Emma Q Zhou, a senior at BASIS International School Shenzhen, is committed to unearthing silenced voices. Her work lies in an intersection between history, film, and art, driven by the belief that remembrance can be an act of resistance.
Her journey began with Heirlooms in Frames, a digital archive initiative retelling counterhistories of Chinese-Canadians (like herself). In a series of films, plays, and artworks analyses, this project examines the psychological and socio-cultural struggles that Chinese-Canadians have undergone while trying to preserve both dimensions of their identity. The project stands as a cinematic and art tribute to reimagine cultural memory and seeks to challenge who gets to decide which stories are preserved. This project marked the beginning of Emma's commitment to using history, film, and art to confront silence and empower marginalized voices.
Building on this foundation, Emma went on to create a 27-minute historical documentary in Armenia, Candles for Silence, which bridges Chinese and Armenian collective memory through a symbolic exchange of candles for stories on the Armenian Genocide, capturing how remembrance endures despite erasure. Collaborating with Zoryan Institute Armenia and the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, she translated and published the survivor memoir Ravished Armenia in simplified Chinese and helped adapt the museum's catalogues and audioguides, reintroducing the testimony and histories to new audiences. These efforts are driven by her wish to make history accessible and remembered across borders and languages.
Her advocacy extends beyond history. Through Rainbow Road, a disability-rights art initiative collaborating with Shenzhen Municipal Disabled Persons' Federation, Emma led over 100 local students to paint tactile pavements in bright patterns to raise awareness for the visually-impaired and to deter obstruction of tactile pavements by bicycles and scooters. With the project's promotional video gaining over 50,000+ views, Rainbow Road initiated conversations on inclusion and empathy beyond Emma's neighborhood in Shenzhen.
As coleader of the Cultural Studies Club at her school, Emma extends her commitment to cultural advocacy into her school community. Organizing in-school events like International Food Day, cultural perfume-making, turtle soup storytelling games, and museum visits, she encourages younger students to explore various cultural identities through experience. Through these events, Emma builds a community rooted in curiosity and empathy, where cultural awareness becomes both felt and understood.
Across each of these initiatives, Emma's work is driven by a single pursuit: to reclaim what history has left in parentheses. Through film, community art, and translation, she transforms acts of remembrance into acts of restoration, bringing silenced stories into dialogue with the present. Her work stands at an intersection between empathy and scholarship, where history becomes not merely studied but rather reawakened. Each project she undertakes is a step toward a world where remembrance becomes resistance, and storytelling becomes a way to return voice, dignity, and space to those written out of the page.
Heirlooms in Frames
As a Chinese-Canadian, I’ve grown up between inherited silence and inherited strength. Much of what I knew about my community’s history lived in fragments: footnotes of the Chinese Exclusion Act, railroad workers standing in the background of the photo commemorating the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, photographs without names.
Thus, Heirlooms in Frames began as my attempt to listen to those silences of my community’s past and turn them into a living dialogue.
Heirlooms in Frames is a cinematic and art initiative intertwined with historical storytelling to examine the psychological and socio-cultural struggles that Chinese Canadians have undergone while trying to preserve both dimensions of their identity. It challenges the one-dimensional stories often imposed on multicultural groups by most media and historical narratives.
In a series of films, plays, and artworks analyses, I invite my readers to take a renewed and critical view of Canadian history. Each article weaves together historical situations, personal narratives, and artistic interpretations to revive the voices of the Chinese-Canadian experience, retelling the “counterhistory” (evocation of a particular history of racial injustice) which seeks to reverse the cultural amnesia, erasure of trauma, and refusal to accept culpability from contemporary thought.
At its core, Heirlooms in Frames invites a renewed and critical view of Canadian history and challenges the majority view that there has been some level of settlement and closure, which was formed after Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave the public government apology to people of Chinese descent in 2006. The language surrounding the reconciliation still reflects a reluctance to admit harms done from race-based policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Chinese Head Tax. The whole project draws upon cultural memory studies and historiophoty, using written plays and films as creative vessels to interpret, preserve, and reframe Chinese diasporic identity and history. The project title Heirlooms in Frames reflects its layered nature: “heirlooms” speaking to cultural stories, identities, and memories passed down through generations, and “frames” having multiple meanings across cinema and art—both the visual structures of the cinema and the artistic act of preservation.
