About Marlene

Marlene Yuen is a storyteller; she creates comics, prints and book works to convey stories. She weaves text and imagery to create sequential art. She finds inspiration from graphic design, children picture books, patterns, vintage hand bills and posters. After years of making one of a kind books, she rediscovered printmaking as being an essential part of her practice. The ability to print multiples allows for further sharing and passing on of stories.

Vegetable Sellers Association

This zine describes the discrimination faced by Chinese vegetable pedlars in Vancouver in the early 1920s. Pedlars woke up early and knock door to door selling vegetables to various neighbourhoods. This was a means of making a living however many western grocery stores resented the pedlars as they sold vegetables at a much lower price. At one point, the City of Vancouver tried to enforce a tax on Chinese vegetable sellers. As a result, the Chinese Vegetable Sellers’ Association formed in 1922 to protect their working rights.

Vegetable Sellers Association, 2017, screen printed cover and photocopied vegetables on bond paper.

Dimensions: 5.5” X 4.25″, edition of 65.

Jumbo’s Cabin

In 1888 Cumberland, British Columbia was rich with the natural resources of coal. Chinese workers were brought in by the Dunsmuir family (Union Colliery Company) to build and then work in the mines and to build the Wellington Colliery Railway to transport the coal to the seaport of Union Bay as a result Chinese labourers were employed. The Chinese were assigned a swampy wetland just outside mine #2; they dredged it and built their businesses and homes: Chinatown. From 1888-1968 Cumberland’s Chinatown was a vibrant, thriving community. This book depicts the last citizen of Cumberland’s Chinatown, Hor Sue Mah aka Jumbo, and the last existing structure, his cabin.

Jumbo’s Cabin, 2018, risograph zine printed by Erica Wilk of Moniker Press

Dimensions: 8.0” X 5.0″, edition of 50. (only a few left!)