Chinatown to unveil historical plaques
Markers bring attention to intangible cultural value of unique community
Chinatown was granted National Historic Site designation in 2011, but it took until 2013 for it to be announced and then another four years for plaques marking the distinction to be unveiled, which will happen in a few weeks.
“There’s a whole long story,” said Fred Mah, longtime Chinatown volunteer and activist.
Under the Harper government, cuts and underfunding at Parks Canada, which oversees sites and monuments, didn’t help. And somehow, even simple steps like figuring out what details to include on the plaques dragged out, according to Mah and others like him, who have been involved with the fight to gain wider recognition for Vancouver’s Chinatown.
Still, on Wednesday, it was an enthusiastic Mah who spoke in English and Cantonese about a day of celebration that’s being planned for May 13, when the national historic-site plaques will finally be unveiled. He encouraged young people to fight for UNESCO World Heritage recognition of Vancouver Chinatown and talked of his own connection to some of Chinatown’s most significant stories, which will be highlighted.
There was Wong Foon Sien, known as Chinatown’s unofficial mayor, who travelled back and forth to Ottawa more than 10 times between the mid-1940s and early ’50s, fighting to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act and for recognition of rights such as family reunification.
“I immigrated (to Vancouver) in 1949 as part of this reunification,” said Mah. “Because of (Wong’s efforts), I was able to take advantage.”
The national designation doesn’t bring any monetary funds or carry any mandate to protect physical buildings at a time when the area covered by the honour (basically Pender Street from the Millennium Gate near Carrall to Gore streets) is surrounded by rapid construction of new condos and businesses, with more development pressure to come when the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts are removed.
Indeed, Mah took the chance to ask Vancouver Coun. and Deputy Mayor Geoff Meggs, who attended the conference, to consider closing streets around Chinatown Memorial Plaza, which runs alongside the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden and a monument to Chinese-Canadian war veterans.
“We want to utilize that area as an attraction for people to come to.”
Meggs said: “There are some big decisions coming to council in the next while. These have been very, very hotly debated ... And those decisions are now up against this background of what you have done in getting this heritage designation.”
“Timing is everything. At this moment, if there’s a signal that all three levels of government are ready to do something and work together, it will have been worth the wait,” said University of B.C. history Prof. Henry Yu, who has also been part of various efforts to bring attention to the intangible cultural value of Chinatown.
In the meantime, the city is backing a “Chinatown History Windows” project, which is installing a series of large-sized, vintage photos into storefront windows. These have been colourized and stylized to look modern by Chinese-Canadian graphic artists Vincent Chau, Side Cho, Herman Ho and Catherine Clement, who is curating the project.
Some are of well-known figures, such as Douglas Jung, the first Chinese-Canadian member of Parliament. But Clement has also been digging into stories about the music scene of Hogan’s Alley and a littleknown Chinatown photographer, Yucho Chow.
To tell the story of Ho Ho Chop Suey, a popular Chinese restaurant for decades in Chinatown until the 1980s, one of the first windows features a remarkable image of Wong Foon Sien, the unofficial Chinatown mayor and rights activist, sharing a meal with African-American singer and actress Lena Horne.