The finding of China Town
01.02.2005
As a tourist you are constantly searching for the character of the country you are visiting and that for find yourself wandering the streets aimlessly. On these walks through the Down Town area of Victoria you recognize the unusually high number of coffee shops. the enticing scent that streams out of the neat little businesses makes you open the glass door and find your warm shelter on one of the sofas that are almost everywhere to fulfill your need for comfort. Considering this familiar moment you are almost shocked when you walk the streets again and find the walls moving closer and the sun being blocked by the steep buildings. As the victorious discoverer you are, you have just found the smallest alley in the world. Fan Tan Alley. The narrow walkway is flanked by little shops with souvenirs from all aver the world and instrument traders. Once it housed gambling places and theaters as Liha the young cashier in the “Whirled Arts” arts shop tells me, which invites with colorful cloth. If you stay on your way you reach Fishgard St. and are in the heart of Victoria's China Town. And in the search of the spirit of this still strange city a totally different world opens up and you struggle against the sudden shock of culture overwhelmed by the Asiatic shapes that suddenly rule the atmosphere. How can the boarders be so unrecognizable? Who planted this foreign seed in this city, still blooming in its unique way?
A Chinese legend speaks of four Buddhist monks who in the year 450 A.D. were blown far off course in their search for the island of immortality and instead reached the coast of what is today BC. Besides this tradition the recorded history shows that in 1779 a British Trade ship landed at Nooka Sound and that 50 Chinese sails men vanished from the ship and were never seen again. Probably swallowed by the country through intermarriage with the native tribes. The meeting of cultures from east Asia was hardly recognizable in Canada in that time. But the since 1700 growing population in China and the political instability forced a lot of Chinese people to emigrate until the news of gold found in Frasier River became public and made thousands of prospectors stream in from California. Parts were coming in big shiploads embarking in Victoria, where they in a few weeks in April 1858 turn the city from a small English village into a busy commercial center. The fist group of Chinese arrived in Victoria's harbor on June 28 organized through companies in Hong Kong and California they left America to search their destiny. one year later he first ship (the “Carbbean”) directly from Hong Kong arrived carrying over 300 Chinese.
Maybe the doctor Kwang Lkee born in China had the same gray sky above him like I do standing on Johnson St. when he opened his dispensary, establishing the first Chinese business in Victoria and lay the ground stone for a blooming China Town. the Chinese district grew very fast and became the place where the people found bars, operas and gambling dens. Here it was where the opium was produced to be consumed be wealthy Victorians. Enticed by the intoxication they gathered at market square where I find shelter from the falling rain but nothing of the oriental atmosphere anymore. Since the beginning of th 19 th century the actual district of China Town had been shrinking and is now despite the increase of the emigration from China since the 1970s, consisting of not more than five blocks on Fiushgard and Herald St.. Back on Pandora Av. I walk the sidewalk down Government St. passing the red Chinese style garbage cans and the precisely trimmed Chinese pine trees that are significant for this area. Finally the “Gate of Harmonious Interest” arises in front of me. Richly decorated it marks the entrance to a world every visitor should have seen. built in 1981 to preserve the heritage of China Town and to review its prosperity it is also a symbol of the strong Chinese community which through numerous local donors realized this project. Two Chinese guardian lions to both sides of the gate are looking furious at every intruder entering with his car. Each holding a young lion between their pranks ready to defend it. But this Gate wasn't built to keep people out.
Struggling with the Chinese symbols in the middle and on each edge of the gate. Two young Chinese help me to discover their meaning. like the symbol of Jing and Jang these writings speak of harmony. A smooth connection(left side), the door of friends(middle) and the union(right side). A little present marks the parting from my friendly translators. A red paper card with golden writing and decoration. It is put in the fridge on the Chinese new year I'm told with smiles of generosity. It shall keep it filled. Thinking to better do so I walk through the side wing of the date and discover the vegetable shops presenting their rich selection and butchers with juicy chicken and pork hanging in the windows. These goods draw the attention of a lot of Victorians to this street.
The Chinese part of Victoria experienced another boom when on Oct. 7 th 1877 the construction of the railroad between the east and the west of Canada was going to be completed. A 127 Mile long part from Fraser to Kamloops Lake was to be solved. Bad terrain and hard working conditions made a lot of the American guest workers quit the job and the contractor was forced to engage Chinese and Indian workers which he had refused before. So in 1882 the first Chinese workers for the railroad landed in Victoria making the China Town one of the most lively parts of the city.
In that time many Chinese founded businesses selling their home country's art and goods. Today the souvenir shops that are found here sell a more commercialized peace of the Chinese culture with plastic swords and cheap fans mainly produced in Toronto.
“The business here is bad!” the old women behind the counter stocked with Buddhist figures and miniature stone gardens complains. “And it is dirty!”
Stepping out of her shop I find the streets amazingly clean and wonder how that bitterness I saw in her eyes was seeded.
In 1875, BC passed a law which forbid Chinese to vote. Other restrictions made it hard for the Chinese community to stabilize. Their restriction to the area of China Town isolated them socially and forced a lot of immigrants from China to vice activities and poor living. Today fancy restaurants offer the famous Dim Sun Lunch in a very modernized ambient. In the “Fantan Cafe” which was opened twenty years ago I find modern Picasso like art on the walls and little lighted wholes in the ceiling imitating a sky full of stars.
Passing the restaurants I reach Dragon Alley which was bought and developed by Quan Yuen and Joe Gar Chow who between 1881 and 84 when over 6000 Chinese established themselves in this area created a cultural enclave in this spot. Emerging blocks with businesses , theaters, brothels and an interior village for single Chinese. the young men that came to make a living often came without the company of women. In fact the first Chinese woman was legally brought to Canada by the businessman Lee Chong in 1858.
Leaving Dragon Alley and stepping out on Herald St. I find myself confronted with the modern Cafes and the fancy art galleries of the western world as if the cultural bubble I had wandered through had just burst. The Chinese have always presented their culture to the people of the west but have still kept their community to themselves, which created a chapter society within the Canadian city. Wandering off on Government St. I ask myself if we Westerners actually understand this world that unfolds in front of us when we walk through the gate of “Harmonious Interest”. Is there still interest? Or has this cultural sight been degenerated through commercialization and its shrinking to a place to shop? In a sudden inner motion I say hello to the old Chinese man walking by with a smile on his face. He nods and passes me. Maybe that's what it is. A short touch of cultures, not more and not less.
Written by Benjamin Frech
