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FALEN: Little Italy, Little India, Koreatown, Greektown, Little Jamaica. The list goes on and on. Almost every major city in North America has enclaves like this. Cities within cities. Places that newly arrived immigrants would flock to to feel a sense of home. To feel safe. Sometimes the boundaries are imperceptible. You can't tell when you cross from one neighbourhood into the next. But sometimes it is so evident. And I would have to say you always know when you're in Chinatown.

[SOUND CLIP]

VOICE 1: What comes to mind when you think of Chinatown?

VOICE 2: The food. There's so much good food in Chinatown.

VOICE 3: The Peking ducks in the window that always catches my eye.

VOICE 4: I think about dumplings.

VOICE 5: Dim sum.

VOICE 6: I think of market places.

VOICE 7: Cheap groceries.

VOICE 8: Everybody talking Chinese and a lot of Chinese people.

VOICE 9: Depending on the community that surrounds it, you can have more Korean influence, you can have more Japanese influence.

VOICE 10: I'm Chinese and like I spend a lot of time around here as a kid, but just seeing like where sort of like Chinese-Canadians sort of started before moving into the suburbs it's like kind of nice to feel like even if I don't fully get the history.

LEAH: Dangerous.

FALEN: I know right. You want like that Tiger Beat poster on your wall?

LEAH: Tiger Beat?

FALEN: John Meares.

LEAH: Tiger Beat was a magazine from 100 years ago that young girls used to read. It was kind of like Instagram. It basically was like Instagram.

FALEN: Yeah. So there's this funny story. Well I think it's funny. So on one of his previous voyages, John Meares got stuck in the ice and 23 of his men died.

LEAH: That's not funny.

FALEN: That's not the funny part, no. And the remaining 10 men were rescued by Captain George Dixon, a fellow British trader.

LEAH: Oh great.

FALEN: Yeah. Dixon sold Meares the supplies to keep him and his men alive and Meares promised never to trade without the proper paperwork again.

LEAH: Fair.

FALEN: Yeah. So then Meares returns to China and sues Dixon.

LEAH: Wait. What for? Saving his life?

FALEN: For overcharging him for supplies.

LEAH: Oh my gosh. That saved his life.

FALEN: That saved his life.

LEAH: That is cold. The moral of the story here is just don't save lives. You know.

FALEN: I know.

LEAH: You know walk away. You see some men starving on a boat in the middle of the ocean just.

FALEN: I know I just love these instances of you know.

LEAH: White on white crime?

FALEN: White on white crime. OK so back in China, Meares recruits 50 Chinese men to come with him and travel across the Pacific. They sailed from China on January 1788 and arrived at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island in May of the same year.

LEAH: Five months on a boat. I cannot imagine. That's a lot. And with all dudes? No.

FALEN: No. No I can barely handle like a five hour flight. So once he's on Vancouver Island, Meares traded furs for goods and eventually made claims that a Chief from the Nuu Chah Nulth Nation, whose land he was on, gave him some property, some land. And this ownership would be a factor that would lead to the Nootka Crisis where war almost broke out between Spain and Britain.

LEAH: I mean that Chief didn't give him any land.

FALEN: I know. Let's be real.

LEAH: I have no proof. I haven't read the history. I didn't read the books. I don't know what really happened, but I didn't happen.

FALEN: No that didn't happen.

LEAH: I didn't actually also know that the Spanish were in the area when I think of you know the land that we now call Canada, I always think it being colonized by English people.

FALEN: Yeah English and French. Yeah. The Spanish were in you know California and sort of in the States.

LEAH: That makes sense.

FALEN: They were on that coast so it makes sense that they would think that they had some claim to this area. And it all goes back to the Spanish crown when Christopher Columbus claiming the land for themselves. They had the "rights of discovery," so they considered the land theirs. And the British, setting up camp and trading and saying that they owned parts of the island, this was not acceptable to the Spanish. So in 1789 the Spanish rolled up to Vancouver Island and told the British to take a hike. And this resulted in years of discussion over who had the right to be there.

