“In the crowded but cozy alleys of Jiangnan, neighbours are close to each other. I once lived in a neighbourhood in Jiangnan, a city located in the southern part of China, during a summer vacation when I was little. This oil painting, named Accompany, is inspired by an old photograph my father took when we stayed there. The boy and his dog in the picture were our neighbours, and we used to go biking together. I created this painting to reminisce about the harmony between neighbours and my happy childhood. I used contrasting sizes of strokes to create a dynamic, with the finer strokes depicting the lovely rhythm between the two subjects, and the wilder strokes rendering the texture of the wall. The comparison between dark, highly saturated colors and the white wall brings out the subjects. The subtle colours immersed in the white wall and on each object convey the richness of neighbourhood life.”
—Yitong Wang (Grade 11, The Study, Montreal, Quebec)

C.D. (Chow Dong) Hoy (1883–1973) is one of the earliest Chinese Canadian photographers on record. His portraits reflect the many cross-sections of a diverse community in Quesnel, British Columbia, at the turn of the twentieth century.