan. News of his death was shared on his Facebook page.

Chow Tan moved to Vancouver via Battleford, Saskatchewan, after leaving China with his family as a child. He advocated for social justice and human and environmental rights and is past national chair of the Chinese Canadian National Council. A community organizer and media producer, he served as a founding director of Head Tax Families Society of Canada and the Downtown Eastside Sacred Circle Society. He was a director of Full Figure Theatre Company Society and once ran for Vancouver city council with COPE. He had a daughter and a son and grandchildren.   

As a documentarian, Chow Tan was one of the few who got access to the 2002 Woodward’s squat, which is one of the most prominent acts of civil disobedience the city has ever seen. Chow Tan was among those arrested.

Tan was scheduled to appear at the 2022 Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. He was to present My Art is Activism, Part IV, sharing selections from his extensive archive of self-produced video journalism. According to the festival schedule, the videos he had selected highlight “Asian Canadian social movements and direct action in Chinatown and in particular redress for the Chinese head tax”. The November 3 virtual event was to be followed by a live Q&A with Tan.

“Rest In Peace dear pal! Ohhhh… so going to miss you,” Terry Hunter, of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, said on social media, sharing a photo of Tan that appears on the festival’s poster.

Facebook.

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