LEAH: Right. And so what were the Chinese people doing at this time in this area?

FALEN: Yeah. Well it's hard to know, but many people think that some ran, some were captured and some were killed.

LEAH: Right. I'd like to imagine that they ran and that's how the first Chinese settlements happened.

FALEN: Yeah. And I mean you could very well be right, but it is difficult to know.

LEAH: Of course.

FALEN: What we do know is that the next time we have a substantial number of Chinese people beginning to settle was in the 1850s.

LEAH: So why were they coming here?

FALEN: Well some of this has to do with the tumultuous conditions that were happening in China at the time. Many Chinese people who came over were from the southern port of Guangzhou. Between 1780 and 1850 the population in that region leapt from 16 million to 28 million.

LEAH: Wow.

FALEN: The strain on the economy, rent prices for land skyrocketed and people couldn't plant enough crops to feed themselves and their families. Also, there was weather events like floods and droughts that really exacerbated the situation.

LEAH: Right. So all of these things I mean makes sense that you're going to try and find a better life somewhere.

FALEN: Yeah absolutely and this wasn't even the half of it. There was lots of conflict as well going on at the time and a lot of them were trade based. Great Britain was super into Chinese goods in the 1800s, including things like porcelain and silk and tea.

LEAH: Okay so one of my friends told me one time because I said oh I love you know a a cup of British tea. And she said there is no British tea. There's only Chinese tea and Indian tea. Tea doesn't grow in England and I think that's a really important thing to think about because all of this trade meant not only colonisation was happening, but the the ownership of commodities and the taking over of different cultural things that you know we now think of very British things that aren't.

FALEN: Yeah i know. But the thing is like the British didn't really have anything that the Chinese were super into. They were like please send us some Marmite.

LEAH: I guess Elton John's records would have been kind of way before this and you know before the British babies were being commodified. Okay anyway.

FALEN: Alright. So what we had here was that you know there was a trade issue between China and Britain. Britain really wanted to address this and so what they decided to do was grow some poppies in India.

LEAH: So how did that help?

FALEN: So opium comes from poppies.

LEAH: Right.

FALEN: So the thinking was if the East India Company could get people in China addicted to opium then that would help open the trade doors to China. So we've got the opium that you're now addicted to, give us the tea.

LEAH: Wow.

FALEN: Yeah. And the thing is like opium was illegal in China at the time. So the East India Company, being the evil supervillains that they were, decided to manufacture the opium and allow it to be easily smuggled in China.

LEAH: That is dirty and it's kept blowing my mind that opium and tea are somehow connected in a way.

FALEN: This is all seriously dirty stuff. They actually set up a raid on the border between India and China. Like the company set up on the border, so that they could easily push. Yeah it's super messed up. Yeah. So these events are in part what sparked the Opium Wars.

LEAH: I think for me what is so fascinating is that opium and opium den, especially when you're reading through all this history are something that have been really tied to the Chinese people and to Chinatowns.

FALEN: Yeah exactly and when we actually take a minute to consider and question where that opium was coming from, we learned it came from the British who pushed it on the Chinese. So the first Opium War was from 1839 to 1842 and about ten years later there was a Second Opium War where the French joined in. And then there was the Taiping Rebellion, a religious conflict that lasted 15 years and claimed an estimated 20 to 30 million lives. There were also multiple peasant uprisings during this time that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

LEAH: That is a lot of overlapping fighting. So China is a whole world of strife and so of course people wanted to get out of dodge at this time.

FALEN: Yeah exactly. So the first real pull to the Americas came in 1848 when gold was found in the Sacramento Valley. Then in 1857 gold was found in the Fraser Valley and the rush was on. Chinese gold seekers came from San Francisco because some had already been there from the previous gold rush and then they came direct from Hong Kong to Victoria.

LEAH: So what was it like when they first got here?

FALEN: Well they were quickly subjected to racism.

LEAH: What?

FALEN: I know .

LEAH: I know. I am shocked. Racism that is in Canada. Wow. Okay. Tell me more.

