Tracing Chinatown: Detailed Notes

Tracing Chinatown: Detailed Notes 1. Tracing Chinatown Understanding Toronto’s Chinatown West as a changing space of cultural placemaking Made by Charmain Wong 2. Bibliography (see below) 3. Author’s Note + Thanks Toronto’s Chinatown West has played a big part in my four years in this city.

It’s a role that has evolved as I’ve gotten to know its character and the daily dances of life that are negotiated on its pavements. I am surprised every time a new layer is pulled back, and struck by how much more rich and complex this place’s story is than can be encapsulated in one measly research project. This zine is a storybook in some ways - grounded in historical and research-based fact, but spun in a narrative that is easy to follow. While nothing has been falsified, the nature of a narrative is that not everything will be included in the story. Chinatown is deeply complex, constantly changing, layered in history and present day politics, engaging in daily negotiations of space and identity both small and large, full of contradictions and divisions, bursting with different opinions, and far more nuanced than can be captured in these few pages. I hope this provides for you, dear reader, simply a glimpse into these layers - and that next time you’re in Chinatown, you’ll start to look for them, too.

4. What is placemaking?

Make: active vs passive/intentional vs unintentional, government led, grassroots activism, or built organically by groups and individuals simply living life. Can be a physical intervention, or an intangible intervention Place: habits/customs, tactile experiences (sounds, smells), physical space/land, identity, memory/story, community/people 5. In this project, we are taking a place-based approach to understanding Chinatown’s history and present circumstance, as a jumping point at looking to potential futures. Toronto’s Chinatowns have gone through a lifetime of change, and it continues to change everyday still. The overall shifts can be seen throughout its timeline geographically - the early days of Chinese settlement until the 50’s was when (Old) Chinatown was located in the Ward neighbourhood, about where Nathan Phillips Square stands now. The 50’s and 60’s saw the people and businesses move to the current Chinatown West and East areas, building shops and restaurants. In the 70’s and 80’s, more professional services such as dentists and law offices arrived. Of course, Chinatown also changed with the waves of migrant groups coming into Canada, each adding a new dimension to the place as they joined the community - sometimes in harmony, and sometimes in conflict. The newest demographic shift looks to be “studentification”, and so the questions of the present are asking how

Chinatown is used by this student population that may live, work, but certainly are customers here. This also leads us to the unanswerable broader question of who Chinatown is for - and who makes it? Also, what makes Chinatown Chinatown, if all its parts - place, people, and businesses - are constantly in flux?

This zine will attempt to trace a select narrative of Toronto’s Chinatown West through a place-based lens. We will move from past, to present, to speculative futures, and look at specific types of spaces that have played a role in forming Chinatown as a place.

6. Chinese laundries were the first and oldest Chinese businesses to appear in North America. They often formed the heart of a new Chinatown in the early days as a practical response to lack of employment opportunities for Chinese in white Canada.1 The first Chinese immigrants to Canada were poor migrants from China’s south, who came first to search for gold, then to build Canada’s railways2. Then, after the completion of the CPR, they had to fight racist laws to stay here3. Western society’s dominant discourse of “yellow perilism” led to discriminatory legislation4 such as the head tax and other laws that restricted rights to immigration, voting, land holding, and employment, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 19235. But at the laundry, the Chinese business owners were their own bosses, and they often hired family and friends to work there, building a safe workplace free from the hostilities of the society around them.6 According to Kay Anderson’s “The Idea of Chinatown”, it is a combination of “push and pull” forces that causes enclaves such as Chinatown to coalesce. On one hand, Chinese residents were active agents in their own placemaking7. The Chinese laundry is an illustration of the Chinese people in Toronto taking matters into their own hands when opportunities were scarce and shouldering for a place for themselves in a new land that wasn’t quite welcoming. On the other hand, this isolated community was formed out of necessity, as a reactionary response to the hostile forces of the society around them.

1

Arlene Chan. ”Against all Odds”. The Ward : the Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood, Edited by John Lorinc et al. First edition. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2015.

2 Arlene Chan. The Chinese Community in Toronto : Then and Now . Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2013.

3 John Lorinc, Michael McClelland, Ellen Scheinberg, and Tatum Taylor. The Ward : the Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood . First edition. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2015.

4 John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats. Yellow Peril! : an Archive of Anti-Asian Fear.

London ;: Verso, 2014.

