Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Plaza was completed nearby in 1993, a joint hotel-retail-commercial com-
plex funded in part by a syndicate of Taiwanese investor immigrants and
including a community centre with a Buddhist temple (Wood et al. 1994).
Its nearest neighbour is the Yaohan Centre that opened the same year, built
by a Hong-Kong based Japanese property company, and anchored by the
Japanese Yaohan supermarket, the first in Canada. By 1996, six years after
construction, Aberdeen Centre was already planning to rebuild, doubling
its volume and anticipating up to 400 stores. These five adjacent malls
formed a joint marketing venture, Asia West, branding themselves as a tour-
ist destination for Canadian and international airport travellers (Chow
1996f). With these major players, and other smaller plazas, a local realtor
estimated that 70 percent of land in Richmond's city centre was Asian-
owned in the early 1990s, while Asian investors were developing half of all
new housing projects (Williamson 1992).
The much-publicized successes of the major Richmond malls encour-
aged a queue of imitators nearby and further afield. The most expansive
proposal was for 'Asian Centre' in Surrey, an outer municipality with a
significant South Asian population, a smaller overseas Chinese population
but with significant developable land and prospects for continuing growth.
The ambitious scheme outlined in 1995 included a three-storey mall, a
large hotel, a trade centre, exhibition halls and recreation facilities (
Wo r l d
Journal
1995). It was projected to be a local, regional and international
attraction. The idea was initiated by Taiwanese immigrants, but for a project
priced at over a billion dollars, financial backers included not only three
investment houses from Taiwan, but also Great Wall Developments from
Beijing; the Asian Centre was reported to be the first Chinese-Taiwanese
joint venture in Canada (
Sing Tao
1997b). While planning and develop-
ment progress was slow, the international significance of the project esca-
lated, with the arrival in 1996 of the Mayor of Chu Hai City in China, sister
city of Surrey, offering the gift of a ceremonial gate to the project; the
Premier of British Columbia welcomed the Chinese delegation at a recep-
tion (
Ming Pao
1996). Meanwhile a nearby 500-unit residential project had
entered the picture, Great Wall Village, with an intended market 'the middle
class technical workers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China' (
Sing
Tao
1997c).
In this transnational scenario, a Chinese development company employ-
ing its own funds plus investment by Taiwanese venture capitalists were
planning residential units in suburban Vancouver for Chinese, Taiwanese
and Hong Kong immigrants. Transnational participation and the role of dig-
natories made subsequent events of considerable embarrassment. Ground
was broken in September 1997 but almost immediately the overseas crisis
intervened. The sharp recession in Asia embroiled investment funds in
Taiwan; partners withdrew, construction bills were not paid, the contractor
