This Saturday, downtown Toronto will host ARC World, a dynamic one-day festival celebrating Asian heritage, presented by the Asian Roots Collective at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Kerr Hall. This highly anticipated event promises an immersive blend of food, music, art, and entertainment, with organizer Clement Chu hoping to attract a diverse audience eager to engage with and appreciate Asian culture.
The festival’s most anticipated event is the celebrity basketball game, featuring Marvel actor Simu Liu and former Toronto Raptors standout Jeremy Lin. This exciting athletic display will serve as the perfect conclusion to a day filled with enriching cultural experiences. Throughout the event, attendees can explore a wide variety of traditional Asian cuisines, discover captivating contemporary art installations, and be inspired by speakers sharing stories of resilience and success.
Clement Chu emphasizes that ARC World is designed to be more than just a cultural celebration; it’s a platform for exploring universal themes of perseverance and the crucial work of community building. The stories shared at the festival are intended to resonate broadly, focusing not solely on Asian identity, but on the shared human experience of overcoming challenges and forging stronger bonds across different communities. A key objective of the event is to inspire young people to engage in volunteer work and contribute positively to their local communities.
The Asian Roots Collective’s journey over the past 30 years is a remarkable testament to its evolving mission and growing impact. What began as the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletic Association, primarily a safe space for basketball, has transformed into a comprehensive organization. The ARC now operates its own expansive community center in Markham, Ontario, offering a wide range of facilities and programs including modern sports facilities, engaging gaming areas, creative art programs, and essential coding classes. The name change to ARC perfectly reflects this broadened mission, cleverly linking the three-point arc in basketball to the idea of a narrative storytelling arc.