User:Sidney Gordon/Chinatown, Vancouver
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[edit]Early immigration and head tax
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Chinese_at_work_on_C.P.R._%28Canadian_Pacific_Railway%29_in_Mountains%2C_1884.jpg/220px-Chinese_at_work_on_C.P.R._%28Canadian_Pacific_Railway%29_in_Mountains%2C_1884.jpg)
Chinese immigrants, primarily men, first came to Vancouver in large numbers during the late 19th century, attracted in part by British Columbia gold rush of 1858 and then the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s.[1]: 3 In the census of 1880–81, the total Chinese population in Canada was 4,383, of which the overwhelming majority (4,350) resided in British Columbia.[2]: 7 By 1884, 17,000 Chinese immigrants had arrived in Canada to work on the railroad alone.[1]: 3 The 1891 census counted 9,129 Chinese in Canada (8,910 in British Columbia), and the population at the 1901 census had increased to 16,792 in Canada (14,376 in British Columbia as an incomplete count).[2]: 7–8 Of the estimated 16,000 Chinese immigrants in British Columbia in 1901, 2,715 lived in Victoria and another 2,011 lived in Vancouver.[2]: 8
After the completion of the railroad, under the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, a head tax of CA$50 per person was levied solely on Chinese immigrants to discourage further settlement; the head tax was raised to $100 in 1900 and then $500 in 1903.
By 1900, Chinatown covered the four square blocks bounded by Canton Alley (on the west), Hastings Street (on the north), Keefer Street (on the south), and Main Street (on the east, named Westminster Avenue at the time), with Pender Street (then called Dupont) as the main commercial district.[1]: 4 During this time, Vancouver's Red Light district was present in the area, undergoing routine police checks and attempts to 'clean up; the area. By 1906, the Dupont brothels were forced to close. As a result, several brothels and businesses moved to two parallel dirt paved, dead-end lanes off of Dupont, West of Carrall: Shanghai Alley and Canton Alley. While these immigrants were dispersed throughout Chinatown, they strongly concentrated these areas.[3] In 1896, the health officer for the City of Vancouver reported the city had to destroy houses in Chinatown "owing to their filthy condition" and that "one could hardly pass through the [Chinatown] quarter without holding one's nose."[2]: 14 Another health officer noted "The Chinese merchants and employers of labour endeavour to assist the health officials, and are, as a rule, willing to co-operate and help in this matter, but the lower classes of Chinese emigrants give a great deal of trouble unless constantly watched," concluding that continued immigration would lead to "circumstances and conditions which predispose to infectious disease, and serve to spread it rapidly when once it is roused into activity."[2]: 19 This perception only worsened with the turn of the district. Residents of the area where said to face continuous "white hostility and discrimination" due to three main vices, drug problems, gambling and sex work. As these perceptions grew, the discrimination turned to violence, resulting in a destructive raid in 1907 that caused irreversible damage to the area. [3]
Clan societies and 1907 riot
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Chinatown_riot_VPL_939_%2810463611326%29.jpg/220px-Chinatown_riot_VPL_939_%2810463611326%29.jpg)
As more people of Chinese heritage came to Vancouver, clan associations were formed to help the newcomers assimilate in their adopted homeland and to provide friendship and support. Clan societies were often formed around a shared surname lineage, county (e.g., Kaiping, Zhongshan), or other feature of identity.[4]: 4
Despite these efforts, discrimination against residents of the area continued to grow and eventually turned to violence.[3] In September of 2007, Vancouver riots emerged out of an anti-immigration rally being held by the Asiatic Exclusion League, resulting in significant damage to Chinatown businesses.[5] 2,000 Chinese immigrants were displaced from their homes, and total property damage resulting from the actions of the mob of 10,000 was estimated at $15,000.[6] One news report speculated the riot was held to intimidate a visiting Japanese delegate.[7] Another blamed the presence of American agitators.[8] Mackenzie King, then the Deputy Minister of Labour, was dispatched to investigate the riot and recommended the disbursement of $36,000 in compensation.[9][10]
The head tax was repealed via the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which instead abolished Chinese immigration to Canada entirely, except in limited circumstances.
