Beyond Chinese Panels

Beyond Chinese is a conversation series with local artists and people of Chinese ancestry that highlights the diverse personal stories, migration backgrounds, and lived experiences within the community.

5:15pm | Panel 1 - Symbolism or Tokenism: Panelists will explore when symbolic gestures empower communities—and when they slip into tokenism—and discuss accountability and ethical representation.

Panelists: Clr. Lily Cheng, Joanne Wong, Melanie Fernandez 

7:15pm | Panel 2 - Confronting Inward and Reverse Racism: Panelists will explore forms of inward and reverse racism within Chinese-speaking communities. Perspectives from first-generation and 1.5+ generation speakers examine whether these issues are cultural, societal, or systemic—and how they can be addressed constructively.

Panelist: Tong Zhou, Aiko Tomi, Jeanette Kong

 

 

About the Panelists

Lily Cheng, City Councillor (Toronto) 

Lily Cheng is a long-time Willowdale resident, City Councillor, and dedicated community builder who has spent more than a decade bringing neighbours together in moments of crisis, healing, and collective action. She founded North York Moms, co-founded We Love Willowdale in the aftermath of the Yonge Street tragedy, co-founded a local food bank with a holistic approach to care, and led the Willowdale COVID Response Network to support vulnerable residents.

At City Hall, Lily serves as the Mayor’s Champion to Eradicate Intimate Partner Violence and Gender-Based Violence. Her top priority is empowering residents to participate in local democracy. She keeps the community engaged through twice-weekly newsletters, regular surveys, accessible events, and her signature Spaghetti Town Halls, creating space for open dialogue and ensuring residents’ voices help shape decisions.

Lily champions thoughtful planning, innovation, and stronger community services, including advancing participatory budgeting across Willowdale and securing a future Willowdale Intercultural Hub. Her leadership is rooted in compassion, collaboration, and a genuine commitment to listening—because a stronger community starts with engaged residents.

 

Joanne Wong, Educator

Joanne Wong is a second-generation Chinese Canadian educator who is passionate about building cultures that connect people through humanizing, relational approaches. Grounded in intercultural communication, her work is especially attentive to those often overlooked and the “invisible” qualities within individuals that shape new connections, meanings, and possibilities.

Across professional and community contexts, Joanne draws on her lived experience, relational networks, and the practice of working resourcefully with those already present to support people in navigating complex systems and diverse spaces. She is a co-creator of “A Story of And,” a resource that invites reflection on the interconnectedness of all things, using East Asian racism as an entry point for conversation and collective learning.

Outside of her advocacy for systemic change, Joanne can often be found running, spending time with her kids, or doing what she does best—creatively making something out of “whatever happens to be there,” including random leftovers in her fridge.

 

Melanie Fernandez, Arts & Cultural Leader and Educator

Melanie Fernandez has over 25 years of leadership experience in the arts and cultural sectors with a focus on exploring innovative frameworks for producing and learning through community-engaged intersectional practices. Her work is rooted in inclusionary platforms that ensure postcolonial representation of racialized and Indigenous stories.

Leadership positions include; Interim Executive Director, Woodland Cultural Centre, Director Cultural Engagement & Activation Department and Artistic Producer at Harbourfront Centre; Community Arts Officer at the Ontario Arts Council, Director of Education at the Art Gallery of Ontario Currently, Melanie teaches and consults.

 

Jeanette Kong, Filmmaker

Jeanette Kong is a Jamaican-born, Chinese-Canadian documentarian who has produced and directed several films about the Hakka people. Her 2012 feature Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China aired on PBS and the Africa Channel and was the winner of the audience award at the 2015 Reelworld Film Festival in Toronto. Jeanette’s latest film, A Brief Record of My Father’s Time at Sea, has been screened at several international film festivals and aired in Canada on TVO.

 

Aiko Tomi, Pop Artist

AIKO TOMI is Taiwanese-Canadian alt pop artist. The Toronto-based provocateur writes songs with hooks, perspectives and wordplay that turn the ordinary into something worth staring at. A classically trained pianist and composer, she was trained to get it right and make it beautiful, but she'd rather get it true, even when true is strange and a bit distorted.

Her sophomore album, Everything Sparks Joy (2025), earned nominations at Taiwan's 16th Golden Indie Music Awards (GIMA) for Best Alternative Pop Album and Best Electronic Song ("BOUNCE"). Animal's Awake (2023) was about reclaiming her body. Everything Sparks Joy was about surviving the contradictions running simultaneously in her mind. Her next chapter goes somewhere rawer, closer to the nerve. The Guardian named "Monolids" (from Animal's Awake) one of its top emerging tracks of the year, and "INVOICE" with Jesse Lucas became a word-of-mouth favorite in Toronto's music community. Singles have landed on Spotify's Fresh Finds, hyperpop, Fresh Finds Pop, and Fresh Finds Dance, as well as Tidal's Dance Pop, with additional coverage from Complex, CBC Radio, and Exclaim!  which praised her "lyrical deftness."

On stage, she performs as if possessed, taking up more room than her body should physically allow — kissing a 70-lb boa before dropping into a full squat, staging an Alien-vs-Sumo showdown, or scaling a stone lion mid-song. Every set feels like something that couldn't have happened any other night. She's specific enough to be unmistakable, strange enough to stay with you.

 

Tong Zhou, Visual Artist

Tong Zhou is a Toronto-based artist whose work examines identity, belonging, and the stereotypes that shape how Chinese-Canadians see themselves and each other. Born in China and now based in Toronto, he has exhibited with TAIWANfest since 2019, including The Courage, (Un)Being Chinese, and a self-portrait in the It's Me and Wǒ exhibition. His current work in progress follows a years-long spiritual journey into living with the concept of "no-self."