Allan Cho
Allan Cho[edit]
Media Writer Literature Person
Born and raised in Vancouver, Allan Cho is Canadian of Chinese heritage, whose research interests are in Asian Canadian history and culture. Allan has been involved in several community organizations including the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, the Roedde House Museum, and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. After the sudden passing of his friend and mentor, Jim Wong-Chu in 2017, Allan has assumed the interim role of Executive Director of the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, Festival Director of LiterASIAN Writers Festival, and Editor-in-Chief of Ricepaper Magazine.
Allan has published his work in the Georgie Straight, Ricepaper Magazine, Diverse Magazine, and short stories in the anthologies The Strangers and Eating Stories', A Chinese Canadian & Aboriginal Potluck. Having discovered in his genealogical research that his great-great-grandfather had arrived in Vancouver on March 11, 1899 at age 30 and great-grandfather in Vancouver on April 12, 1912 at age 24, Allan is currently working on a book project on the transnational journey of his family within the context of global migration in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is an academic librarian at the University of British Columbia Library. He maintains Allan's Library.
Community Contributions[edit]
He has served on the Board of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society and the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society. In addition to being the Executive Director of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, he is a published writer and nurtures youth writers through the national Ricepaper Magazine which recently has morphed into a more dynamic digital publication. Allan spearheads the annual LiterASIAN festival, which is the only Asian Canadian Writers’ Festival in North America. He consults on a variety of projects, and one called the Early Hong Kong-Canada Connections: An Exhibition-Oriented research Project to Uncover Historical Facts and Artefacts on Chinese Migration to the "New Gold Mountain" of Canada. He volunteers in the museum sector, serving as a tour docent at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and at the Roedde House Museum.