ARC World may be a celebration of Asian culture, but organizer Clement Chu hopes that people from all backgrounds come and enjoy the one-day festival in downtown Toronto.
Food, shops, music and speakers will all be featured at Toronto Metropolitan University's Kerr Hall on Saturday, with a celebrity basketball game including actor Simu Liu and former Toronto Raptors star Jeremy Lin the day's finale. Chu said that there will be something for everyone, whether they have ties to Asia or not.
"The stories that some of these people are telling here, it's not just necessarily about them being Asian but it's a story of resilience," he said in a recent phone interview. "These are stories that apply way beyond, the Asian community so we hope people get that out of it.
"We hope people come enjoy the things that come from our culture, whether it's food or art or entertainment. More than anything else, we want to get young people out and volunteering and making contributions back to the community, because we feel a lot of that was lost during COVID."
Originally named the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletic Association, the Asian Roots Collective was founded 30 years ago by Chu and his friends to create a safe space to play basketball. Chu said that over time the organization's mission has broadened to include people with connections to all of Asia and to encompass other "universal languages" that, like basketball, can bring people together even if there are other linguistic or cultural barriers.
"We want to showcase all these things that are excellent, that are happening," said Chu. "So we decided to change the direction of the organization a little bit, because we're no longer just Chinese, we're no longer just youth oriented programs, and we're sure as heck not just athletics.
"We wanted to have a calling card that was more representative of what we're doing. This year is the first year we're launching ARC World, which is this convention where we're celebrating all things Asian."
The acronym ARC still reflects those roots in basketball, however.
"Because we come from basketball, (the name) is like the three-point arc, your shot arc, but we're trying to tell a story now so this is a narrative arc," said Chu. "That was the inspiration behind the name of the organization."
ARC has come a long way since it was founded in 1995, the same year the Raptors started playing in Toronto. Back then, Chu and other leaders within the organization had to rent basketball courts at local high schools. Now they have their own athletic centre in Markham, Ont.
"We used to make that joke about, 'oh, you know, one day, as opposed to renting schools, we'd love to have the keys to gym,' because that's the dream of every kid, to have the keys to gym so you could shoot around," he said. "It's just funny because, like, fast forward, 30 years later, through some of these initiatives, we were able to raise enough money to build our own mini-community centre with a basketball hoop and stuff, but so now we do have the keys to the gym which is pretty, pretty cool.
"The only downside is, I'm so old now that I can't really play anymore, but the kids now have a place to run around, we have video games there, art, we teach coding, it's gone far beyond just basketball."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
