User:Sidney Gordon/Chinatown, Vancouver

Early immigration and head tax

Chinese railway construction workers for CP Rail, 1884

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. 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. By 1884, 17,000 Chinese immigrants had arrived in Canada to work on the railroad alone. 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). Of the estimated 16,000 Chinese immigrants in British Columbia in 1901, 2,715 lived in Victoria and another 2,011 lived in Vancouver.

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. 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. 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." 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." 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.

Clan societies and 1907 riot

Boarded storefronts on Carrall Street following September 1907 riots

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.

Despite these efforts, discrimination against residents of the area continued to grow and eventually turned to violence. 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. 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. One news report speculated the riot was held to intimidate a visiting Japanese delegate. Another blamed the presence of American agitators. Mackenzie King, then the Deputy Minister of Labour, was dispatched to investigate the riot and recommended the disbursement of $36,000 in compensation.

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

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. 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]

• 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