This project stands as a cinematic and artistic tribute and a wish for a world rooted in compassion and empathy, where friendly relationships can be formed between different cultural backgrounds, and histories are preserved, celebrated, and shared across generations.
Candles for Silence:
a documentary on the Armenian Genocide
The idea of Candles for Silence originated from a phone call my mother had with her Armenian ex-colleague. This passing conversation marked my first encounter with learning about the Armenian Genocide, which I had never touched upon in any of my previous history studies. My curiosity about this new subject drove me to ask people around me for their knowledge on the event. However, to my surprise, this historical event was barely known by both the Chinese and Canadian communities around me. This acknowledgement made me recognize echoes from my own cultural past, where collective pain is softened into silence.
My aspiration to bridge these silences gave rise to Candles for Silence, a documentary endeavor where I aim to preserve history, educate the larger community, and advocate for peace. At its core, Candles for Silence asks the question: How do we inherit a story or history that is not ours?
So, packing my Canon EOS M5, a DJI Pocket 3 with a mini-microphone, and nine boxes of candles, I caught a flight to Yerevan, Armenia, to experience the culture and learn about this part of their history for myself.
Filming Process in Armenia
Street Interviews
I went to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in the morning. However, for some reason, the museum-institute was closed today (I later learned that it was their Consititution Day Holiday). Unable to tour the inside of the museum, I walked around touring the memorial on the outside.
As I was standing inside the memorial with the firepit and the flowers surrounding it, I placed a candle and a flower beside the firepit and intrinsically mourned for the 1.5 million people who lost their lives…..After I got up, I saw two Armenian older ladies staring at me, curiously staring at me (I am indeed a rare appearance, as very few East Asians travel to Armenia). The two older ladies asked me if I spoke Armenian, with their daughter translating what they said for me. I told them I do not speak Armenian, and so their daughter asked me in English what I was doing here at the memorial. I told her about my historical documentary project, Candles for Silence. She liked the idea very much and told me that she was an Armenian living in France, and they came back to learn more about their motherland’s history. I asked if I could interview her, but she said she was too shy to be interviewed. She wished me good luck.
After staying at the memorial for a little longer, I tried approaching an older man jogging in the area. Using my translator to communicate with him, he said he was too shy and was not fluent in English, hence rejecting my offer.
Next, I went to the cascade. I nervously approached an older lady sitting on the long benches beside the cascade, but she said she was not Armenian and didn't speak any English; however, she recommended I approach a younger Armenian lady reading a book on the nearby bench.
I interviewed the younger Armenian lady on the bench. I asked her if she thinks the world has truly listened to Armenian stories. She taught me a lot about the ancient history of Armenia. She notes that people nowadays remember Armenia as the first country to adopt Christianity officially, but do not know about how Armenians were part of a much more ancient civilization. She told me about Lake Van and how this part of Armenian history was never told due to political reasons, and mainly because people do not wish to change the history they already know. She said that because Armenia is such a small country, people do not wish to recognize it as part of the earlier civilizations. She taught me about how Armenians are possibly related to the Sumerians.
After this, I tried approaching a young man, but he also rejected my box of candles because he said he did not have any interesting stories to tell me.
Then, I walked to the History of Armenia Museum, but for some reason it was also closed today…I was a bit tired and walked to the park nearby and sat on a pedestal. There, I approached a man sitting beside me, and he accepted my interview and also agreed to be on camera! We first started talking about the culture of Armenia, and he told me a lot about the cuisine here. Then, we went into a deeper conversation about the genocide in Armenia. He told me he was born here and moved to Germany when he was 18. He said people in Armenia learned about the genocide in primary school, around 2nd to 3rd grade. I asked him what he felt when he first heard about the genocide…he told me how devastating, dramatic, and heartbreaking it was to first hear about the event. He told me about how Armenia used to be a larger country, and since it always had a small population, how much 1.5 million deaths meant to them…he said he hoped countries and larger countries could stop using the genocide as a political card (such as how the US use recognizing the genocide as a threat to make Turkey do what the US wish to), and hope China and Canada can do the same. He said he just hoped for the historical truth to be recognized, for the country that did the wrong (Turkey) to pay back and recognize what Armenia has lost. I was heartbroken hearing the event, and I told him about the Nanking massacre and how it is so sad that, having lived in both China and Canada, I never learned about the Armenian genocide at school. I gifted him a candle, and he laughed, and I told him the meaning of the candle, which means for remembrance. We exchanged emails, and he asked me to send him my finished documentary once I was done editing (which I later sent).
