The Ark world may be a celebration of Asian culture, but organizer Clement Chu hopes people from all backgrounds will enjoy a one-day festival in downtown Toronto.
Food, shops, music and speakers will all be featured at Toronto Metropolitan University's car hall on Saturday, with celebrity basketball games such as actor Simlieu and former Toronto Raptors star Jeremy Lynn the Day Finale. Chu said there's something for everyone, whether they have connections to Asia or not.
“The story that some of these people tell here is not necessarily about their Asians, but about resilience,” he said in a recent phone interview. “These are stories that apply beyond Asian communities, so we hope people will bring it out.
“We hope that people enjoy what comes from our culture, whether it's food, art or entertainment, and more than anything, we want to drive out young people, volunteer and contribute to our community.
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Originally named China's Canadian Youth Athletic Association, the Asian roots group was founded 30 years ago by Chu and his friends, creating a safe space for playing basketball. Chu said the organization's mission will expand to include people with connections to everything in Asia, including other “universal languages” like basketball, which can bring people together despite other linguistic or cultural barriers.
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“We want to show you all this, great, all this going on,” Chu said. “So we decided to change the organization a little bit, and I am sure we are no longer Chinese and we are no longer young-oriented programs, not just athletics.
“We wanted to have a calling card that was more representative of what we were doing, and this is the first year we are launching the ARC world.
However, the acronym still reflects basketball's roots.
“We're coming from basketball, so (name) is like a three-point arc, your shot arc, but now we're trying to tell a story, so this is a story arc,” Chu said. “That was the inspiration behind the organization's name.”
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Since its founding in 1995, ARC has come a long way in the same year that Raptors began performing in Toronto. At the time, 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, Ontario.
“We were making that joke. “Yeah, you know, you want to have gym keys rather than renting a school. “Thirty years later, through some of these initiatives, we were able to raise enough money to build our own mini community center with basketball hoops and more, so it's just funny, but now we have gym keys and it's pretty cool.”
“The only drawback is that I'm old enough that I can't play anymore, but my kids now have a place to run around. I teach video games, art, coding. It's way beyond basketball alone.”
The report, which was first published on July 11, 2025, by Canadian report.
& Copy 2025 Canada Report