Melody Yun Ya Ma 馬勻雅 is a second-generation Hakka Toisan Chinese writer and cultural organizer based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, also known as Vancouver.

She leads the SaveChinatownYVR anti-gentrification advocacy campaign and is a founding member of Kirin Rising 麒麟革命, the only active, youth-led Hakka Kirin Chinese Unicorn dance troupe on the continent.

Melody is a fellow of the EU’s Global Cultural Relations Platform and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). She is a founding board member of The Tyee, and served on the Vancouver Public Library Board of Trustees and the City of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Advisory Council. She was also the national co-chair of artsScene, a young patrons program with Business for the Arts.

Her writing, commentary, and advocacy on issues of cultural equity and racial justice have been featured in The Economist, CBC, Maclean’s, Vancouver Sun, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, South China Morning Post, Georgia Straight, and other outlets.