FALEN: OK let me, Let me tell you.

LEAH: This is a shocking revelation.

FALEN: I know, right. OK. So sometimes there was segregation and sometimes it was a self-imposed segregation for the sake of safety.

LEAH: Of course. That makes sense.

FALEN: Yeah. So this is when we really start to see the beginning of Chinatown in Victoria.

[Music]

FALEN: In 1858, much of Victoria had already been claimed in one way or another by groups of people.

LEAH: In reality it had been the territory of many Indigenous people.

FALEN: Yeah and now non-Indigenous people began to claim the land for themselves Englishmen who were lawyers or doctors had settled into the hillsides of the city. The Hudson's Bay Company men who worked and trade settled on Humboldt Street and Jewish merchants settled on Johnson Street.

LEAH: Any relation to you? Johnson?

FALEN: No.

LEAH: Do you own a street?

FALEN: No. I will never own anything ever.

LEAH: Well technically.

FALEN: I know right.

LEAH: I mean that's another episode. We can get into land ownership.

FALEN: Yeah stay tuned.

LEAH: Stay tuned.

FALEN: Yeah.

LEAH: Upcoming.

FALEN: Okay. So yeah at this time, in the late 18th 50s white landlords would not rent, lease or sell their lands to Chinese people unless they were on the fringes of town in undesirable areas. These places were called pig pens by the people who stayed in them because they were so cramped and prison like. Sometimes in places like Vancouver newly landed Chinese people were quarantined to these spaces. In Victoria the Chinese set up on the north bank of the Johnson Street ravine on the mudflats or tidal flats.

LEAH: That sounds like it would be damp and undesirable.

FALEN: Not a good place to set up camp, no, but they had no choice. And the ravine acted as a natural barrier to the rest of the city and there was room for Chinatown to expand northwards, towards Cormorant Street. Shacks and tents were the first structures Chinese people set up. Initially it was a stopping place for miners to rest, to shop for goods they needed for the journey to the goldfields.

LEAH: Many Chinatowns in B.C. were started in much the same way as in Victoria with a single street which when translated meant Chinese street.

FALEN: By 1862 the population of Chinatown in Victoria would have been about 300 people. There were many temporary residents in the early days as many people were heading off to seek gold or coming back from labouring work. Sometimes the population of the settlement would swell when a ship came in from Hong Kong and then decrease as people headed out for work.

LEAH: Well that makes sense.

FALEN: Yeah the area grew from being called Chinese Street to Chinese Port and then finally to Chinatown.

LEAH: How did people feel about living in these emerging Chinatowns?

FALEN: Well many liked being in their own communities with their own people with freedom to follow their own customs.

LEAH: And of course avoid some of the racism.

FALEN: Yes that too. As I said earlier, many of the people who were living in these towns, these Chinatowns, were working away and they would come back and stop and rest and then head out again. And one really heart wrenching thing that I found when I was doing the research was that sometimes when these men were out working in the goldfields, they would be killed or harassed. And so sometimes what they would do is they would stick to already previously mined claims and just try to find anything they could.

LEAH: Like leftovers. Yeah just to stay safe.

FALEN: Yeah once the gold rush was over, work really dried up. This was a time when people began fighting for jobs and many Chinese men were willing to work longer hours for lower wages.

LEAH: And I can't imagine that this was well received by all the white people.

FALEN: No it was not. And things were only going to get worse. In 1871, British Columbia joined confederation. One of the key reasons B.C. joined was the promise of a railway that would connect the country.

LEAH: Sea to shining sea, right?

FALEN: That's right. This would be a difficult undertaking because this new railway would have to go through the Rocky Mountains.

LEAH: Right. And we know that many Chinese people were employed to build it because they were paid less.

FALEN: Yeah that's right. There were many people who actually fought to restrict Chinese men from working on the railroad. Organizations like Working Men's Protection Association, which would eventually go on to be the anti-Chinese Association.

LEAH: Racist.

FALEN: Petitioned the government to prohibit the use of Chinese labour.

LEAH: Also racist.

