Vancouver born Larry Wong will be giving a talk on his life and old Chinatown – 7pm, Thursday March 25, 2010 at the Vancouver Museum (1100 Chestnut Street).

Larry is one of the UGLY Chinese Canadian’s old buds, and one can always count on Larry for all sorts of interesting and fascinating anecdotes about old Vancouver.

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Larry Wong (2nd from left) and friends. photo courtesy of Todd Wong

He is one of the founding directors of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, and is a well respected historian on Chinese Canadians and on Vancouver’s Chinatown. He is also presently the historian and curator of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum in Vancouver’s Chinatown

Larry shared the following item with us, from the Vancouver Historical Society newsletter:

Growing up in Chinatown

Larry Wong will take us inside Chinatown through the history of his family and that of Chinatown.

Larry’s father, Wong Mow, arrived in Vancouver in 1911, a young married man of 20 who paid his $500 Head Tax and was eager to work as a tailor so he could support his wife and only son back home in China.

In 1911, Chinatown was twenty-five years old, the same age as Vancouver.

There had been a Chinese presence in the city right from the beginning. Chinatown began on Shanghai Alley near the shore of False Creek, which back then touched Pender Street near Carrall Street. When the CPR was completed, a roundhouse and maintenance shop was built on what is today’s Canton Alley.

Carrall Street was the main street of Chinatown.

Gradually Chinese businesses and residences spread out along Dupont Street, which was renamed East Pender Street, shortly after the Chinatown Riot of 1907.

Ten years after his arrival in Vancouver, Larry’s father married a second woman, Larry’s mother. She too, was subjected to the $500 Head Tax. The First Wife never came to Canada. She remained in China to look after the First Son. Her husband faithfully sent money home on a monthly basis until his death in 1966. His parent’s marriage was not that uncommon although they were in a minority to have families at all in Chinatown.

Larry’s family lived in the back of a tailor shop on Main Street and through his eyes, we take a trip through historic Chinatown.

The Chinese Freemason building that helped finance Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s revolution and which today houses condos and the Modernize Tailor shop.

The world’s narrowest building wasn’t always narrow but there is a good story behind it, which we will hear.

We’ll learn about the Yip Sang, the oldest building in Chinatown, with photographs of the original structure and the present renovated gallery under new ownership.

There will be stories of how two teenagers built a homemade airplane behind their home on Market Alley… the young men and women who fought in the last World War and at the end gained the right to vote, which had been denied to the Chinese since 1875… the threat to Chinatown by urban renewal and more.

Chinatown itself has gone through its own recession in the last ten years but there are hopes renewed interest will appeal to a younger generation leading to a rejuvenation of the neighbourhood.

Last month a nice little gathering was planned in our swell little Chinatown.

It was a gathering of some of the community’s finest collection of photo op seekers – all hoping to cash in on the opportunity presented with the Olympics!

Akin to flies attracted to dog poop, popularity-starved politicians had made bee lines to the city of Vancouver, to posture their faces onto the many potential mugshots opportuned with the large international winter sporting event.

One of the happy politicians who was planning a photo op for his electioneering photo album was none other than our prorogue happy Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

It was a reciprocal and symbiotic photo opportunity.

Vancouver’s photo-op collecting Chinese community unpacked their collective trunks, dusted off, and took out their mothballed finest attire to welcome our nation’s top Prorogugee maker… aka Numba One round eye.

Picture 1
New year’s card from Numba One round eye

The Chinese Cultural Centre’s multi-purpose hall was booked for this key event.

Yes excitement and electricity was in the air. The whole venue, reeked of mothballs and cha-siu.

The keynote number one round eye and his portly right hand scribe, MP Jason Kenney was to meet and greet this crowd of select Chinese photo Props.

The crowd of over 150 waited in anticipation with Mr. Kenney at the CCC multi-purpose hall, and then it happened.

Some friggen S.O.B. chained the doors up, and prevented anyone from entering and exiting the venue.

Oh it was a frustrating scene!

Locked in.

Phone calls were made to the Vancouver Police department, but the police informed the organizers that it was a private matter… and “deal with it yourselves”.

So the clock ticked away.

Minutes passed, then an hour.

They were stuck. Stuck inside a dingy, urine wafted hall.  How they must have pined to go outside and enjoy the lovely sunshine.

You see, outdoors in the plaza, in the wonderful unseasonably warm sunny weather, were a bunch of whiny socialist sorts picketing the arrival of numba one round eye.

However, back inside the Chinese Cultural centre hall…

Murmurs of freedom, after an hour and a half, maybe two hours later… the photo-op-desiring crowd was finally freed.

But boy, were they ever royally pissed.

Old numba one round eyes eventually popped by, and was rumoured to only had shown up for a few minutes to take a few photos for material for his upcoming election ad efforts.

Hey you Meesta Happa, you takee picture with me … I okay vote for you. Okay?

selfpic2

Then the blame game started.

Must have been them friggen gawddamn sonabitchee left wing New Democrats came the first pointing finger.

“Was not!” yelled the left wing nut.

“Was so!” yelled the Conservative brown noser.

Shouts of “Kai Dai !” and “dillnama“, and other Chinese swear words wafted over the scent of mothballs.

Hmmmmm.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian wondered, ‘why the Chinese Conservative crowd didn’t call the Fire department?’

After all, is it not a by-law infraction when exit doors are locked?

Not too swift these right wing sorts, eh?

But the funny part was that – as was discovered later, there were other exit doors in the building that were operable and unlocked. But no one had bothered to check the other doors!

Duh.

Here are a few stories that picked up on this sad story of left vs right chinese wing nuts :

http://www.straight.com/article-295841/vancouver/ndp-shown-disrespect-parade-organizers

http://www.canada.com/news/Protesters+chain+doors+centre+ahead+visit/2547807/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/harper-targeted-by-insite-supporters/article1463956/

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/Democrat+wants+apology/2557510/story.html

But that’s not the end of this intriguing story.

There’s more.

The soddy hapless left wing party, the New Democrats (NDP) got blamed. In fact, MP Libby Davies was blamed to be the brains behind this!

We’ll post that on part 2 of Vancouver’s Chinese wingnuts initiate mudslinging.

Never a dull moment in Vancouver’s Chinatown, eh.

Over the past few years, the UGLY Chinese Canadian has had the honour of meeting a number of people who were from the entertainment and identity making era of this community known as “Chinatown”.

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