Ex-journalists lament closure of Ming Pao, Canada’s last Chinese-language daily paper

VANCOUVER — British Columbia legislator Teresa Wat says she cried upon hearing of the impending closure of Ming Pao Daily News, the only Chinese-language daily newspaper in Canada.

Wat, who worked as an assignment editor at Ming Pao’s Richmond, B.C., newsroom in 1996, leading a team of 10 reporters, said the publication has been more than a newspaper — it’s been a lifeline for Chinese-speaking immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, and beyond.

“It also provides practical guidance on housing, on employment, language barriers and cultural integration,” said Wat, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Richmond-Bridgeport.

She said the newspaper, whose parent publication is based in Hong Kong, focused “on the perspective of immigrants, really blending Asian insight to local Canadian issues, and also challenge the stereotypes of the Chinese community.”

Ming Pao announced on Monday that its final Vancouver and Toronto editions will be published on Jan. 16 and its newsrooms and offices will shut on Jan. 31.

Sixty staff in B.C. and an unknown number in Toronto were given notices of termination. In 2014, the newspaper had about 130 unionized staff in Toronto, according to an announcement of a collective agreement at the time.

Ming Pao, which launched its two Canadian editions in 1993, said in an article on Tuesday that the closure decision was made by its head office in Hong Kong.

The Canadian Press obtained a letter from the newspaper informing the B.C. Ministry of Labour of the layoffs, saying the business was being permanently closed “for financial reasons.”

Ming Pao’s article says it launched a petition in 2024 to ask for government subsidies from the Canada Periodical Fund, but no funding was ever received.

However, the website for the Canadian Journalism Collective, which distributes funds under Canada’s Online News Act, shows that Ming Pao received more than $1.1 million in 2025.

The collective did not respond to a question about what would happen to the funding after Ming Pao’s closure.

The Chinese media sector has struggled alongside English-language media. Last month, Fairchild Radio received an approval from the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission resulting in the shuttering of its dedicated Chinese-language talk-radio AM 1470 station, by moving some of the content to another FM station.

Wat said she was “troubled” by the fact there would no longer be a Chinese-language daily in Canada. Ming Pao’s main rival in Canada, Sing Tao, ceased publishing its Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary print editions in 2022, although it continues to report daily for its website.

She said it was common to see older Chinese-speaking immigrants reading Ming Pao in Richmond dim sum restaurants as part of their daily routine. Its absence would leave some feeling “isolated,” while weakening public accountability on issues important to immigrants and Chinese-speaking communities, she said.

Vancouver-based Austin Feng, who worked at Ming Pao as a daily news reporter from 2005 and 2017, said it was an era when multiple Chinese-language newspapers and TV stations thrived in B.C.

Feng said that on big show business and celebrity stories, there was stiff competition among local Chinese-language reporters and journalists sent out from Hong Kong. With many Hong Kong entertainers maintaining homes in Vancouver or Toronto, many of Ming Pao’s Canadian stories were published both locally as well as in the outlets’ parent publications.

“It was the golden age of Chinese-language media, with readers having the greatest demand, while Chinese media outlets were fiercely competing with each other,” said Feng.

Wat said her day as assignment editor usually began with her editor placing copies of Sing Tao and Ming Pao in front of her, and if the rival paper had beaten Ming Pao to a story, he would ask: “How could you miss this?

“It was a lot of pressure and a lot of fulfillment. So, whenever I beat Sing Tao, I was so elated,” said Wat.

Feng said Ming Pao’s closure didn’t come as a shock to him, although it saddened him.

“It feels like standing on the cliff to see the digital era begin while the paper era, the era that belongs to me, comes to an end,” said Feng. “But storytelling never dies,” he added.