In 1871 BC agreed to enter Confederation as a province of Canada, on the condition that a transcontinental railway be built to link it to the rest of the country. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought the second wave of Chinese immigrants. The 1885 Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration reported that 15,701 Chinese entered Canada between 1881 and 1884. In 1882 alone, eight thousand arrived in Victoria.

However, the long journey extracted a heavy toll. The travelers faced with numerous hazards such as storms, pirates, insanitary conditions, starvation and scurvy. It was estimated that nearly ten percent died of scurvy. In December 1859, the Lady Inglis was lost on her voyage from China to Canada. The Lawson arrived at Victoria in June 1860 with 68 passengers, although its list showed 280; the missing passengers couldn’t be accounted for. The captain was later charged with having no clearance paper and no medicine chest on board.

The majority of the immigrants came from the two southern coastal provinces of Guangdong (廣柬省), particularly the four adjacent counties of Xinhui (新會), Taisan (台山), Kaiping (開平) and Enping (恩平)- collectively known as Siyi (四邑), and Fujian (福建省). The similar dialect spoken by these Siyi people are commonly referred to as Taishanese (台山話). It became the defacto Chinese language in North America up to and until the early 1970′s Then Hong Kong became the primary source of Chinese immigrants and Cantonese (廣東話) is now the most commonly spoken dialect in the communities. However, majority of Chinese immigrants now come directly from China. This shift will not only impact the spoken language but also the written form as Simplified Chinese, standard in Mainland China, replaces the current popular Traditional Chinese.

Here is a listing of the Chinese in British Columbia 1884 – 1885 by surname and county of origin as compiled by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.

By 1886, Chinese begun to settle at the corner of Carrall and Pender (was Dupont at the time). The main business was laundries. Slowly the settlement spread eastward along Pender. However, all was destroyed during the disastrous Vancouver fire of June 13, 1886.

Because of the depression at the time, the local unemployed white workers, through the Knights of Labour, expressed strong feelings against Chinese labour. The Knights of Labour were adamant that Vancouver should excluded all Chinese. In early 1887, Anti-Chinese Leagues were formed and meetings held throughout British Columbia. On February 24, 1887, an Anti-Chinese meeting was held in Vancouver because it was rumoured that at least a hundred Chinese had landed in Vancouver. This eventually led to the February 24 Chinatown Riot.

The Vancouver Anti-Chinese League held a meeting on February 24, 1887 when twenty-four Chinese arrived from Victoria to clear the Brighouse Estate. After the meeting was formally adjourned, someone called for “Those in favour of running out the Chinese tonight.” The crowd responded with a roar and they, estimated at three to four hundred strong, marched through the snow to the Chinese camp at the western end of the Coal Harbour Bridge. The Chinese were roughly herded outside and the camp destroyed. To escape the kicking and manhandling, some of the Chinese jumped into the icy water and the rest were chased onto the CPR right-of-way without shelter. Not satisfied, part of the mob returned to Vancouver and set fire to some of the Chinese buildings on Carrall Street. The mob returned to Chinatown the next day and forced the Chinese to leave for New Westminster.

The Chinese didn’t return to Vancouver until the Attorney General in Victoria introduced An Act for the Preservation of Peace within the Municipal Limits of the City of Vancouver and brought 36 constables from Victoria to Vancouver. By 1887 present day Vancouver Chinatown began to take shape along Dupont (present day Pender) from Carrall to Main (was Westminster Avenue at the time) with thirty-two businesses. For the next eighty years the Vancouver Chinese community remained in this area which expanded later to Gore St. on the east and Keefer on the south.

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Kevin,

Thank you for set up the website and let me know the chow family tree. I have a problem, I don’t know can you help me?

My grandfather have gone to Canada to work around 1915 and was dead around 1958-1959. I have never seen my grandfather’s look because I was born after he dead. My father told me my grandfather went to Canada to work because he wanted to provide a best living to their families. But I am unhappy that even my grandfather dead, no one know where is he buried. About 10 years before, one of my father’s relative who told my father that my grandfather was passed away in St. Joseph Hospital and buried in Fraser Lawn. I don’t know whether it is true or false. I have tried to go to Vancouver to check but the government told me that they have no record.

So Kevin, Can you help me to check although I know it is very difficult and not easy to find, as a granddaughter, I don’t want my grandfather used his half life in Canada due to give a best living to his family and now he dead, no one know where he buried.

I can only provide very little information to you, the informations are as follows :

• My grandfather’s name and address in China.
• 周炳恩 (CHOW BING YAN) 廣東省開平縣茅崗忠心里
• Name and address in Canada
  • 周瑞沾 (CHOW YEN) BLUBBER BAY B.C. CANADA
  • He had a relative called 周家潤, his mailing address was BOSTON CAFE, 199, BRUNSWICK STREET, HALIFAX NO. 8 CANADA.

I know only this information, it is very difficult to find. Anyway I hope you can help me.

I am looking forward to your reply. Thank you.

Best Regards

Renita Chau

This email of March 2, 2003 set me down a road I’ve never travelled before. It looked so straight forward because everything seemed to be in order:

1. there is a name with the properly spelling
2. the approximate years of death
3. there is a Mount St. Joseph Hospital which is known locally as the Chinese hospital
4. the cemetery (Fraser Lawn) is a bit tricky as there are three local possible cemeteries
   1. Fraser Cemetery in New Westminister
   2. Forest Lawn Cemetery in Burnaby (the lawn part of the name given by Renita)
   3. Mountain View Cemetery on Fraser Street, Vancouver

Of course, life is never this simple and easy. After exhausting all obvious and potential leads I finally turned to my friend, Al Chinn, for advice. He suggested a search of the online databases. A search on Google for “cemeteries in BC” eventually led me to the BC Vital Statistics web site. Searching for “Yen Chow” and “Bing Yan Chow” returned no hit but a search for “Chow” returned three hits. One of them was Ben Yen Chow, September 9, 1957.

One of my contacts during the search was Mr. Bak Lip Chow from the Vancouver Chow Association. He said Ocean View Cemetery was a popular burial site with the Chinese despite the fact it is located in Burnaby. Armed with this information I contacted Ocean View Cementery and inquired about Ben Yen Chow. They checked their records and confirmed Mr. Ben Yen Chow, indeed, is buried there.

Since then Mr. Ben Yen Chow’s descendants had traveled from Toronto to pay their respects. I was able to meet and accompany them during their most recent visit. They not only bought flowers to honour their father, grandfather and great grandfather but also placed incense sticks on all surrounding graves. For many of these tombs, if not all, this was the first time in a long time that somebody pays such respect. I found this to be very heartening gesture.

After visiting the gravel site and seeing over a hundred single plot burials there I can’t helped but wonder how of them are waiting to be discovered by their descendants? Since it is estimated that 82,000 had paid the head tax, is 25% or20,500 a good guess? Or is 41,000 closer to the truth? May be higher still? And how many people are in a situation similar to Renita Chau and her family searching for the gravels or their ancestors?

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