After that, I walked to a Christian church nearby—Yerevan Cathedral. There was a wedding being held, and we sat down to observe the wedding. Then we realized some flower boys and girls were curious about me and kept looking at me (probably because they had never seen an East Asian before). I said hello to them, and they asked me if I spoke Armenian. Then, I started using the translator to communicate with them. They taught me “barev” was hello in Armenian and asked me to teach them some Chinese words: “ni hao” (你好) means hello in Chinese, “ni zen me yang” (你怎么样) means how are you, and “hun li” (婚礼) means wedding. They even asked me if I watched Squid Game season 3, if I liked Ronaldo or Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar, or Ronaldo or him. The little flower was very cute, and I answered “You”. They also asked us how long we were staying, and one of the flower boys asked us, “For my sake, can you stay for 8 days?” I said “Yes” haha. The conversation was very cute and heartwarming…even though we didn't know each other’s languages, we were able to talk through translators.
At night, after eating dinner, it was raining outside and so I decided to head directly back to my hotel. As I was heading back, I saw two boys standing under the roof of an architecture here in Republic Plaza, and I approached them to interview them. Throughout the interview, they told me a lot about the genocide, about the culture in Armenia, and about the stories behind the corrupt Armenian government. I was so heartbroken when I heard about these stories, especially on the genocide and the recent protests Armenians held against the government over 2020-2024 over the 2020-2021 Nagorno-Karabakh war. He told me about how the government betrayed them by signing the agreement to give lands to Azerbaijan, and how, because of it, civilians were killed and lands were lost. One of the boys was born in Toronto (same as me) and lived in Scarborough. He told me that his father worked for security cameras for some sort of drones (check back on interview), and his father was arrested multiple times by the Armenian government. He told me how the government was corrupted, how Armenians were protesting since 2020, and now the government censors every criticism it receives (so he said it's basically a dictatorship now). The other boy is from the UK, and he told me how every time he went to the Turkish barbershop, he said he was Armenian and the Turks would say immediately, “the genocide never happened. Even if it did, the Armenians deserved it”. The Canadian boy said something similar, which is when he was playing games on the internet, some Turkish people suspected from their last name that they were Armenian, and said the same thing. The Canadian boy told me a lot about their protests, how the government did not trust the people, how they lost their land, and lost 5000 people in 44 days. He told me about the fire porch protests (walking from Republic Plaza to Armenian genocide museum - 2-3 hr walk), burning Turkish flags. He told me how the government is now targeting the church, which criticized the gov’s actions. They both told me how much they wanted the world to hear about these stories. In the end, they said a sentence in Armenian and gave the interview a message: The Armenian people will stay strong. I was so, so touched by their story that when I walked back to my hotel, I couldn't tell if the drops on my face was from my tears or the rain….I felt so helpless, and they felt helpless too. They said no country wants to help Armenia because Armenia’s economy is not strong, and so the countries wouldn't get any benefit out of it. The only thing I feel I can do with my limited power is to spread these stories they told to others…and that’s the goal of my historical documentary project, Candles for Silence.
Collaboration with Zoryan Institute Armenia
During my visit to Yerevan, Armenia, I was able to meet Mari, the Zoryan Institute Armenia ambassador, whom I connected with through email before my visit.
Zoryan Institute was founded in the 1980s, and it began in the US, then established a branch in Canada and Armenia. Mari told me about the Institute's work in interviewing around 700 Armenian genocide survivors. In turn, I told her about my documentary project, Candles for Silence, and how I aspire to use this documentary project to teach and educate more people in China about the event. Mari was super excited about my project and invited me to be Zoryan Institute’s ambassador in China, where I would translate the Institute's interviews and books into Chinese.
