Arlene Chan

Chan also represented Canada athletically as a member of the Outer Harbour Dragon Boat Club and the Canadian National Women's Dragon Boat Team, winning multiple gold and bronze medals at international championships.

Early life Chan was one of six children born to Doyle and Jean B. Lumb who ran the successful Kwong Chow restaurant located at Elizabeth and Dundas Street in Toronto's first Chinatown. Growing up in the centre of Toronto's Chinese community with her socially and politically active family, she witnessed the activism and organization within the community, from their rights advocacy initiatives to efforts to save Toronto's Chinatown. From these formative experiences, Chan became interested early-on in the history of Chinese Canadians, and from a young age collected print and documents to record the history of the community.

After her education, Chan began her professional career as a librarian with the North York Board of Education and continued to work for 30 years at the Toronto Public Library where she was instrumental in the success of the organization's bookmobile and at-home services.

Works Chan's writing career began in 1997 with her book Spirit of the Dragon: the Story of Jean Lumb, a Proud Chinese Canadian. The book tells the story of her mother, Jean Lumb, the first Chinese Canadian to receive the Order of Canada and her role in changing Canada’s immigration laws and contributions in saving Toronto's First Chinatown. Arlene Chan would go on to complete numerous children's books and research works documenting the history and experiences of Chinese Canadians in Canada and Toronto:

Youth books Awakening the Dragon: the Dragon Boat Festival. 2004 The Moon Festival: A Chinese Mid-Autumn Celebration. 1999 (shortlisted for the Ontario Silver Birch Award) Spirit of the Dragon: the Story of Jean Lumb, a Proud Chinese Canadian. 1997 (Awarded Choice Book by the Canadian Children’s Book)

Non-fiction books Righting Canada's Wrongs: the Chinese Head Tax and Anti-Chinese Immigration Policies in the Twentieth Century. 2014 (nominated for the Red Cedar Award and Heritage Toronto Book Award) The Chinese Community in Toronto: Then and Now. 2013 The Chinese in Toronto from 1878: From Outside to Inside the Circle. 2011 (nominated for the 2012 Heritage Toronto Book Award and 2013 Ontario Speaker’s Award) Paddles Up! Dragon Boat Racing in Canada. 2009 (the first book on the sport of dragon boating in Canada)

Representing Canada in athletics 2017 Heritage Toronto Special achievement

Community leadership Arlene Chan serves on the boards of various organizations:

President of the Jean Lumb Foundation Board member of Little Pear Garden Dance Company Advisor for Myseum of Toronto Advisor for Toronto Public Library’s Chinese Canadian Archive Member of Ontario Infrastructure Heritage Interpretation Working Group.

She shares the history and her own stories of Toronto’s First and West Chinatown through her writings, her Chinatown tours, and presentations are various organizations and educational institutes.