Groups formed 100 years ago to protect people now set sights on buildings
Lena Sin
Province
The Mah Society building in the 100-block East Pender Street in Vancouver was built in 1913 and is badly in need of restoration. Photograph by : Gerry Kahrmann, The Province
Vancouver’s Chinatown is making a comeback, and its 100-year-old family societies are struggling to keep up.
While they’ve slowly watched other Chinatown old-timers cash in to developers, these century-old groups say they’re staying put — and fighting for their lives.
Eight clans have recently come together to form the Society Heritage Buildings Committee to try to fight their own extinction.
At the top of their agenda is finding the cash to restore their historic buildings — some of the most valuable heritage sites in Chinatown — and finding ways to attract the next generation back to Chinatown.
“We’d never sell,” said Orville Lim, a member of the Lim Sai Hor society. “Our ancestors would overturn in their resting places.”
Of the 32 heritage buildings in Chinatown, 12 are owned by family associations.
These societies, once the spine of Chinatown, were formed a century ago at a time of intense discrimination to look after people with the same surname.
Influential clans, such as the Wongs, Lims, Mahs and Yues, used their buildings as bases to provide housing and social services and to defend against racism.
Today, memberships are dwindling and the buildings are dilapidated.
Fred Mah, head of the newly formed committee, concedes his job won’t be easy.
The committee plans to negotiate a low-interest loan from a bank to pay for renovations.
As for drawing in the young, past attempts such as creating fitness clubs and holding kung-fu classes have largely been disappointments.
Mah says he has asked six members of the Mah Society, all in their 30s, to come up with a better plan.
“I told them whatever they want to do, we’ll support them,” he said.
Today, the brick buildings stand largely in silence, save for the sound of mah-jong tiles clacking as seniors come together for a favourite Chinese pastime.
Only the Lim society still holds Chinese classes every Saturday.
Lim says it’s conceivable that within a few decades there will be no one left to carry on his family association.
At age 53, he is easily the youngest of about 500 members.
The Chinese community’s own success and mobility has contributed to the clan societies’ crisis.
“Historically, in Chinatown, the Chinese community were not allowed west of Carrall Street,” said Lim. “Now spring forward 100 years, you have people like [myself] who are able to communicate — there are no restrictions where we go. We can get hired and get jobs anywhere.
“Whereas before, in the ’60s, you want to buy a bottle of soya sauce? The only place was Chinatown.”
Jessica Chen-Adams, a Vancouver city planner working with family associations, says it’s critical their buildings are preserved.
“While we go through residential intensification with more people moving back to Chinatown, I think the question will always be the level of Chinese-ness Chinatown should [have],” said Chen-Adams. “And these societies hold the key to the past and are the bridge into the future.”
GATHERING OF THE CLANS
In the late 19th century, the Chinese community organized itself into family societies with membership open to anyone with the same surname.
Many of these clans acquired their own buildings to carry out social activities, provide welfare and help those in need.
Two of the buildings are:
– The Mah Society building, in the 100-block East Pender Street. Constructed in 1913, the four-storey building is the tallest on the block. To buy the building in 1921, eight Mah members travelled across the country selling bonds. They raised $26,000 in less than a month.
– Lim Sai Hor Benevolent Association, in the 500-block Carrall Street. The Lim society was formed in 1908 in Victoria with the goal of uniting all the Lim clansmen across Canada. This building, erected in 1903, first served as headquarters for the most powerful Chinese merchants in Vancouver and was taken over by the Lim clan in 1946.
© The Vancouver Province 2007