January 20 2004: East meets West at Aberdeen
Vancouver Sun

The traditional lion dance that will inaugurate Richmond's all-new Aberdeen Centre next Saturday is likely the most "Chinatown" thing you'll probably see in this spanking-new, high-tech retail palace. Fairchild Media chief and mall developer Thomas Fung is eager to escape the visual clichés--as well as the limited marketing potential--of both the "Old Chinatown" of Vancouver's Pender Street, and the "New Chinatown" flanking Richmond's No. 3 Road, just outside the doors of the $100-million first phase of his mall. Accordingly, his commercial tenant legal agreements oblige Aberdeen merchants to ban permanent Chinese-language signs, inside and out.