During our meeting, Mari also taught me about her views on the cause behind Turkey's continuous denial of the genocide event. She explained that it is because Turkey's political ideology is carried on (and hence it’s different from Germany), as they still wish to establish an empire. Also, recognizing the genocide would mean paying monetary reparations and giving back land to Armenia. She tells me about her wish, which is that someday, when Armenia gets stronger as a country, Turkey will recognize the genocide and peace between the two countries could be established, ending their current antagonistic political relations. I told her about the Nanking Massacre, which happened in China, and she told me she is currently focusing on comparative genocide studies and hopes I can share with her resources so she can learn more about the Nanking Massacre. She also told me that most people in the world do not know that the Ottomans’ act of genocide on Armenians is a continuous process, starting from 1894 with the Hamidian genocide, the Adana Genocide, and up to the Armenian genocide. She also told me about how, during a recent period, many Turkish people realized they had Armenian origins, because many of their mothers were Armenian (due to acts of rape committed by Turks in the genocide). She told me how emotionally stressful it is to translate and transcribe the interviews of the genocide survivors. I felt heavy.
Collaboration with Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI)
My experience touring the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute was heartbreaking and traumatic. I saw lots of pictures, books published by witnesses, and ways that Armenians suffered - mutilated, thrown off cliffs, drowned, women raped, and priests hanged.
After having a full tour of the museum, I met with Dr. Robert Tatoyan, a senior researcher at the Museum-Institute. I interviewed Dr. Tatoyan about his research on the Armenian genocide. He told me his research focused on the demographics, the death toll of Armenians during the genocide (since the Turks always tend to lower the number. While he taught me a lot about the genocide (how women became Muslim, hid their identity, and experienced horrible crimes of war, and how, currently, around 1 million Turks still have Armenian descent), I taught him about the Nanking Massacre, which he said he had never learnt about before. [For more interview content, please refer to my documentary!!]
After our interview, Dr. Tatoyan showed me the museum’s library of books, including books on the 700 testimonies from survivors, books about women and children who escaped the genocide. In the end, while I gifted him a box of candles, Dr. Tatoyan gifted me the English version of the book Ravished Armenia, and I offered to help translate the book into simplified Chinese and publish it in mainland China. After leaving Robert, I met with Edita Gzoyan, Director of the Museum, and she told me they had Chinese and Korean versions of the Museum’s catalog in progress. I offered to become their editor for the Chinese versions of the Museum catalog as well as the audioguide scripts.
Meaning of the Title & Reflections
In the end, Candles for Silence has become more than an educational, artistic project and more of a practice in empathy.
Each candle and exchange became an act of repair, a way of carrying another’s memory without claiming ownership over it.
Even with the candles burned out, the light of them remains, flickering quietly in every story still awaiting to be heard.
Candles for Silence is my attempt to honor those moments of quiet exchange. It shows that sometimes, the most profound remembrance begins not in speech, but in listening.
Rainbow Road:
an art advocacy initiative for disability rights
Taking one of my regular evening walks, I nearly stumbled over a heap of bicycles and scooters parked over the tactile pavements. I imagined how someone visually impaired would also stumble at my spot, their cane falling as it meets the encroaching clutter of wheels. This thought stayed with me, unsettling in its weight as I acknowledged that their steps were not stopped by their limits, but by ours.
This thought gave rise to my initiative, Rainbow Road, a public art and accessibility endeavor where I led students to repaint the tactile pavements in bright, vividly colored patterns to raise awareness for disability rights and deter obstruction by bicycles and scooters.
Initially, painting a single stroke by myself, I was gradually joined by local primary school students. Students came up to me curiously asking what I was doing, and after explaining my purpose, they grabbed a brush and palette from my side and started painting alongside me. With over a hundred local primary students joining me in painting the tactile pavements, the road became filled with a myriad of colors and patterns.
I still hold dear the memories created from Rainbow Road. Specifically, a moment I recall dearly is when I was scrubbing the paint away after being ordered by city inspectors and being criticized by passersby who said my initiative looked bad and ruined the neighborhood landscape. A young girl encouraged me and told me that "Jiejie (姐姐, Chinese for generally referring to 'older sister'), this matters." After a while, her mother came to pick her up and asked me what I was doing, and before I could answer, I heard the young girl explain the purpose of my initiative eloquently. However, because I was bent down scrubbing the paint, I never got to see the girl's face, but only saw her pair of white shoes and grey sweatpants -- but that doesn't matter anymore, as this dear moment captures how the spirit of Rainbow Road is fulfilled: even as the colors fade away, the message remains, and awareness is spread.