Every Place Has a Story

Whose Chinatown?

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The Wong Wing family on Keefer Street. Yucho Chow photo, 1914. Yucho Chow Community Archive

I had the pleasure of visiting Griffin Art Projects with Tom Carter last Saturday. It’s a gallery of sorts hidden in an industrial building on Welch Street in North Vancouver. The exhibit features stories, photos, videos and paintings about Chinatowns in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, many from private collections.

The Band at the W.K. Gardens, ca.1950. Tom Carter collection

Some of Tom’s personal collection is featured and includes everything from scrapbooks from the Marco Polo, to postcards from Ming’s and Bamboo Terrace in the late ‘50s to souvenir photos from Mandarin Gardens and Forbidden City. These Chinatown nightclubs offered revues, dance bands and floor shows.

Tom Carter with some of his collection from the Marco Polo. Eve Lazarus photo.

Emily Carr’s sketch of a Chinese boy in 1908 is included as is a terrific display from the Vancouver School of Art. Yitkon Ho was in the first graduating class in 1929 along with Beatrice Lennie, Vera Weatherbie (Fred Varley’s young mistress), Fred Amess and Irene Hoffar. There are also some sketches and information about Eugene Bond, a Chinese student and one of two Asian models at the art school.

There are also some fabulous photos by Fred Herzog and Jim Wong-Chu, several of which I was seeing for the first time. And, Yucho Chow also has photos ranging from the Dominion Produce Company in the 1930s and the Ming Wo store in the early 1920s to the wonderful portraits of Chinese families that Catherine Clement drew attention to in her book: Chinatown Through a Wide Lens.  

A banner tells the story of Gim Foon Wong. In 2005 when he was 82 he rode his motorcycle to Ottawa with a dozen other bikers in what became known as Gim Wong’s Ride for Redress so he could have a chat with the PM about the Chinese head tax. The banner, which Tom tells me was created by our friend Elwin Xie, was auctioned off at a Montreal dinner to raise enough money so Wong could get home. He received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

The exhibition runs until May 1. You can book online—Tom and I were the only visitors in our half hour slot which made the whole visit quite magical.

Tom Carter collection

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

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4 comments on “Whose Chinatown?”

Oh how grand! Im in for this! Many emotions going through my head over this. The loss of our once vibrant Chinatown, the dress of the early days , so classy and elegant no matter what ones ethnicity. Now with Facebook it would be nice to find out who these ppl were! Love the Yoko Ono glasses on that one lady. The death of the dance/ dining culture where THOSE were dress up out on the town evening one anticipated all week for.
Thanks to him for sharing. Hope all is scanned and saved. Great post Eve!

I love all the photos and the history. I especially love the shot of the handsome, elegant gentleman with his blue coated, adorable daughter and their little dog. I’ve lived in Vancouver, mostly the North Shore my entire life. Born in 1953 I’m probably close in age to that young girl. I have photos at that age dressed up just like that. Such an interesting time.

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