The Vivian Jung Project Fundraiser                                                      

Tecumseh Elementary’s Anti-Racism Committee has embarked on a project to celebrate the life and legacy of Vivian Jung, the first teacher of Chinese descent to be hired by the Vancouver School Board in 1950.     Vivian taught at Tecumseh Elementary for 35 years, and is a shining example of someone who persevered through the racism that pressed on her throughout her life.  She was instrumental in ending racist segregation laws that prohibited non-white people from swimming with white people, and pursued a career in teaching even when she was told by everyone that she wouldn’t be accepted in the profession because of her ethnicity.  Vivian’s story is one that we feel everyone should know, and we are working as a school community to learn about and from her story, and to share it with others.

This year, in the year that Vivian would have turned 100, we have produced a book of student poetry and art about Vivian Jung with the help of Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, Fiona Tinwei Lam, and Tecumseh AIRS artist-in-residence, Julie McIntyre.  We have a goal of selling 400 books to help raise funds for a mural that will be a school-wide project next year involving students, staff, and artists, Janet Wang and Stella Zheng.  The mural will be a tribute to Vivian Jung, and will tell her story to all who walk through Tecumseh’s entrance.

The purchase of this book of poetry, Splash! Odes To Vivian Jung, will be a way to help spread Vivian’s story and her legacy of courage, determination, and resiliency.  The book is $15 with all proceeds going toward the Vivian Jung mural, and can be purchased through a link on our school’s website from May 13^th to May 31^st.  

Read more about Vivian Jung and sample some of the poems in an article in Rice Paper Magazine.