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Victoria Chinatown: Its
150th Anniversary in 2008
David Chuenyan Lai
Victoria Chinatown, the earliest
Chinatown in Canada, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008.
In June 1858, a few wealthy San Francisco merchants arrived at
Fort Victoria in response to the Fraser River Gold Rush. They
bought properties on Cormorant Street (the present site of Centennial
Square) where they set up wooden huts for their recruited labourers
from San Francisco and China. Most of the labourers were sent
to pan for gold in the lower Fraser River whereas the merchants
stayed behind to set up stores on Cormorant Street between Douglas
and Government streets. When Fort Victoria was incorporated as
the city of Victoria in 1862, its population stood at about 5,000
of which 300 people were Chinese. All of them resided on Cormorant
Street where the embryo of Canada's first Chinatown was formed.
The Province of British Columbia
was included in the national census of 1881 for the first time.
The head-count in the census listed 693 Chinese in Victoria and
485 in New Westminster, making Victoria Chinatown and New Westminster
Chinatown the first and second largest Chinese settlements in
Canada. At that time, the City of Vancouver was not yet in existence
and its predecessor, the town of Granville, was but a small outpost
on the Pacific coast. No Chinatowns were found outside British
Columbia because the census of 1881 listed only 33 Chinese outside
B.C.: 10 in Toronto, 8 in Barrie Town, 7 in Montreal, 4 in Winnipeg,
and 4 in 3 other cities.
Since Victoria was the gateway
to Canada from China, its Chinatown prospered. Many Chinese voluntary
associations purchased properties during the building boom between
the 1890s and the 1900s. By the early 1910s, Chinatown has reached
its apogee, expanding to cover about six city blocks and housing
most of Victoria's 3,000 Chinese The city block on both side
of Fisgard Street was the "Forbidden City" of Chinatown,
within which were situated a theatre, two temples, a hospital,
cafes, several opium factories, gambling dens and brothels and
numerous closely-packed tenement buildings and shacks. Fan Tan
Alley and Theatre Alley, for example, were the major accesses
to the core of the southern city block of Fisgard Street and
both alleys were closed to the outside world by heavy wooden
doors or gates. Fan Tan Alley was at one time a busy, boisterous
street with numerous gambling dens on both sides and the main
entry to the labyrinth of the "Forbidden City."
The Canadian Pacific Railway
was completed in 1886 with Granville Village as the western terminal.
On 2 April, the village was incorporated as the City of Vancouver.
Having a deeper harbor and being the western terminal of the
trans-Canada railway, Vancouver gradually took over the trade
that formerly passed through Victoria and replaced Victoria as
the premier port on the Pacific coast of Canada. The national
census of 1911 listed 3,559 Chinese in Vancouver and 3,458 in
Victoria; this made Victoria the second-largest Chinese settlement
in Canada after Vancouver. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923,
which virtually prohibited Chinese from entering Canada, hastened
the demographic and economic decline of Victoria Chinatown.
Victoria Chinatown retained
its secondary position for over 40 years after the 1910s. The
national census of 1941, for example, listed 7,174 Chinese in
the City of Vancouver; 3,037 in Victoria, 2,325 in Toronto, 1,703
in Montreal, and 719 in Winnipeg. After the Immigration Act of
1923 was repealed in 1947, most of the Chinese immigrants went
to large cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary;
only a few came to Victoria. Both the area and population of
Victoria Chinatown continued to decline throughout the 1960s
and early 1970s. A survey of Chinatown in 1971 revealed that
its size had dwindled to about two city blocks and its residents
decreased to 143 in number. Many dilapidated tenement buildings
were condemned, and their upper floors left vacant and boarded
up. Some old buildings were demolished, and the space converted
to parking lots.
Although Victoria Chinatown
has lost much of its former luster and mystery, the original
characteristics of 19th century Chinatown have not been drastically
changed. Its intricate networks of picturesque arcades, narrow
alleys and enclosed courtyards are still found behind the commercial
facades of the old buildings. This hidden sector, largely unknown
to the white public and considered by them as the "Forbidden
City," is looked upon by many Chinese old-timers as a socio-psychological
well to which they can return and refresh themselves. Chinatown
still has a cohesive grouping of structures which were built
between the 1880s and the 1910s. In August 1977, the Ministry
of Recreation and Conservation of British Columbia identified
30 heritage structures in Chinatown. All buildings were designed
by western architects and are basically variants of architectural
styles which prevailed in Western Europe in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. Many of them are characterized by Italiante
facades, Romanesque appearance or Edwardian Classical. However,
all Chinatown buildings contain decorative Chinese architectural
elements such as upturned eaves and roof corners, extended eaves
covering the main balcony, Oriental motifs such as dragons, phoenixes,
and tigers, Oriental colours such as imperial gold, mandarin
red, and emerald green, and inscriptions in Chinese characters.
In September 1979, Victoria
City Council carried out a Chinatown rehabilitation program which
included the painting or cleaning of heritage buildings; sidewalk
improvements and ornamental planting; installation of Chinese-styled
lamp posts and bilingual street signs; the construction of a
Chinese arch, a care facility and a subsidized housing project.
On 8 March, 1983, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke
of Edinburgh visited Victoria Chinatown. Up to now, Victoria
Chinatown is the only Chinatown in Canada visited by a British
monarch. In December, 1995, Victoria Chinatown was designated
a historic district of national and architectural significance
by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Historically, Victoria Chinatown
is the oldest surviving Chinatown in Canada. It is the only Chinatown
in North America which still possesses its 19th century townscape,
retaining cohesive groupings of old buildings with high heritage
values. The labyrinthine features behind them remain, defining
the special heritage character of the once Forbidden City. Today,
Victoria Chinatown is small with about 300 residents and 100
business concerns. However, recent influxes of tourists and curious
visitors reflect Chinatown's growing economic and historic significance
to the City of Victoria.
About the Author:
Dr. David Chuenyan Lai, Professor Emeritus of Geography, has
taught for 5 years at the University of Hong Kong, and 35 years
at the University of Victoria, and retired in 2003. His research
interest is urban development of Chinatowns and Overseas Chinese
History. He has surveyed over 30 Chinatowns in North America
and many publications on Chinatowns in Canada and history of
Chinese Canadians.
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Department
of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy
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