Vancouver’s Chinatown at risk of losing its identity
Change needed: But development should protect neighbourhood’s low-income seniors from displacement
Sunday is Qingming or Ancestors Day. Thinking of my late Ah Poh (maternal grandmother), I remember how she would take me to Chinatown every Sunday. Whether it was pouring rain or blazing hot, she would carry me on her back in a homemade cloth sling until I got old enough to walk with her hand-in-hand through the distinctive smelling alleyways. She’d introduce me to the hawkers and teach me to how to pick the best cut of barbecue pork as elders would exchange greetings, laughing boisterously.
We live across the Lower Mainland, but Vancouver’s Chinatown has always anchored my family. It’s where my aunt started her first small business and earned enough money to bring over the rest of our family from Hong Kong. It’s where I learned to play mah-jong with my aunts, and pour tea for elders before I did it for myself at dim sum.
This story is not unique to me. Chinatown is a sanctuary that grounds a sense of identity for the Chinese-Canadian community and is a landmark for many Canadians.
It wasn’t until I moved my office to Chinatown a few months ago that I’ve learned how quickly we may be losing this cultural temple. Approved developments will introduce 759 units of market housing in the next two years, and only an abysmal 11 units of low-income housing. One proposed development will obscure the iconic Lao Tzu mural on the corner of Gore and Pender, which helped at least one Poh Poh find her way back to Grace Seniors Home. And soon, a Starbucks outlet will be opening its doors on Keefer Street.
In conversations with city planners, community leaders, and a growing number of concerned youth, I’m learning that change is needed in Chinatown, but it should happen in a way that protects the community’s basic social fabric: low-income Chinese seniors and workers, independent businesses, and spaces and programs that honour history and heritage.
Chinese seniors, most of whom are low-income, are the heart of this community. Chinatown is the last remaining Vancouver neighbourhood providing the accessible housing and specialized social services they need to survive. There simply is nowhere else for these low-income seniors to go as new developments begin to squeeze them out. Moreover, a 2011 UBC study identified that the need for Chinese seniors’ housing is growing rapidly and the supply is not keeping pace.
The independent businesses also make up pivotal part of the spiritual identity of Chinatown that architect Joe Wai often speaks of. The family-owned businesses are struggling to keep up with the changing clientele to stay in business and provide for their existing low-income customers.
Many recognize that Chinatown is going through a transition and community leaders want to help guide that change. We can think beyond the tourist attractions and seeing Chinatown as a museum, and make it a community to be a part of. Across lines of ethnicity, class, and age, the thread of concern for Chinatown that weaves through the hearts of many Vancouverites is a foundation that creative solutions can spring from.
What are the initiatives and projects we can support to improve the neighbourhood’s cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability? Can we have more residents who would directly use these spaces to be part of the dialogue? What are the current assets that we can leverage to create intergenerational spaces for seniors and youth to gather and celebrate?
Chinatown is not the only Vancouver neighbourhood facing such challenges or asking these questions, but getting to a better place is possible. Leaders are already coming together. We look forward to building a collective voice to add to all the hard work that elders in the community have already put in.