Melody Yun Ya Ma - Publications & Public Talks

Publications

Write on urban planning, civic issues, arts, culture, race and heritage, and technology and science. Published in national and local outlets including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, The Tyee, Vancouver Sun, and The Georgia Straight. Opinion pieces have generated wide reach, sparked media interviews, informed policy discussions, and been cited in public debates. Also contribute critical book and art show reviews.

Columns & Contributions

Regular Contributor, Rungh Magazine (2025)
Contributing Columnist, The Tyee (2018–2019)
Contributing Columnist, Toronto Star (2018–2019)

Book Contributions

Vancouver’s resilient Chinatown fights back against new danger: gentrification (Contributed to White Riot by Henry Tsang, Vancouver Book Award Winner)
I Was Lured Into A Tea Shop: Vancouver’s Chinatown from 2013-2015 by Jonathan Desmond (Contributed the Preface)
From no computers to alternative facts: Coding in B.C. schools after one year (Reprinted in Heading Up 3, Enriched English as a Second Language (Secondary Five) by Annie Dumay (and ICT specialist), Luc Perron, Olivier Perron)

Selected Articles – Urban Planning & Civic Issues

‘Upzoning’ Might Mean More Apartments — But It’ll Wreck Neighbourhoods (The Tyee)
Parking for Greater Social Equity? (The Tyee)
Cities Aren’t ‘Unwritten,’ Despite Developers’ Ego-Driven Attempts to Rewrite Culture (The Tyee)
$30-million take from empty-homes tax is mark of failure (Vancouver Sun)
No time for silence on Berkeley Tower renoviction (Georgia Straight)
Survey results: Vancouver council candidates on public city views (Viewpoint Vancouver)
Community Engagement with Cultural Communities (Planning West Magazine 2018, Planning Institute of British Columbia)

Selected Articles - Arts

Selected Articles - Culture, Race, Heritage

HISTORY BUFF: The Chinese laundries of Nelson (Nelson Star)
An Otter Is Winning Big Support in Vancouver, but I’m #TeamKoi (The Tyee)
The Real Solution to Vancouver’s #CouncilSoWhite (The Tyee)
Why the ‘good immigrant’ trope isn’t the answer to racist op-ed in Vancouver Sun (Toronto Star)
I’ve lived the racism seen in that viral Vancouver parking-lot video — many Asians have (Toronto Star)
Marpole protest reflects historical Asian stigma of drug users (Vancouver Sun)
Do ‘wants’ of Canadian millennials trump ‘needs’ of millennials in Asia (Vancouver Sun)

Selected Articles - Technology, Innovation & Science

Canada’s Pride, the Canadarm, Now Has a Massive US Company in Its Orbit (The Tyee)
Country Collapsing? Let Them Eat Bitcoin (The Tyee)
The cost of clean air: Wildfire season will worsen inequality in B.C. (Toronto Star)
Amazon not a 'big win' for the Vancouver technology sector (Vancouver Sun)
From no computers to alternative facts: Coding in B.C. schools after one year (Vancouver Sun)
Let’s not make this coding debate the B.C. government’s new LNG strategy (Globe and Mail)
A Web for Everyone (net Magazine)

Scholarly Citations of Activism

Cited in scholarly publications for contributions to urban planning, heritage, and community activism, reflecting both academic and civic impact.