Historical and significant architecture in Chinatown, Vancouver ------ MAYBE MAKE THIS A BIGGER HEADING
Name | № | Street | Builder/Designer | Year | Built by/for | Notes | Photo |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sam Kee Building | 8 | West Pender Street | Brown and Gillam | 1913 | Chang Toy (Sam Kee Company) | Narrowest commercial building in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records; front-to-back depth is only 6 ft (1.8 m). Previous home of the 1906 red light district known as Shanghai Alley. | |
101 | East Pender | Florence Mackenzie's first store which kickstarted Vancouvers first Red Light District. It is now occupied by the Chinese Tea Shop, as of 2002. | |||||
Wing Sang Building | 51 | East Pender Street | Thomas Ennor Julian | 1889–1901 | Yip Sang (Wing Sang Company) | One of the oldest buildings in Chinatown. The 6-storey building was home to Yip Sang's Wing Sang Company (Wing Sang Limited) from 1889 to 1955. T.E. Julian added third storey in 1901. | |
Chinese FreemasonsBuilding | 1–5 | West Pender Street | S.B. Birds | 1906, 1913 | Modified by Samuel Buttrey Birds in 1913. Facade retained after building was demolished in 1975. | ||
Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver | 104–108 | East Pender Street | 1901–10 | Chinese Benevolent Association | The Association was organized by leading businessmen including Yip Sang, Chang Toy, and Wang Yu Shan. | ||
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden | 578 | Carrall St | Joe Wai, Donald Vaughan, Wang Zu-Xin | 1986 | |||
Lim Sai Hor Association Building | 525–531 | Carrall Street | Samuel Buttrey Birds, W. H. Chow | 1903, 1914 | Chinese Empire Reform Association | Altered in 1914, keeping with the contemporary style of Chinatown buildings. | [1] |
Mah Society of Canada | 137–139 | East Pender Street | H.B. Watson, E.J. Boughen | 1913, 1921 | Originally housed street-level grocery with residences above; top storey added in 1921 for Mah Society. | ||
Yue Shan Society | 33–47 | East Pender St. | W.H. Chow | 1889, 1898, 1920 | Consists of three buildings around a central courtyard: 41-47 E Pender (1889), 33-39 E Pender (1920), and 37 E Pender (1914). | ||
Chinese Times Building | 1 | East Pender Street | William Tuff Whiteway | 1902 | Yip Sang (Wing Sang Company) | One of the first brick buildings in Chinatown; influenced later architecture. | |
Chinese School | 121–125 | East Pender Street | J.A. Radford and G.L. Southall | 1910, 1921 | Mon Keang School | Altered by Radford in 1921. Mon Keang School established in 1925. | [2] |
Lee Building | 127–131 | East Pender Street | Henriquez and Todd | 1907, 1973 | Lee's Association | Original building was damaged in a 1972 fire and demolished; the facade was retained and a new building was constructed behind it in 1973, designed by Henriquez and Todd. | |
Carnegie Community Centre | 401 | Main Street | G.W. Grant | 1902–03 | Vancouver Public Library; later as Vancouver Museum and City Archives | Carnegie library from its construction until 1957. | |
Commercial Buildings | 235–257 | East Hastings Street | 1901–13 | Includes the Hotel Empress (235), Phoenix Hotel (237), Belmont Building (241),and Afton Hotel (249). | |||
Hotel East | 445 | Gore Street | S.B. Birds | 1912 | Lee Kee | Part of the expansion of Chinatown to east of Main. | |
Kuomintang Building | 296 | East Pender Street | W.E. Sproat | 1920 | The Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist League) | ||
Chin Wing Chun Society | 158–160 | East Pender Street | R.A. McKenzie | 1925 | Chin Wing Chun Society | Meeting rooms above street-level commercial space. | |
Ho Ho Restaurantand Sun Ah Hotel | 100–102 | East Pender Street | R.T. Perry and White and Cockrill | 1911 | Loo Gee Wing | Ho Ho Restaurant opened in 1954. | |
May Wah Hotel | 258 | East Pender Street | William Frederick Gardiner | 1913 | Messrs. Barrett and Deane | SRO hotel; built in response to the Lodging House By-Law of 1910. Used by both Chau Luen Society and Shon Yee Benevolent Association of Canada. | |
Chau Luen Tower | 325 | Keefer | 1971 | Chau Luen Benevolent Society | |||
London Drugs | 800 | Main St | Unknown-1968 (Expropriated) | Chau Luen Benevolent Society |
Notable buildings
[edit]The Sam Kee Company, run by Chang Toy, one of the wealthier merchants in turn-of-the-20th-century Chinatown, bought the land for the Sam Kee Building as a standard-sized lot in 1903. However, in 1912 the city widened Pender Street, expropriating all but 6 feet of the Pender Street side of the lot. This lot was the previous home to Shanghai Alley, an early Vancouver red light district which collaboratively hosted 105 brothels with Canton Alley.[3] In 1913 the architects Brown and Gillam designed a narrow, steel-framed free-standing building on the remaining 6-foot strip. The basement, extending under the sidewalk and much wider than the rest of the building, housed public baths, with shops on the ground floor and offices above (such basements in Vancouver were once common and zoned as "areaways"). The 1980s' rehabilitation of the building for Jack Chow was designed by Soren Rasmussen Architect and completed in 1986.
The Lord Strathcona Elementary School is the oldest public school in Greater Vancouver and the only public school serving Vancouver's Chinatown.
Notable residents[edit]
[edit]- Wong Foon Sien, journalist and social activist
- Bessie Lee, community organizer and civic activist
- Mary Lee Chan, civic activist
- Yip Sang, businessman
- Yucho Chow, photographer
- Wayson Choy, author, educator
- Florence "Mother" Mackenzie, madam/brothel owner, sex work activist
- ^ a b c Chinese Canadian Historical Society (July 2005). Historic Study of the Society Buildings in Chinatown (PDF) (Report). City of Vancouver. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese and Japanese Immigration (Report). Ottawa: S.E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 1902. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ a b c d Francis, Daniel (2006). Red Light Neon. Vancouver, BC.: Subway Books. pp. 7–191. ISBN 0-9736675-2-4.
- ^ Chinese Canadian Historical Society (July 2005). Historic Study of the Society Buildings in Chinatown (PDF) (Report). City of Vancouver. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ "Japs attacked in Vancouver". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara. Associated Press. 10 September 1907. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "2000 Chinese driven out: Rioters at Vancouver attack Orientals". Los Angeles Herald. Associated Press. 9 September 1907. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "Riot planned to impress Ishii, is belief at Seattle". Los Angeles Herald. Associated Press. 11 September 1907. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "Blame American Agitators: London View of Vancouver Troubles". Chico Record. 12 September 1907. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ King, William Lyon Mackenzie (1908). Report by W. L. Mackenzie King, C.M.G., Deputy Minister of Labour, Commissioner appointed to investigate into the Losses Sustained by the Chinese Population of Vancouver, B.C. on the occasion of the riots in that city in September, 1907 (Report). Ottawa: S.E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ King, William Lyon Mackenzie (1908). Report by W. L. Mackenzie King, C.M.G., Deputy Minister of Labour, Commissioner appointed to investigate into the Losses Sustained by the Japanese Population of Vancouver, B.C. on the occasion of the riots in that city in September, 1907 (Report). Ottawa: S.E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Retrieved 26 June 2019.