Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Advances in Chinatown
The 1971 map, indeed the period from 1965-80, represented a transitional
period for Chinatown; both Anderson's and Ng's topics end in 1980, the
completion of a distinctive era of Chinese settlement. This transition was
repeated in Canada's national evolution as aspects of its internal and external
self-understanding were reshaped, creating a much more favourable environ-
ment for Chinese-Canadians. The social liberalism of the Pearson-Trudeau
years in the 1960s and 1970s; the celebratory coming of age of the centenary
of Canadian confederation in 1967, including the world exposition in
Montreal; significant revisions to the Immigration Act in 1962 and 1967; the
diplomatic recognition of China in 1970 at Trudeau's prompting; and his
declaration of multiculturalism in 1971 - all evoked a new national self-
confidence, maturity and inclusiveness that were to have significant conse-
quences for the large-scale migration from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China after
1980. There was also a more immediate effect upon Vancouver's Chinatown.
The first signs of change emerged in the 1960s following the most recent
of a long line of disciplinary orders from the City. This decree was of a new
scale of magnitude, requiring residents to evacuate Chinatown altogether.
The district's level of deterioration in the eyes of municipal government
allowed only one response, wholesale destruction and redevelopment.
Vancouver was not unique, for similar decisions led to significant demoli-
tion and re-location of smaller Chinatowns in Toronto and Montreal (Lai
1988). Such outcomes gave an eloquent message in the built environment
about the continuing marginal status of the impacted population, and early
events in Vancouver suggested not much had changed (Anderson 1991;
Ley, Anderson and Konrad 1994).
An urban renewal report in 1950 condescendingly described Chinatown,
including its residential district of Strathcona, as a 'revenue sink… its state of
deterioration a menace' (Marsh 1950). From such an uncompromising assess-
ment the only conclusion was massive surgery, and in time-honoured tradition
City Council made the citizens of Chinatown and its adjacent residential dis-
trict of Strathcona once again objects for the projects of others by declaring the
district an urban renewal redevelopment area. Public works were suspended,
property prices frozen and further building permits disallowed for private
owners. Displacement and clearance began and 3,300 owners and tenants were
moved by 1965 through compulsory relocation - aiding the dispersal of
Chinatown residents east and south (Figure 2.1). Opposition voiced by tradi-
tional benevolent associations was ignored. A second indignity burst upon eve-
ryday life in 1967 with Council's announcement, without consultation, of the
first leg of a regional freeway network. Its projected eight-lane alignment would
demolish part of Chinatown and 12 residential blocks at the southern edge of