5 Arlene Chan, “The Chinese Community” 6 Arlene Chan, ”Against all Odds” 7 Kay J. Anderson. “The Idea of Chinatown: The Power of Place and Institutional Practice in the Making of a Racial Category.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 77, no. 4 (1987): 580–98.

7. Associations (family associations, community associations, political associations, or mutual benefit societies) formed in Chinatowns as a means for individuals to find support and protection, necessary for daily survival in a country that did not allow the Chinese legal or employment rights8. In Toronto, associations formed around common families (such as the Lee Association, Lem Society, or Wong Association, which can still be found in Chinatown today), home county or geographic areas, or political interests.

These associations served as quasi-governmental forces for its members, often solving problems within the community internally and representing the Chinese to the larger society. They would offer services to find employment, help with immigration, taxes, and health care, interpreting, and letter writing, as well as banking and loans (the Chinese could not borrow money from a Canadian bank until the 1960’s9). Lastly, associations provided important services, but they also provided a place for the community to gather and socialize, and to remain connected to their language, culture, and religious traditions10. In this sense, the association building became a place within Chinatown that would be a safe refuge for the Chinese community, and a home away from home.

8. INTERLUDE: DISPLACEMENT If we are to speak about placemaking, then we cannot ignore Toronto’s Chinatown deep history with the opposite force - displacement. Toronto’s original Chinatown was built in the Ward, which was the city’s densely populated, largely immigrant neighbourhood11. Bounded by the streets Elizabeth, Dundas, University, and Bay12, it was the place where those who were otherwise told to “stay out” of Canadian society went to settle13. In 1947 the entire area was approved by the city for expropriation, and by 1958 two thirds of Chinatown was razed to the ground to make way for the new City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square14.

Some of the community, brought together by local community leaders like Jean Lumb and the Save Chinatown Committee, rallied to save the remaining parts of their home. However, the majority of residents and businesses were forced to move against their will, and the Chinatown West that we know was formed as the community uprooted and moved along Dundas to Spadina, while others split off to move eastwards to Broadview and Gerrard15. For a diasporic people with a 8

Christopher L. Yip. “Association, Residence, and Shop: An Appropriation of Commercial Blocks in North American Chinatowns.” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture 5 (1995): 109–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/3514249.

9 Arlene Chan, “The Chinese Community” 10 Arlene Chan, “The Chinese Community” 11 John Lorinc et al. The Ward, 11-23.

12 Jimao Peng. “A Community in Motion: The Development of Toronto’s Chinatown and Chinese Community, 1947-1981.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1995.

13 John Lorinc et al. The Ward, 11-23.

14 Arlene Chan, “The Chinese Community” 15 Arlene Chan, “The Chinese Community”

collective history of displacement and migration, it is wholly unfortunate that in the new country that they hoped to call home, they would once again be forced to uproot and move.

So then, why should anyone care about displacement now? Because it is not a thing of the past, and it affects the most vulnerable people in our communities. As of 2021, as this project is being explored, Chinatown West is faced with a force of change that is not at all unfamiliar to the community here.The current threats of redevelopment and gentrification come with the very real risk of losing local, culturally competent businesses, deeply affordable food vendors and housing, and a wealth of intangible, unquantifiable heritage. And while the forces of change are inevitable and constant in a place like Chinatown, local Chinese and immigrant communities are being excluded from the conversation, as has been the historical trend.

These important voices need to be heard, because it is a conversation which will deeply affect where they will sleep, eat, commune, and find necessary services in the future.

9. The Chinese grocery is the quintessential Chinatown staple. It’s the first thing I think about when I consider Toronto’s Chinatown West, because it’s where I can find all the things that make me think of home - dried shiitake mushrooms, fresh rice noodles, star anise, hawthorn candy, steamed mantou, even the right brand of instant ramen. For many just like me, the Chinatown grocery store is a space of familiarity, routine, and comfort, whether they are residents of the neighbourhood or frequent visitors from afar.16 In the formative years of Toronto’s Chinatown, it provided its community with protection from an unwelcoming society. However, its role has changed over time. Chinatown now serves as an entry point in the city for newcomers17 who identify with the culture here, if not physically, then emotionally and mentally. The Chinese grocery, now more aptly named the Asian grocery, is a clear illustration of the role that Chinatown serves in linking both the old and the new worlds, bridging an unfamiliar new place with familiar sounds, smells, sights, and tastes. Chinatown now protects and cares for its residents in a new way - as a comfort for the homesick, and a nostalgia for those who are still searching for that home.

