CHINATOWN (VANCOUVER)

'Chinatown' in Vancouver, British Columbia is one of the largest Chinatowns in North America. Its location is centred on Pender Street. It is surrounded by Gastown and the Downtown Financial and Central Business Districts to the west, remnants of old Japantown and the Downtown Eastside to the north and the residential neighbourhood of Strathcona to the east. The approximate street borders of Chinatown's commercial area are Hastings, Georgia, Gore, and Taylor Streets, although its boundaries extend well into the residential area south of the Downtown Eastside. Main, Pender, and Keefer Streets are the principle areas of commercial activity.
Due to the large ethnic Chinese presence in Vancouver—especially represented by multi-generation Chinese Canadians and first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong, the city has been referred to as 'Hongcouver' (a term considered derogatory by some). Chinatown remains a popular tourist attraction, but was more recently overshadowed by the newer Asian immigrant business district along No. 3 Road in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. Many affluent Hong Kong and Taiwanese immigrants have moved there since the late 1980s, coinciding with the increase of Chinese-ethnic retail and restaurants in that area. This new area is designated the "Golden Village" by Tourism Richmond.
Vancouver's Chinatown is one of the largest historic Chinatown in North America. However, it went into decline as newer members of Vancouver's Cantonese Chinese community founded a new retail area centred around Victoria and 41st Ave in the 1980s and 90s to cater to a more suburban population. Today this is the largest Chinese Canadian neighbourhood in greater Vancouver.
Chinatown was once known for its neon signs but like the rest of the city lost many of the spectacular signs to changing times and a new sign bylaw passed in 1974. The last of the spectaculars was the Ho Ho sign (which showed a rice bowl and chop sticks) which was removed in the 1997. Ongoing efforts at revitalization include efforts by the business community to improve safety by hiring private security; looking at new marketing promotions and introducing residential units into the neighbourhood by restoring and renovating some of the heritage buildings. Current focus is on the restoration and adaptive reuse of the distinctive Association buildings.

Contents

International Village

Amenities

Demographics

Facts and figures

Notable

See also

Notes

External links

International Village

Since 2004, Chinatown has been in the midst of a renaissance as the downtown boom in construction is encroaching on its limits. New high-rise towers are being constructed around the old Expo 86 site and heavy investment has poured into the development of 'International Village', downtown's answer to the Asian malls found in the Golden Village.
International Village mall was conceived as a new shopping centre with a variety of asian oriented shoppes, restaurants, and a movie theatre, Cinemark Tinseltown, (leading to the popular but incorrect assumption that the name of the mall itself is "Tinseltown"^[2]).
Today International Village refers not only to the mall but also to the new surrounding new neighbourhood of Chinatown.
The T & T Supermarket, (a Taiwanese food chain), operates a store in the International Village neighbourhood at the foot of the Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain subway station, as do numerous shops and restaurants.

Amenities

Chinatown is becoming more prosperous as new investment and old traditional businesses flourish. Today the neighbourhood is complete with many traditional restaurants, banks, open markets and clinics, tea shops, clothing and other shops catering to the local community and tourists alike. The Vancouver office of Sing Tao, one of the city's four Chinese dailies, remains in Chinatown along with the new Channel M television studio and headquarters.

Demographics

As with many other Chinatowns, it is still heavily populated by older immigrants; but younger residents, including Taiwanese, white, and Hong Kong yuppies lured by its convenient location and amenities at the heart of the city, have returned downtown and settled in Chinatown over the past decade. As promised by the new Millennium Gate, Chinatown remains the centre of Chinese culture and commerce in the region.

Facts and figures

★ The 'China Gate' on Pender Street was donated to the City of Vancouver by the Government of the People's Republic of China following the Expo 86 world's fair, where it was on display. After being displayed for almost 20 years at its current location, the Gate was re-built and received a major renovated facade employing stone and steel. Funding for this renovation came through some government and private support; the renovated gate had its unveiling during the October 2005 visit of Guangdong governor Huang Huahua.


★ The Sam Kee Building - The Sam Kee Company, run by Chang Toy one of the wealthier merchants in turn-of-the-last-century Chinatown, bought this land as a standard-sized lot in 1903. However, in 1912 the City widened Pender Street, expropriating all but 6 feet off the Pender Street side of the lot. In 1913 the architects Brown and Gillam designed this narrow, steel-framed free-standing building on the left over 6 feet. The basement, extending under the sidewalk, housed public baths; shops were on the ground floor and offices above. The 1980s rehabilitation of the building for Jack Chow was designed by Soren Rasmussen Architect and completed in 1986. The building is considered the narrowest commercial building in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Notable

In addition to Han Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, Chinese Latin Americans have also settled in the Chinatown area. Most of them were from Peru, and arrived shortly after Juan Velasco Alvarado took over the country. Others hail from Brazil, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

See also

★ Golden Village (Richmond, British Columbia)

★ Canadian Chinese cuisine

★ List of historical and current Canadian Chinatowns

Notes

1. [1] Vancouver-Chinatown website page on the Millennium Gate
2. http://vancouver.metblogs.com/archives/2007/01/the_tinseltown_mall_where_reta.phtml]

External links

★ Vancouver Chinatown Revitalization Committee website

★ "For the love of Chinatown," 1968 clip from CBC Radio

★ Chinese Community Policing Centre

★ Vincent Miller, "Mobile Chinatowns: The Future of Community in a Global Space of Flows." Article analyzing the differences between Vancouver's Chinatown and the Chinese community in Richmond.

★ "Yin and Yang: Chinatown Past and Present," Multimedia site from Knowledge Network based on Paul Yee's book, ''Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver,''Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1988.