Canada’s first Chinese Canadian museum to open in historic building in Vancouver’s Chinatown
CBC News Staff
CBC Radio
The Wing Sang building in Vancouver, B.C., pictured in an undated handout photo. The oldest building in Vancouver’s Chinatown will soon be home to the Chinese Canadian Museum, with funding from the province and a real estate marketer. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-rennie)
New funding has been announced for Canada’s first Chinese Canadian museum to open in Vancouver next year.
The Chinese Canadian Museum will be housed in the Wing Sang building, the oldest in the city’s historic Chinatown neighbourhood. The province said it will provide $27.5 million for the project and real estate marketer Bob Rennie will contribute another $7.5 million.
Premier John Horgan said in a statement that the museum will honour and preserve the contributions of Chinese Canadians in B.C. and shine a light on injustices.
Culture Minister Melanie Mark says the museum is a call to action from those who have historically endured poor treatment.
The building, located at 51 East Pender St., will be owned and operated by the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of British Columbia.
Grace Wong, chair of the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of B.C., says she hopes the first-of-its-kind museum will attract visitors from across Canada.
She says it’s meaningful to house the museum in the Wing Sang building, a vital link to the neighbourhood’s past.
Merchant Yip Sang and family stand outside the Wing Sang building, circa 1902. (City of Vancouver archives)
“There’s a part where you can still see the two exterior walls and there’s a gap and it harkens to the time when there were curfews on Chinese and they couldn’t be in the streets so that had these narrow passageways so that people [could] go between buildings,” she said.
“That brings to life what life was like in that time.”
She says she hopes the museum will contribute to the revitalization of Chinatown.
Last year, a new cultural centre opened in Chinatown to showcase and celebrate Chinese Canadian heritage.
The Chinatown Storytelling Centre, located a block away from the Wing Sang building, features over 150 stories from Chinese immigrants who played a significant role in the building of the country, as well as Chinatown’s current living history.
Community leaders have called on all levels of government for more resources to combat mounting crime in the neighbourhood.
MP Jenny Kwan, who represents the riding of Vancouver East, has been lobbying for Chinatown to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which would deem it an international landmark with legal protection and could help secure the funding to preserve and maintain its streets.
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