10. Chinatown is changing every day, and one major change is seen in the demographics of its community. The restaurant is the place that most clearly reflects this demographic change, with restaurant storefronts and menus following the evolving lineage of the major immigration groups to Canada.

16

Nicholas Keung. “‘It’s a place where you connect with your culture': Toronto's Chinatown has become more mixed in its demographics and businesses than ever before.”

Toronto Star (2019).

17 Jimao Peng. “A Community in Motion”

At the beginning, all residents of Chinatown would have come from the same area in China, and spoken the same dialects. But the oncoming waves of Chinese immigration to Canada changed that, following with migrants from Hong Kong, Indochinese countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos18, then Taiwan, and most recently the People’s Republic of China19. As the Chinese population has moved outwards to the suburbs of the GTA, new immigrant groups and displaced people have moved in, solidifying downtown Chinatown’s history of being a place for newcomers from all over - not just the Chinese20. As the demographics have changed from homogeneous to heterogeneous21, so has the mix of restaurants found in Toronto’s Chinatown West, which is now a mix of food from Hong Kong, Vietnam, Mainland China, and cuisines from many other non-Chinese people groups22. Another new wave of demographic change, most recently, is the rising student population living in and using Chinatown, and this rise has also clearly been reflected in the restaurant offerings today.

The restaurant represents a keystone of a culture and a people - their food.

What better way to make an unfamiliar place feel safe than to bring along the smells and tastes from home? In Toronto’s Chinatown West, as with many other of its sister Chinatowns across North America, the restaurant is the space where food - and consequently culture and collective memory - are transplanted from a home land to a new place. The restaurant is the place where traditions are preserved with fierce passion, and also the place where the old and new are playfully combined.

Note: Some interesting sub-types of the “restaurant establishment” are also worth mentioning, even though we can’t delve deeper into them within the scope of this project, are the Chinese bakery and the Chinese barbeque house. The bakery continues to hold a hugely significant place in serving the Chinatown community with deeply affordable food, especially for the sizable senior population that resides in the neighbourhood. The Chinese barbecue house also has some interesting stories in the way that it has historically come up against the city’s regulations.

11. The “Project for Public Spaces” defines placemaking as “collectively imagin[ing] and and invent[ing] the public space”23. One thread that came up many times in this research, both historically and presently, is the ongoing struggle for a loud, unified community voice. The demolition of the first Chinatown saw some in the Chinese community raise their voices in protest but their voices went largely unheard by the majority of society. In the 18

Chiu M Luk and Mai B Phan. “Ethnic Enclave Reconfiguration: A ‘New’ Chinatown in the Making.” GeoJournal 64, no. 1 (2005): 17–30.

19 Arlene Chan, “The Chinese Community” 20 Zeina Ahmed et al. “Community Power for Anti-Displacement: An Inclusive Future for Downtown Chinatown”. University of Toronto, Department of Geography and Planning (2020).

21 Zeina Ahmed et al, “Community Power” 22 Nicholas Keung. “‘It’s a place” 23 “Placemaking”. Project for Public Spaces Inc. (2018).

following years, the movement of the Chinese people into mainstream society led to the spreading of influence both geographically and socially. Chinese Canadians worked hard to gain economic, social, and political visibility, a gradual change that gave the community considerably more of a voice in the planning process24. However, the work doesn’t stop there. While the Asian diaspora at large has quite a bit more say than it did in the beginning days of Chinatown, there is still division within the Chinatown community, which is also far more diverse culturally and socially than it was at its conception.

It’s worth mentioning that placemaking for the most part seems to occur informally and without express intent by people who are simply living their lives and trying to survive their circumstances - an organic process. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for advocacy and community organizing to also chip in to this work, with more intention. Today there are many groups within Chinatown West that are already engaged in amazing work in advocating, protecting the interests of, and caring for the people of Chinatown in different ways. The difficult part, of course, lies in finding a unified voice that would stand together in its diversity and advocate clearly on behalf of Chinatown25.

The gathering place refers to a space that is both physical and abstract. In this author’s hopeful vision of a future Chinatown West, there will be a safe, centralized public space for the community to gather freely and informally.