FALEN: They wanted the project to go forward, but with strictly white labour.

LEAH: Oh did they now? Prime Minister John A. Macdonald had this to say.

FALEN: If you wish to have the railway finished within any reasonable time, there must be no such step against Chinese labour. At present, it is simply a question of alternatives. Either you must have this labour or you cannot have the railway.

LEAH: When Chinese men began to work on the railway, they were not only underpaid, they were denied medical attention when they were sick. They were overcharged for supplies and they suffered from malnutrition.

FALEN: Right. That reminds me of that Canadian Heritage Minute.

FALEN: Yeah and it's terrible because if you've seen that Heritage Minute you know that like at the end of it the young Chinese worker, he walks out and he's fine. But in reality that wasn't the case for many of these men. You know a lot of them died and a lot of them were hastily buried and left covered with rocks and the work continued.

LEAH: Over 2000 people died according to some estimates.

FALEN: Because of Chinese labor on the railroad, it is said that Canada saved between 3 and 5 million dollars.

LEAH: Which is massive because even though that's a massive number now, think about it then.

FALEN: Then yes.

LEAH: Wow.

FALEN: After the railroad was completed many Chinese people settled in B.C. and this is where we start to see some of the most profound racism happening.

LEAH: Right. So the need for Chinatowns was much more urgent.

FALEN: Yes.

LEAH: You want community.

FALEN: Yes. In 1872, British Columbia passed An Act to disenfranchise, which means to take the rights away of Chinese people and Indigenous people. And this is something that we're going to take a look at a little bit deeper in our next episode.

LEAH: Right.

FALEN: Just over a decade later, the Canadian government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, which meant a head tax of $50 would be charged to any Chinese person coming to the country. This was obviously put into place to deter them, but the conditions in China were still so bad that people could make more money here.

LEAH: Well I was going to say it sounds like the opposite of an immigration act. It's like the anti-immigration act.

FALEN: Yes.

LEAH: In 1901 the tax was then doubled to $100, which was a huge amount of money. And then in 1903 it was raised again to $500, which would have been thousands and thousands of dollars in today's money. And if the Chinese people made it from Hong Kong to Victoria where ships docked, they were then treated much like prisoners. They would be subjected to a medical exam and then it would be determined if they got the right to pay their head tax. If they couldn't, they would have to wait for a friend or relation to pay and you could go weeks and weeks without knowing if you would actually be allowed in Canada.

FALEN: Anti-Chinese violence was so common at this time that one B.C. newspaper said that it was hardly worth reporting.

LEAH: Oh really?

FALEN: Yeah.

LEAH: Racists. OK. Sorry.

FALEN: That's the subtext for this episode.

LEAH: That is the subtext.

FALEN: Just Leah whispering racist in your ear.

LEAH: Hashtag racism.

FALEN: Yeah.

LEAH: But there was pushback from Canadians who wanted Chinese to assimilate.

FALEN: One city councillor in Victoria is quoted as saying the Chinese immigrants.

LEAH: Did not eat our grub, wear our boots nor did they patronize local industries arts or science.

FALEN: But the fact of the matter was that as the city progressed, Chinese people were not permitted to sit on the lower floor of the Victoria Opera House, swim in the city's Crystal swimming pool or enter certain stores during specific hours. A special permit was even required from the sheriff for intermarriage.

LEAH: Why does the sheriff get the say? I mean who is this sheriff?

FALEN: I have no idea.

LEAH: So essentially this is segregation.

FALEN: Yeah.

LEAH: I mean I didn't actually realize the restrictions were that intense in the respect that they were law essentially. You know.

FALEN: Yeah I mean it's really similar to Jim Crow South, like you know. The Chinese Immigration Act was amended once again. This time the change was even more extreme the act would now prevent the entry of any Chinese persons to Canada. It was passed on July 1st, 1923, Dominion Day, which we now call Canada Day.

LEAH: That's intense. I mean the Chinese people refused to celebrate Dominion Day. Understandable. Instead opting to call it Humiliation Day. This would eventually be called the Chinese Exclusion Act.

