| Chinatown sounds like it would be the place where most Vancouver
residents of Chinese descent live. That is certainly not true today, but
it was in the 1880s when the swampy fringe of False Creek around the
intersection of Carrall and Pender Streets became known as Chinatown.
Chinatown is one of the city’s earliest commercial and residential
districts, containing a remarkable collection of buildings from
Vancouver’s boom years in the early twentieth century.
The pioneers of British Columbia included the Chinese. Years before
Vancouver was incorporated in 1886, Chinese labourers worked in the
industries that built the province—in gold fields, coal mines, sawmills
and canneries. Many emigrated from southern China, where
English-speaking Chinese bosses recruited them to work under contract in
Canada. Between 1881 and 1885, for example, 15,000 Chinese were
contracted to build the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). With the rail
track completed in 1885, out of work and with li�le money, many came to
Vancouver.
In those early years, Chinatown was overwhelmingly male. This
reflected the process of recruiting men as labourers, a pattern that was
reinforced in 1885 when the Canadian Government placed a head tax on
incoming Chinese immigrants. Few had savings sufficient to pay the head
tax required to bring over wives, children and other relatives to
Canada.
Many Chinese labourers lived in Chinatown only between jobs. Ofen
they were away from Vancouver for months at a time working at seasonal
jobs, like lumbering or canning fish. In Chinatown, most of the
population lived in rooming houses along Pender Street.
Not all the Chinese shared the circumscribed life of the labourers.
Class distinctions in Chinatown were sharp. At the top were a handful of
wealthy firms run by individuals who controlled much
of the business life of Chinatown. Some firms, such as the Wing Sang
Company, grew rich by contracting workers, importing and exporting a
variety of goods, investing in real estate, and selling steamship
tickets. Partners in the wealthiest firms lived in Chinatown in great
luxury and elegance surrounded by their many family members.
More numerous were the merchants, who owned and operated
green-groceries, laundries, tailor shops and other small businesses.
Often they chose these occupations for lack of other options—they were
barred, for instance, from working on city works by civic politicians.
The Chinese created their own associations to aid their fellows.
Associations, based on common surnames or place of birth in China
provided social activities and social services in Chinatown. Members
raised funds to build the imposing headquarters that still line Pender
Street. Some also sponsored rotating credit associations, that provided
the capital for many new Chinatown businesses.
But even the wealthiest Chinese lived on the margins of Vancouver
society. Discrimination took many forms, from disparaging cartoons in
local newspapers to systematic harassment by City inspectors. The
Chinese were not allowed to vote in city, provincial or federal
elections. Powerless at the ballot box, they nevertheless actively
resisted discriminatory measures. Chinese people frequently took the
City to court to redress their grievances. The Chinese were not legally
required to live in segregated areas, but the racially motivated
hostility rampant in the rest of the city prior to World War II made it
seem the wiser course.
The Chinese Arch at Hastings and Carrall Street, built for the Duke
of Cornwall’s visit. In bad times, when jobs were scarce, anti-Chinese
sentiment peaked. Union workers resented Chinese labourers because they
were often used by employers to break strikes. Chinese labour bosses,
hoping to maintain their supply of cheap labour, prevented contact
between Chinese workers and the organized union movement.
By 1907 the boom that began with the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897
faltered. The mild recession focussed attention on Chinese workers. That
year Vancouver’s Asiatic Exclusion League held a rally attended by
thousands. Afterwards, a mob marched on Chinatown, smashing property and
looting stores.
After World War I, another job shortage led to renewed calls to
restrict Chinese immigration. In 1923 the Federal Government responded
by bringing down a new bill that massively restricted and effectively
barred all new Chinese immigration. Until its repeal 25 years later,
Vancouver’s Chinatown commemorated the Act’s passage with an annual
Humiliation Day.
The effect of the Act upon Chinatown was stagnation. The community of
largely aging bachelor men was unable to grow without new immigration.
The Depression also devastated Chinatown. The City legislated lower
levels of relief for Chinese than for white residents, and in all, 175
patrons of Chinatown’s Pender Street soup kitchen died of malnutrition
during those years. During the 1930s the Vancouver Chinese community
lost 6,000 people, half of its members, by death or emigration.
World War II brought dramatic change to the status of the Chinese and
Chinatown in Vancouver. During the war, China fought as Canada’s ally,
and the war taught a powerful lesson about the folly of racism. Finally
in 1947 the Canadian Government repealed the exclusionist Act. Ordinary
Chinese were able to bring their wives and children from China. Many
families found homes in the neighbourhood of Strathcona, immediately
east of Chinatown.
During the war and afterwards, Vancouver began to look at Chinatown
in a new way. Suddenly the Chinatown that had been portrayed as foreign,
sinister and dangerous was now written
about as exotic, appealing and safe. Residents from all over the city
travelled to Chinatown with the enthusiasm of tourists sampling foods,
buying curios and savouring the district’s distinctiveness. Chinatown’s
merchants and restaurateurs added glamour to the community’s new image
with gleaming neon signs.
In the 1960s, Vancouver planned its first major freeway to cut right
through Chinatown. Citizens’ action groups effectively intervened and
caused the plan to be abandoned in 1968. The Province also recognized
Chinatown’s special history and architecture by designating it a
historic district in 1971. In 1979, the Chinatown Historic Area Planning
Committee sponsored a streetscape improvement program. Chinese-style
elements, such as tile-red street lamps and specially paved sidewalk
crosswalks, were introduced, reflecting the City’s new appreciation of
Chinatown as a civic asset. |
