Books

Very Vancouver

Coming August 4, 2026
Pre-order here. Support your local bookstore!

Vancouver journalist Christopher Cheung has spent most of his career chasing the stories that no one else was covering, taking readers beneath the surface of the “city of glass” to expose the beating, multicultural heart of a place that has too easily been characterized by multimillion-dollar condos and yoga pants. In 15 deeply human and well-researched stories, Very Vancouver tours the city to reveal how families, businesses, and individuals are just trying to make a home in this beautiful, and challenging, place of plurality.

There are the families who were the first to mass-produce Canadian tofu and put beef balls in the earliest bowls of east-side phở. There is the diligent population of binners who scavenge alleyways for refundable cans and bottles. There is the roller-coaster story of how migration has shaped the kaleidoscopic menu — with bear claws, bánh mì, and tamales — of the legendary late-night Duffin’s Donuts. And, of course, there is the mysterious Baklava Man, who sold his treats on downtown streets after a career as an outspoken politician in Syria led to his exile.

Very Vancouver is a tribute to the city’s diasporas and examines the inequalities and fractured histories that mark every backyard vegetable garden and ubiquitous Vancouver Special, the boxy and derided design that housed newcomers. Vancouver is renowned for its natural beauty, but it’s also a place built on a foundation of migration, colonization, the working poor, and families who woke up every morning hoping for better.

Under the White Gaze:
Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism

Order via UBC Press here.

Finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award 2025
Finalist for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes’ Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes

Canada’s multiculturalism stops where most newsrooms begin. Despite recent efforts to increase diversity in the media, people of colour are often presented as clichés – from freeloading immigrants to keepers of exotic culture – rather than as individuals with complex stories.

Under the White Gaze is a candid investigation into the state of race in Canadian media today that challenges the way we think about the news we read, watch, and listen to.

Instead of treating diversity like a missing ingredient – simply add one racialized reporter and the problem is solved – journalist Christopher Cheung calls on newsrooms to think critically about representation in all areas of coverage. That means recognizing that even feel-good reporting about festive foods or model minorities can perpetuate the white gaze. Examining real stories from recent years for successes or how they fall short, Cheung weighs in on what they reveal about Canada’s white gaze, and how it operates differently than America’s.

Deeply researched and engagingly written by a racialized reporter navigating the industry, Under the White Gaze is the perfect addition to newsrooms, journalism schools, and social science departments, and is a great read for Canadian media consumers — as well as anyone who studies or is interested in race and representation.

Books

Very Vancouver

Under the White Gaze:
Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism

Essays

I Spent the Holidays in Inheritance Capitalism

Blind Spots

Last Supper at Soho

On Qingming, My Family Tidies the Graves

A Love Letter to the Shuttered Vancouver Courier

Moving On From a
Truly Special Vancouver Neighbourhood

Capturing Instagram’s Backstage from
My Downtown Window

My Cup of Bubble Tea