Siggers, P. (2021). Coalitional politics in the development of Vancouver’s Chinatown from 2000 to 2019 (Master’s thesis, Simon Fraser University). Highlights Ma’s leadership in creating the #SaveChinatownYVR campaign, including website development and social media mobilization to preserve Chinatown heritage.
Fowler, B., Nesen, Y., & Vegas, E. (2021). How British Columbia implemented its computer science education program (Brookings Institution). References Ma’s article Opinion: From no computers to Alternative Facts: Coding in B.C. schools after one year in the Vancouver Sun.
Dunn, K. (2020). Empty House: Real Estate and Theatricality in Vancouver’s Downtown (PhD thesis, University of British Columbia). Cites Ma’s activism via The Real Fight for Beauty blog and organized campaigns addressing artwashing and gentrification in Vancouver.
Pritchard, S. (2020). The artwashing of gentrification and social cleansing. In The Handbook of Displacement. Springer. Cites Ma as a panel member criticizing Westbank’s use of arts and culture to market luxury condos (“artwashing”).
Ross, S.G. (2020). Urban Law at Night: Night Mayors and Nighttime Urban Governance Strategies for Sustainable Urban Night Spaces and Spatiotemporal Equality (Schulich Law Scholars, Dalhousie University). References Ma’s writing on Vancouver Should Stop Subsidizing Developers’ Artwashing and Protect Creative Spaces published in The Tyee.
Murray, K. M. (2017). Seriality and Invitation: Knowing and Struggle in Vancouver Chinatown’s Historic Area Height Review (PhD thesis, University of British Columbia). Cites Ma’s #SaveChinatownYVR campaign.
Mark, T.T.T. (2017). Culturally appropriate community engagement in Vancouver’s Chinatown (Master’s thesis, University of British Columbia). Cites Ma’s leadership in the #SaveChinatownYVR campaign, including facilitation of community letter-writing platform.

Public Talks

Deliver guest lectures, keynotes, panels, and workshops on urban planning, gentrification, arts and culture, technology, race and heritage, and civic engagement. Invited to speak at universities including UBC, SFU, Capilano University, and Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as at cultural organizations, conferences, and public forums. Talks range from academic lectures and practical workshops to keynote presentations and panel discussions that connect local issues to global contexts.

Guest Lectures and Workshops

Building Justice: How Local Actions Connect to Global Change (GRSJ 306, Globalization & Social Justice: Gender, Race & Sexuality in International Politics, UBC, 2025)
How To Write An Op-Ed Workshop (The Dais, TMU, 2022)
Gentrification & Chinatown (Geography 261, Encountering the City, SFU, 2019)
Urban Planning Walking Tour of Chinatown (GEOG 202, Urban Field Studies, Capilano University, 2018)
Coding in the Classroom (EDCP 508, UBC, 2015)

Keynotes and Public Presentations

Ultimate Code Off (Microsoft, 2015)
Keynote presentation on gentrification (Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations' Annual North American leadership summit, 2019)
Make Vancouver the Slowest City! (Capilano University and The Tyee, 2018)
Keynote presentation on Doing Good with Tech (MacDevOps Developer Conference, 2017)
Ctrl Alt Del: On coding policy in BC (SFU, 2015)

Panels

Big Fight in Little Chinatown Panel (LUSH Cosmetics, 2025)
West Asia + North Africa + East Asia: A Global Youth Dialogue to Unlearn Orientalism (Critical Alternatives, 2025)
Big Fight in Little Chinatown: Film Screening & Panel (Patagonia, 2023)
Big Fight in Little Chinatown: Film Screening & Panel (DOXA, 2023)
Henry Tsang: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver (Uplift Asian, VPL, 2023)
Talking the Walk: What’s At Stake (360 Riot Walks, 2021)
When Facts Fail, Municipal Policy in the Disinformation Age (SFU City Conversations, 2019)
Chinatown and Beyond: Transforming Our City After the Apology (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, October 2018)
Milestones 2017: A Dialogue on Events that Changed Vancouver (Vancouver Planning Commission, 2018)
Women in Leadership panel (Douglas College Business Association, 2017)
Women in Tech panel (Women Learning Code, 2015)
Women in Tech panel (Girls Learning Code, 2015)

Moderator & Facilitator

Big Fight in Little Chinatown: Film Screening & Panel (VPL, 2024)
Big Fight in Little Chinatown: Film Screening & Panel (UBC AMS, 2024)
How to Be a Senator with Senators Bernadette Clement and Tony Dean (The Dais, TMU, 2022)
Big Fight in Little Chinatown: Film Screening & Panel (Heart of the City Festival, 2023)
Food Security, Culture and Urban Development in the Context of Vancouver’s Chinatown (hua foundation and SFU, 2018)
Sustainable Community Forum (UBC IdeasXChange, 2017)
BC provincial election candidate debate on arts policy (ArtsVoteBC, BC Alliance for Arts and Culture, May 2017)
BC Developer's Exchange and ReCollect (Code for Canada Vancouver Brigade, 2017)