However, this imagined Chinatown public square is more than a physical intervention. The gathering place is where the community is welcome to congregate, to be in conversation, and to collectively imagine the future.

Note: On a physical level, we can already see micro-gathering spaces that are scattered throughout the Chinatown area. Parks such as Alexander Park and Grange Park present spaces to meet others, have a meal outside, or practice some morning tai-chi. Some of the prominent associations continue to operate and make spaces for their members to congregate. There are many other examples like these, but an open, centralized shared public space is visibly missing from the neighbourhood’s fabric.

12. Fragments of a seemingly distant past are found in the today. We often forget that the ghosts of history continue to linger and reverberate in the way society operates now. History isn’t obsolete - it’s what has made our reality the way it is today, and therefore has influence to shape the reality to come.

To understand and remember the past is to prepare for possible futures.

Keeping a record of the history and heritage of our Chinatowns keeps the stories of the people that came before us alive. Even more than that, having contextual knowledge of where we came from as a community and understanding why things are the way they are, gives us power to influence a better, more 24 25

Jimao Peng. “A Community in Motion” Zeina Ahmed et al, “Community Power”

inclusive future. For Chinatown West, part of the struggle is the lack of formal recognition as a unique separate place with deep cultural value. There is a need to make the definitions of this place a reality not only in experience but also on paper. Gleaning and spreading knowledge of the history and power systems that have historically and continually governed Chinatown creates a base of credible academic expertise to draw from, becoming assets for those who are advocating for Chinatown’s tomorrow26.

13. In June's light rays I side step to cross Dundas, Crowded crossways as streetcars Snake over the pavement Even in the sun, This place feels like habit An extension of my space This is safe.

In bits and pieces, In tongues mixed between, Stories like mine Of a place I've never been A part of me, yes The part that remembers Yearns for the comfort Of this grocery aisle colour It's both home and away This place, a contradiction, To the places we're from, To places we're making Forging a railway By our own hands Like a pathway to the familiar Built on roast pork and fruit stands Cigarettes on the curb Hauling boxes in the sun Incense in the doorways And warm pineapple buns This town is moving, and staying Bathed in red and liquid gold Under florescent lights, I wander Until I find my way back home.

26

Ibid.

Bibliography Ahmed, Zeina, Thomas Kempster, Sanjida Rabbi, Chiyi Tam, and Nick Vo. “Community Power for Anti-Displacement: An Inclusive Future for Downtown Chinatown”.

University of Toronto, Department of Geography and Planning (2020).

Anderson, Kay J. “The Idea of Chinatown: The Power of Place and Institutional Practice in the Making of a Racial Category.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 77, no. 4 (1987): 580–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1987.tb00182.x.

Chan, Arlene. The Chinese Community in Toronto : Then and Now . Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2013.

Gao-Miles, Linling. “The Politics of Space and Identity: Making Place in a Suburban District.” In Mapping Migration, Identity, and Space, 311–30. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77956-0_13.

Keung, Nicholas. “‘It’s a place where you connect with your culture': Toronto's Chinatown has become more mixed in its demographics and businesses than ever before.” Toronto Star (2019). https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/25/chinatown-bends-without-breaking-t o-newcomers-and-gentrification.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=star_web_ymbii Lorinc, John, Michael McClelland, Ellen Scheinberg, and Tatum Taylor. The Ward : the Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood . First edition.

Toronto: Coach House Books, 2015.

Luk, Chiu M, and Mai B Phan. “Ethnic Enclave Reconfiguration: A ‘New’ Chinatown in the Making.” GeoJournal 64, no. 1 (2005): 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-005-3920-7.

Peng, Jimao. “A Community in Motion: The Development of Toronto’s Chinatown and Chinese Community, 1947-1981.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1995.

“Placemaking”. Project for Public Spaces Inc. (2018). https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5810e16fbe876cec6bcbd86e/5b71f88ec6f4726edfe38 57d_2018%20placemaking%20booklet.pdf Tchen, John Kuo Wei, and Dylan Yeats. Yellow Peril! : an Archive of Anti-Asian Fear .

London ;: Verso, 2014.

Yip, Christopher L. “Association, Residence, and Shop: An Appropriation of Commercial Blocks in North American Chinatowns.” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture 5 (1995): 109–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/3514249.