Victoria's Forbidden City

The story of Canada's first Chinatown and the country's first war on drugs.

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*Described Video version: https://youtu.be/CkjCiDNXy1Q

There's so much more to the history of Canada's Chinatowns and the country's Chinese Canadian heritage—do not stop with us. Our aim is to make our channel a gateway drug. A great starting point, which proved an invaluable resource for us, is Simon Fraser University's community-based research initiative 'From C to C: Chinese Canadian Stories of Immigration': http://www.sfu.ca/fromctoc/

This episode doesn't even break the surface of what is a deep well of stories, historical figures, and pivotal events through which Chinese immigration shaped the course of the country's history. In our eyes, we no longer think of the colonization of Canada through the lens of two nations interacting with the Indigenous, but three. So next time you step through a paifang or Chinese arch in your town or city, or see a Chinese restaurant or street sign, we hope you stop and consider the historical weight behind them.

We've barely touched on the construction of the railroad, we haven't even mentioned the riots in Vancouver, we haven't focused on the Chinese diaspora across the nation, nor have we even uttered a word about Chinese Canadian cuisine—down the road, there's a whole series of episodes to make if the channel survives.

Notes:

The image we included as a depiction of Lee Chong (his name is spelled differently in many different sources—the frontrunners being Lee Chong and Lee Chang) is only that: a representation. One of the roadblocks to this episode was the fact the era of Chinese Canadian history from 1858 to 1900 is sparsely documented (or too expensive for us to license). Lee Chong would/should be considered a Founding Father of Victoria, but there is no visual evidence for him—only written documentation, newspaper ads, and signage—and we think that puts sharing his story at a disadvantage. We want to bring history to life so viewers are able to picture/identify with historical figures regardless of the country's shoddily documented past, so when there is no visual record of a historical heavyweight like Lee Chong we supplement their presence with edited, historically accurate portraits of other people. To us, it's the same thing as modern re-enactments with actors—if not more accurate. For Lee Chong, we found a photo of a late 19th Century, Southern Chinese, gentleman—a business magnate. His wife? Well, the Canadian Consulate General of Hong Kong and Macao referred to the image we used as being a portrait of Mrs. Kwong Lee (that's the only way she's ever referred to)—we suspect it was a portrait of a different Chinese Canadian woman that has been run through a rumour mill, but it remains historically accurate in terms of location and time period. Our other option was to have black silhouettes or omit their characters entirely—we hope you agree it was worth it to do it this way.

If other arches were built between 1912 and 1981, we could not find them. We referred to a research exhibit (which included a focus on the arches) put together by the University of Victoria that used to be available to the public a few years ago, but has since been made private, solely for the eyes of students of the university (which is pretty lame).

Addendum (there's much more than this):

The Chinook Language (or Jargon). We initially had a section in the episode dedicated to outlining how Chinese immigrants were able to build successful businesses in a land of many different alien languages . The tool they used to communicate was a jargon developed solely in the Pacific Northwest for the purposes of trading and communicating between the plethora of different nationals who flooded there during the gold rush(es). Due to the episode's length, and the fact the Chinook language deserves its very own episode, we had to cut it.

The Bachelor Society of Chinese Canadians up to World War II. In previous cuts, we had a section detailing some of the ramifications of the Head Tax Bill (a bill that required all Chinese immigrants to pay hundreds of dollars to enter the country—in modern times, tens of thousands). We had to cut it to keep the pace moving, but the focus was on the fact that the vast majority of Chinese immigrants were men—98% or so. Chinese women were either married or sex workers, and the Head Tax made it impossible to bring families across the ocean. It's a story for another episode focused on Vancouver and Alberta.

If you're ever in Victoria's Chinatown, check out the totally-not-a-tourist-trap Fan Tan Cafe because the food there is great.

Видео Victoria's Forbidden City канала Canadiana