Even during his bachelor party in Ontario’s Muskoka region, Simu Liu had Markham on his mind.
Ahead of his wedding to fiancée Allison Hsu, the Marvel star stepped away from jet skiing and lake swims with friends this week to discuss bringing ARC World — the annual Asian Roots Collective festival — back to the Toronto suburb where it began.
The celebration of Asian culture — featuring food, music, speakers and a celeb basketball game with Liu and former NBA star Jeremy Lin — returns Sept. 12 after recent editions in downtown Toronto.
“It’s such a giant a part of the Asian Canadian community,” Liu says of Markham.
“To start with, it’s got the very best Chinese food within the country, for my part.”
Speaking over the phone while overlooking a Muskoka lake, Liu says coming to Markham is meaningful since it’s where the non-profit behind ARC World was born.
“We desired to bring the event back to the community and back to its people, possibly avoid the traffic of downtown somewhat bit.”
Originally named the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletic Association, the Asian Roots Collective was founded in 1995 to offer basketball programming for Chinese Canadians. Today, it operates its own athletics centre in Markham and serves the broader Asian community.
The organization partnered with Liu in 2019 on a celeb basketball game that raised money for the inspiration led by Lin, then a member of the Toronto Raptors. The event has since evolved right into a one-day festival celebrating Asian excellence across industries, bringing together athletes, actors, musicians, entrepreneurs and chefs alongside local businesses and community organizations.
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Liu says the larger goal is exposing young Asian Canadians to role models they may not otherwise encounter.
“An event like that is needed today because I feel you continue to have kids that grow up somewhat bit unsure of the way to feel about their identity,” says Liu, who starred in 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and can appear on this winter’s “Avengers: Doomsday.”
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He says that’s especially necessary at a time when progress on representation can feel uncertain and “public opinion shifts as as to if or not support for marginalized communities is essential.”
“There’s quite a lot of rhetoric that comes south of the border that unfortunately, because we’re so close by proximity, permeates into our discourse,” says Liu.
“It’s really necessary in those moments to simply stand ten toes down and really support what you’re captivated with. And for me, I’m never not going to be Chinese, so this community is all the time going to mean so much to me.”
Lin says a recent backlash towards diversity and inclusion efforts “is telling of the barriers we’re up against and why we want to proceed to do that yr in and yr out.”
He says he keeps returning to Toronto for the event because he wants to indicate up for the town’s Asian community.
“I all the time say Toronto is well considered one of my favourite cities, and considered one of the favourite teams that I’ve ever played for, primarily due to the fans,” says the Asian American guard on a virtual call from the Bay Area.
“Even after I was playing for the Knicks, it felt like (Toronto fans) were cheering for me and it felt like a house game,” adds Lin, who runs a basketball school in Toronto with ARC.
“All through my profession, after I went back to Toronto, I all the time received a lot love.”
Lin says he’s stayed close with Liu through the years, even in the event that they don’t see one another as often as when he played for the Raptors.
“Our mutual respect, our love for one another, our friendship is known. And each time we see one another, we just pick up where we left off.”
Right on cue, ARC co-founder Clement Chu, also on the Zoom call, swivels the camera to Liu and his friends, who flash peace signs from the cottage.
“I’m midway through glazing you, bro!” Lin laughs.
For Liu, ARC World is about broadening what young people imagine is feasible.
Growing up within the Greater Toronto Area, he didn’t see many individuals who looked like him succeeding outside a handful of “predetermined paths.”
“We knew a few of our friends got sent to Kumon or that each one our parents wanted us to be doctors,” he says.
“If I could’ve attended an event where so lots of my favourite actors or athletes or creators or entrepreneurs were there, and I had the chance to soak up advice and wisdom from them, I just feel like my perception of what was possible — my entire worldview — would’ve been very different.”
Chu says celebrities attending this yr’s ARC World will soon be announced. But for now, it’s back to the stag festivities.
“We’re hitting the new tub immediately,” says Liu.
“We’re probably going to leap within the lake after which play some board games.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press