The Women of Chinatown
May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada
May is #AsianHeritageMonth in Canada! To celebrate the history & heritage of Asian communities in Calgary, we will share some excerpts below from the Chinese Canadian Women Project as well as the Chinatown Historical Context Paper, created in 2019 by Heritage Calgary and the City of Calgary in partnership with members of Calgary’s Chinatown community.
The Women of Chinatown
There have been three Chinatown locations in Calgary, all of them situated near the town centre in the original Calgary townsite incorporated in 1884. By 1885 Calgary’s first Chinese citizens were settled in the town.
Following the 1858 Fraser River gold strike, the Chinese had first immigrated to western Canada to become miners and prospectors in British Columbia. Some had come from California where people had sought their fortunes in Gum Shan (Gold Mountain, an expression still used for North America). Later, a second wave of immigrants arrived, attracted by work on the CPR’s east–west line in the early 1880s.
There had been a period of free entry during the earliest waves of migration, but in 1885 a $50 head tax was enacted by the federal government—a significant hardship for the Chinese whose average annual wage was $300 at the time, with only about $43 remaining after living expenses. The tax, which doubled in 1902 and increased tenfold in 1903, and other onerous restrictions, would last almost four decades. All three Calgary Chinatowns were established in its shadow.
Due to these circumstances, in 1911 only 3 of the 485 Chinese Calgarians were women. Through the 1910s women found themselves with the challenge of raising a family in a foreign place where they did not know the language, supported only by a handful of other women. Some hoped to return to their homeland.
Within a few generations things began to change. One of the most profound changes was the shift from a bachelor society with overseas families to one centred on the local family unit. In 1932 the Mother’s Club, headed by Mrs. Lem Kwong, was formed, later joined by the Women’s Mission Circle in 1934. Indicative of the economic times, the women’s initial activities were focused on feeding the jobless housed at the Mission and teaching English to the unemployed.
Group Portrait of the Calgary Chinese United Church Mothers Club. Photo courtesy of Paul DoFoo and the Chinese United Church of Calgary via the Chinese Canadian Women Project.
This hand-coloured black and white photo shows young women dressed in their finest clothing as volunteer servers for the ‘Chow Mein Tea’ for the Women’s Missionary Society, Calgary. This photo has appeared in Paul Yee’s publication Chinatown, as well as the photo exhibit Builders and Patriots: Portraits of Chinese Canadians (2005). Courtesy Loretta Lee via Chinese Canadian Women Project.
In 1936, the Women’s Mission Circle (later the Chinese United Church) began fundraising with their popular annual “Chow Mein Teas” and from 1937 with fashion parades by the Young People’s Society. Chinese Canadian women were crucial to the event’s success, which involved the serving of Chinese food, and in the early days, a fashion show.
Mrs. C.H. Poon, Mrs. C.Y. Mah, and Mrs. L. Ying preparing food for Chinese United Church event, Calgary, Alberta. 1958. Digital Identifier: PA-1599-114-21. Courtesy the Glenbow Digital Collection.
Arline Poon was the wife and business partner of C.H. Poon, known as one of Chinatown’s “Big Four” (along with Ho Lem Sr., Harry Lee, and Charlie Mah). In 1949 they built the Linda Mae Block (named for one of their daughters) and opened the Linda Mae Lotus Garden. Arline ran Linda Mae’s gift shop and was active in Chinatown, assisting extended family members and others with the immigration and citizenship processes. She was active in the Mission and served many terms on the executive for the Mother’s Club and the Ladies Aid.
Jessie Ho Lem Yuen, daughter of Mary and Ho Lem Sr., was the first Chinese Canadian girl born in Calgary, Alberta. Photo courtesy of Paul DoFoo and the Chinese United Church of Calgary via the Chinese Canadian Women Project.
Jessie Ho Lem Yuen, daughter of Mary and Ho Lem Sr., was the first Chinese Canadian girl born in Calgary, Alberta. The Ho Lem family owned and operated the Belmont Café and established the Calgary Knitting Company. Ho Lem Sr. (1870-1960), builder and namesake of the Ho Lem Block, was significant as a prominent and well-respected community leader who helped establish and sustain the third and current Chinatown.
Photo courtesy Loretta Lee via the Chinese Canadian Women Project.
Nellie Ho Lem (née Wong) appears in this portrait with her siblings and mother, Mrs. Wong Mo Yin. Nellie married Charles Ho Lem, son of the prominent Ho Lem Sr.
Mrs. Wong Mo Yin (front, centre) joined her husband in Calgary in the early 1900s. Widowed as a young mother, she raised six children on her own. Without much extended family in Canada, the Wongs relied on the support of Calgary’s relatively small Chinese community, which numbered at around eighty people in the early twentieth century. Front Row: Lily, Mrs. Wong Mo Yin (mother), and Marguerite (Joanne Woo's mother). Back Row: Lee, Nellie (centre) and Harry. Ben, Nellie’s eldest brother, is missing from this photograph (From the Chinese Canadian Women Project).
Sources:
Chinatown Historical Context Paper, 2019. The City of Calgary.
Chinese Canadian Women Project. Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO).