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Chinese History in Nanaimo

Page history last edited by Donna Anderson 13 years, 2 months ago

Nanaimo's Chinatowns

While few physical vestiges of Nanaimo's once thriving Chinese community remain, the story of Chinese settlement offers fascinating insight into one of Nanaimo's oldest, and the important economic and cultural role it played in the City’s development.

Origins of Chinese Settlement in Nanaimo

Gold rushes brought many Chinese to North America in the mid-1800s; first to the United States, then to Canada. But in Nanaimo, coal was the lure, especially during the winter months when cold weather in the Province's interior discouraged gold mining. Most of the Chinese who came to Nanaimo were from Guangdong Province (Canton delta region) and the four counties of Toi-san, Sun-wui, Hoi-ping, and Yin-pang.

Like other immigrants they followed the footsteps of countrymen or relatives seeking a better life. From the mid-1800s, population pressures, limited land opportunities, floods, famine and political instability caused many to leave despite the Chinese government’s prohibition against emigration.

The First Chinatown (1860s - 1884)

The first Chinese arrived in Nanaimo in the 1860s to work as labourers for the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company. They lived mainly in company-built structures in the Esplanade and Victoria Crescent area. Services to support the workforce soon followed, including a store opened by Mah Hong Jang in 1872 near Pioneer Square. By the mid-1880s Nanaimo’s Chinese community was the third largest in British Columbia, after Victoria and New Westminster.

The Second Chinatown (1884 - 1908)

Chinese were perceived as unfair labour competition in the local mines, especially during times of high unemployment. This was a racist era and non-whites were often victimised. In 1884, amid growing tensions the company relocated the Chinese quarter outside City limits. The Chinese residents cleared the forest, levelled the site, and erected the buildings themselves, at no cost to the company.

The second Chinatown was a self-contained and self-supporting community, with its own merchants, doctors and entertainers. Because the increasing government head tax discouraged family members from entering the country, the community was predominately male.

In 1908, Mah Bing Kee and Ching Chung Yung bought 43 acres of company land, which included the second Chinatown site. To offset the cost of the purchase, they raised rents. In response, the residents formed the Lun Yick Company (Together We Prosper) and with the help of 4000 shareholders from across Canada purchased 9 acres of land from the coal company near the intersection of Pine and Hecate Streets. The residents then moved the entire community and its buildings to the new location.

The Third Chinatown (1908 - 1960)

"He walked uphill a mile or so, crossed the railway tracks and continued until he came to Pine Street. A makeshift fence stretched across the street, and in front of a gate was a city sign: 'No Thoroughfare' . . . Pavement turned to dirt, and as he crested the hill, Chinatown lay before him. Pine Street ran another two hundred or so feet before it ended in a dead end at the edge of the bluff. The street looked like the set of a western movie. It was lined on either side with unpainted one- and two-story wood-frame buildings, some with false fronts, all with overhanging balconies that sagged and careened. The entire scene was bleached by the sun."

Excerpt from Denise Chong's, The Concubine's Children

By 1911, Nanaimo’s third Chinatown was well established, with buildings on both sides of Pine Street. The community had a population of approximately 1,500 which would swell on weekends when Chinese workers came from surrounding areas to socialize and purchase supplies. The City’s non-Chinese population also frequented Chinatown for commercial and entertainment purposes.

The population and economic vitality of the Pine Street Chinatown waned in the early 1920s due to a decline in the coal industry and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923. The area became increasingly derelict until it was destroyed by fire on September 30th, 1960. By this time the majority of the population had dispersed throughout Nanaimo or relocated to larger Chinese communities in Canada and the United States.

"Chinatown was considered a 'ghetto' in the small town. We were put in one place, and we didn't come out of that place because that's where we were supposed to stay. . . . we learned to stay within our own little Chinatown area. We lived on one street with Chinese people all around us."

Excerpt from Jin Guo (Jean Lumb - reflecting on growing up in the Third Chinatown)

The Fourth Chinatown (circa 1920s)

During the 1920s, an extension to the third Chinatown known as “lower” Chinatown or “new town” developed on nearby Machleary Street. This extension was significant in that land ownership was no longer tied to a lease arrangement with the coal company or land bought collectively.

The Legacy:

Nanaimo’s Chinese settlers had a unique impact on the City’s history. Like all pioneers, they struggled against many obstacles and ultimately had to fight for recognition as Canadian citizens. After World War II, the removal of discriminatory immigration policy and acceptance of official multiculturalism allowed people of Chinese descent to take their place at all levels of Canadian society.

“When I went to school, I wished I wasn’t Chinese. There was lots of name calling and discrimination. If I wasn’t Chinese, I wouldn’t have to face this. I wanted to get out of Chinatown. Everything was old, the buildings were firetraps . . . you couldn’t really improve it. The young generation didn’t want to live there. Once they saved some money, they wanted to get out and live like everyone else in the community. It was much better after World War II . . . since we’ve been allowed to vote. You felt really great. Over the years, when I was operating my own business, I got lots of support from the whole community.”

Chuck Wong, on growing up in the Third Chinatown

“I was always proud of my heritage. I felt I was as good as anyone. After grade 4 or 5, I was pretty well accepted by the white students as their equal. There was discrimination and bullying but I had to stand up against them otherwise you’d always be picked on. When World War II started, enlisting was something that had to be done. I joined the RCAF even before we were allowed to vote. Our family never lived in Chinatown. For those that resided there, they felt more secure amongst themselves. After 1947 when we got the vote, if you had the ability or desire, you could be anything you wanted. After 1947 all the official barriers were gone.”

Dick Mah, on growing up in Nanaimo

Nanaimo``Pine Street Chinatown

cation

In 1891 the Chinese population in Nanaimo was 228. Most of the population lived in Nanaimo's "second" Chinatown, located in the south end of the city. Originally, the Chinese community was located on Victoria Crescent close to the centre of the city, but in 1884 it was relocated to a site near the city limits. The Chinese community moved again in 1908 when a "third" Chinatown was established at the north end of Pine Street. That community was destroyed by fire in 1960 and was never rebuilt. Today, Bayview Elementary School occupies the site of the 1891 Chinatown.

Why did the Chinese community move in 1884? "There were three possible reasons for the decision to relocate Chinatown," according to local historian Pamela Mar. "First, as the white business district of Nanaimo began to expand southward along the waterfront, the land on Victoria Crescent became too valuable for a Chinatown. Second, white miners in Wellington vented their rage upon Chinese labourers after Robert Dunsmuir broke their strike in the autumn of 1883 by using the Chinese as scabs. The third reason was as a precaution against the arrival of many Chinese labourers to work on the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway."

In 1887 the Nanaimo city limits were extended to include Chinatown. For administrative purposes, it was considered part of Nanaimo's "Middle Ward" and so was enumerated as part of Middle Ward during the 1891 census. Although Chinatown was officially part of the city of Nanaimo, Chinese residents and businesses were not listed in the 1892 Directory. By all accounts, however, it was a thriving community. Like the city of Nanaimo itself, Nanaimo Chinatown was a commercial hub for the mid-Island region, serving small satellite Chinatowns in Cumberland, Wellington, Northfield, South Wellington, and Extension.

Population distribution

The Chinese population was concentrated in Chinatown. The census indicates that 202 Chinese people lived in the Middle Ward Chinatown. Only 26 Chinese people lived in the city's North Ward. No Chinese were recorded in the city's South Ward. It is interesting to note that the Wellington District supported a substantially greater Chinese population than did Nanaimo. The areas of Wellington and Mountain/South Wellington supported Chinese populations of 227 and 85 respectively.

Households

Nanaimo's 228 Chinese residents were associated with 75 census family units. Not all of these family units were located in Chinatown. For example, two Chinese men (each of whom was enumerated as a separate family unit on the census) were in jail during the census; other Chinese were working as servants and cooks and in private homes or hotels. When these situations are taken into consideration we are left with 66 census family units. It is assumed that these 66 all lived in the Middle Ward Chinatown, since their census family numbers remain reasonably sequential.

As might be expected, most census family households were made up of multiple males sharing a variety of living arrangements. However, it should be noted that the usual stereotypical mass crowding did not exist. When the numbers of rooms are compared to the number of occupants there was an average of less than one occupant per room. This isn't to say that multiple occupants didn't occur. To illustrate more clearly, there were 42 households with more rooms than occupants, 18 with equal numbers of rooms and occupants, but only 11 with fewer numbers of rooms than occupants. The two worst ratios were one of 9 occupants in 4 rooms and one of 12 per 4 rooms. Even these worst-case ratios indicate an entirely reasonable average of three or fewer occupants per-room. So, Nanaimo's Chinatown was not an overcrowded ghetto.

Women & children

The entire Chinese community, from Wellington to Nanaimo, was almost exclusively male. In 1891, the census shows just six females, all of whom resided in Nanaimo's Middle Ward Chinatown. Of these six females, four were between the ages of 20 and 25 while one was just 3 years old and one 41. In three instances the women resided in census households which included more than one male; in two cases, the women lived alone with their husbands. Of the five adult women, only two had children. Foong Ah, a 3-year-old girl, was the daughter of 23-year-old Mrs. Kioong, while Child Lung was the one-year-old son of Mrs. Lung.

Labour

The Middle Ward labour force was diverse, but heavily weighted towards general labourers. There were 24 different occupations, which employed 189 persons out of the entire population of 202. (Of the 13 people who did not have an occupation, two were infants, four were female homemakers, and seven were unemployed or did not have an occupation recorded beside their name.) Among Chinatown residents, there were 100 general labourers, 27 launderers, 21 cooks, 9 general dealers, 5 stokers, 3 store clerks, and 3 servants; 2 each of opium merchants, barbers, gardeners and farmers, and 1 farmhand, butcher, street vendor, medicine man, joss priest, bricklayer, tailor, bookkeeper, oyster dealer, railway hand, railway brakeman, land clearer and hod carrier.

It is interesting to note that there are no Chinese mine labourers listed in Nanaimo's Chinatown. However, the census does show an increasing number of Chinese mine labourers as enumerators moved north towards Robert Dunsmuir's coal operations at Wellington. There were 6 Chinese mine labourers in the North Ward and 73 in Wellington. There were 46 Chinese mine labourers in the Mountain/South Wellington district, where Dunsmuir mines were also located. This data illustrates contrasting labour policies practiced by the New Vancouver Coal Company, which did not allow Chinese labourers in its mines and the Dunsmuir mining operations, which did. The Middle Ward Chinese labour force - that is, the labour force that lived in Chinatown - was almost exclusively made up of general labourers and those working in the service industries.

Age

The Chinese population ranged from 1 to 89 years of age, but the majority of residents were between twenty and fifty years old. There were 69 adults between 20 and 29 years of age; 59 persons between 30 and 39 years of age; and fifty people between 40 and 49 years of age. Ten men were in their Fifties, two in their Sixties, and two in their Eighties. The two eldest residents were general dealers.

Religion

In the 1891 census, nearly all of the Chinese were recorded as "pagans" on the nominal census schedule. "Pagan" was a subjective term used by the enumerator. The joss priest was a notable exception. He was recorded as a Buddhist. The presence of a joss priest would seem to indicate that the population of Nanaimo's Chinatown was more religiously devoted than the enumerator suggested.

Conclusion

The information researched, recorded, interpreted and presented in this report suggests that the residents of Chinatown were an industrious and determined people. It is hoped that the research offered here will foster a better understanding of the Chinese immigrants who helped build the city of Nanaimo.

Additional sources

David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within Cities in Canada, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1988); Pamela Mar, "The History of Nanaimo's Three Chinatowns," British Columbia Historical News, vol.21, no.2, Spring 1988; Jan Peterson, Hub City: Nanaimo, 1886-1920 (Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House, 2003).