VOICE 1: He's 78. These men have always called Canada home. Even at a time when Canada called them aliens.

VOICE 2: At that time, British Columbia was a racist society. Socially they were a pariah. There was a restaurant called White Lunch. There was display on the window sign that all white help only. We don't hire any Orientals.

VOICE 3: When I go to a theatre, we have to sit in certain place.

VOICE 2: Certain sections were roped off into a segregated section, reserved exclusively for Chinese and Native Indians.

VOICE 1: In fact racism against Chinese was so rampant, Harry remembers the time while he was at Strathclyde high school when his very name was denied him.

VOICE 3: My name is Harry. It's given name by my teacher. Birth certificate name was a Chinese name.

VOICE 1: So why did they call you Harry?

VOICE 3: It was given by the teacher. I don't know. I don't know why. My brother is called Johnny. My other brother is called Williy and my sister's called Lily. It was given by the teacher.

VOICE 1: And the biggest wrong for Roy Ma and Harry Ho? They were Canadian born and bred, but didn't have the right to vote because of special policies designed to make it very difficult for more Chinese to come to Canada.

VOICE 3: If I live in Canada, I'm considered Canadian, but I don't get no right to vote. See.

FALEN: The act would be in place until 1947.

LEAH: That's too long.

FALEN: I know and it was devastating to families. Many people who had come to Canada seeking a better life would be cut off from their families for years. Some of them wouldn't see their families ever again. It was estimated that between 1923 and 1947, only 15 Chinese people were allowed to immigrate to Canada.

LEAH: Wow. At times like these, Chinatowns across Canada would be so important to find a connection to culture and community, but with a policy in place like the Exclusion Act, some of these communities completely disappeared.

FALEN: After World War 1 and 2, attitudes around race and racism began to shift in some urban centres as some Canadians reflected on the genocide in Europe. The value of these cities within cities began to slowly change.

LEAH: And nowadays gentrification, meaning the process of you know renovating and "improving a district" so that it conforms to a middle class sensibility is constantly threatening some of these beautiful historic buildings and spaces.

FALEN: And we can't talk about Victoria's Chinatown without talking about Dr. David Lai. In the 70s, he was appointed by the City of Victoria and the Chinese Benevolent Association to be the chairman of a rehabilitation program. This would see the oldest Chinatown in Canada be cared for in a way that it had never really been. Sidewalks were replaced, bilingual signs were put up, power lines and telephone lines were repaired and the gate of harmonious interest was erected to commemorate an important place or event. And this place is pretty important.

[Music]

LEAH: The Secret Life of Canada is recorded in Toronto on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee, Wendat, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit.

FALEN: It's written and hosted by me, Falen Johnson.

LEAH: And me, Leah Simone Bowen.

FALEN: And produced by Katie Jensen.

LEAH: Our script editor is Yvette Nolan.

FALEN: Research assistance is provided by Jon Weier, Kelsey Cueva and the folks from the CBC Archives.

LEAH: Our digital producer is Fabiola Carletti. The senior producer of CBC podcast is Tanya Springer and the executive producer is Arif Noorani.

FALEN: Come hang out with us on our Facebook group. You can chat with us about this episode or check out other cool history related posts and tell us what you think.

LEAH: We're also on Instagram and Twitter @SecretLifeofCAD.

FALEN: If there's a story you want to hear in an episode or a piece of history you want to tell us about, email us at secretlifeofcanada@cbc.ca.

LEAH: If you like what you heard or even if you didn't, please review us on iTunes. It really helps other people find us.

FALEN: Thanks for exploring Canada's hidden history with us and remember pass it on.

LEAH: OK. Also are you listening to other CBC podcasts people? You should be On Drugs. It's amazing. You listen to it all the time.

FALEN: Oh yeah I do. I like it a lot. It's great.

LEAH: It's like pop culture, history. It's kind of like ours, but specifically about drugs.

FALEN: If you like drugs.

[Music]

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TRANSCRIPT: Secret Life of Canada - Season 2, EP 17: Chinatown

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