Ming Pao newspaper will end its operations in Canada at the end of the month, citing financial concerns.
Canada's last Chinese-language daily paper to cease operations, January 15, 2026
Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao is ceasing Canadian operations at the end of the month. As JP Gallardo explains, the paper served a vital role in the Chinese-Canadian community.
Chinese-language paper, Ming Pao, closing down in Canada, January 16, 2026
Ming Pao Daily News has published its final issue Friday in Metro Vancouver. The publication, which started in Hong Kong, is shutting down its Canadian operations by the end of the month. The paper has been serving the Chinese-speaking community in Metro Vancouver for over three decades.
Only Chinese-language daily paper in Canada prints final editions, January 16, 2026
Ming Pao, the only Chinese-language daily newspaper in Canada printed its final editions and is closing offices in Richmond, B.C. and Toronto after more than thirty years. Some warn it may create news deserts for Chinese speakers and immigrants.
I have to stress this shrinking of Hong Kong/Chinese diaspora media isn't just about being left behind in the digital landscape. Every Chinatown had to have at least a couple bookstore/stationery /periodical racks filled with imported and domestic Chinese newspapers and magazines for every interest, age, and most political persuasions.
The retreat of Sing Tao and now Ming Pao in Canada is part of a deeper unwinding of generations of a specific, broader mass media intake. These are the connections that made and kept Canto-pop and dramas popular, an entire rental media and fast-paced dub/sub industry that moved new anime and manga out to the far reaches, bringing imported fandom merch and, just as important, the bootleg and blatant rip-offs with them. Television and radio stations seem to still be kicking, but clearly better at adjusting to a changing audience--one that probably isn't following the rise of pageant stars like a Maggie Cheung or Michelle Yeoh or the latest HK films.
Ming Pao is famously co-founded by Louis Cha (Jin Yong) of wuxia novel series fame. These kinds of printed media were a vehicle for the diaspora popular culture which included said serialized novels, politics, editorials, celebrity gossip, current events, comics, satire, the list goes on. They are an important tangible connection to the broader local and international culture for native Chinese readers.
Not only has the space moved online and on to phones, the remaining dailies and weeklies are reduced to only paid subscriptions, or finally completely online and have become mostly advertising and classifieds.
It is depressing to see the domestic papers reduced to barely a handful of articles, some obviously copy-pasted from syndication, and very little about anything current especially politically. The remaining print media that do have something to say are often hyper-partisan to the exclusion of much else--I'm looking directly at you Epoch Times. Since 1997, much of the Chinese-language media has moved to pro-PRC editorial stances and ownership, both implicitly and explicitly, meaning much less variety of perspective or even conspicuous silence from sources and journalism that used to command a great deal of trust.
Short of the occasional recipe, festive season or health article, and the local obit section, it feels like we've vacated the printed expression and exercise of a richer identity that kept us linked and aligned as a community.
