Blog & News

Photo: Laura VanZant, Assistant Curator, and Cathy English, Curator, at the Revelstoke Business Excellence Awards. Cathy English won "Employee of the Year" and the Gift Shop was a runner-up in the Retail Excellence category.

Revelstoke Museum & Archives declared 2024 as their "Year of Getting Things Done." They recently posted all of their changes, projects, and achievements from the last year on their blog.

Check out what they have been up to here!

From The Sidney Museum:

"The Sidney Museum and Archives is delighted to announce the return of its annual LEGO® Brick Exhibition! Back for its 19th consecutive year, the exhibit will open to the public on December 20th and will run until March 30, 2025.

Hundreds of LEGO® creations will be displayed throughout the Museum, many of which play into this year’s subtheme, A Hidden World. Walk through the gallery to see hidden details and unique angles that highlight the attention-to-detail employed in the creation of LEGO® sets. Visitors can anticipate returning displays drawing from themes such as Architecture, Star Wars™, and Lord of the Rings™ alongside new featured sets like Notre-Dame de Paris, Jaws, plants and animals, and much more!

Also new to the exhibit is a “Community Creations” display, where visitors can enter to display their custom LEGO® creations for everyone to enjoy for one month of the exhibit. The Sidney Museum is still accepting submissions. To learn more and enter a creation visit sidneymuseum.ca/programs/lego-community-creations

Interpretation throughout the Museum will highlight the history of the hobby, how it gained its widespread popularity, and fascinating facts about specific sets on display. Popular activities such as our Museum-wide scavenger hunt and “Guess the Bricks contest” will also be returning. Whether reconnecting with an old hobby or continuing your LEGO® adventures, Sidney Museum’s exhibition is sure to delight and inspire visitors of all ages this winter!"

The Sidney Museum and Archives is located at 2423 Beacon Avenue, in the lower level of the Olde Post Office building. The Museum is open seven days a week from 10:00am - 4:00pm, except December 25-26 and January 1st. Entrance is by donation. Please visit the Museum’s website to get up-to-date details on upcoming exhibits and events.

This year, Heritage Week celebrates the many ways people have spent their leisure time throughout history, highlighting how these activities have shaped the cultural fabric of today.

From February 17 to 23, 2025, culture and heritage organizations across the province are invited to host an event in their community to celebrate Heritage Week. Attend an event, spread awareness about Heritage Week on social media using promotional tools & resources, and encourage municipalities to advocate for heritage by issuing a proclamation formalizing the week.

More information and details can be found on the Heritage BC website. 

Stunning wildlife photography, Indian chintz textiles, migration journeys of Chinese Canadians and the music of resistance and change are among new exhibits coming to the Royal British Columbia Museum in 2025.

Tracey Drake, chief executive of the Royal British Columbia Museum, says this year’s exhibits span space and time, from 13th century India to 18th century Hong Kong, and from the natural world to the supernatural realm of music superstars.

Read the full article here.

Sarah Joyce and Gordon Duggan have curated works by more than 200 artists from dozens of countries around the world during their decade at the helm of the New Media Gallery – but they are getting set to embark on a new adventure.

In May 2014, the City of New Westminster announced that Joyce and Duggan would be the new director/curator team at the gallery, which was set to focus on contemporary art that uses new media and technology, including video art, sound art, light art, robotic art, and web art. The pair are wrapping up their work at the gallery and getting set to embark on their next challenge.

Read the full article here.

The Museum of Vancouver is leading the charge toward sustainability in arts and culture by launching the SAGE Toolkit: an initiative focused on decarbonizing the sector through practical, circular solutions. SAGE (Sustainable Arts and Green Ecosystems) offers guidance for museums, galleries, and theatres to reduce waste and integrate environmentally-conscious practices into their operations.

Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the toolkit emphasizes circularity, which aims to minimize waste and maximize the reuse of materials in exhibitions and theatre sets. The resource is the culmination of nearly two years of collaboration among designers, curators, and sustainability experts under the leadership of the museum’s director of collections and exhibitions, Viviane Gosselin, and sustainability consultant Maureen Cureton.

Read more about the SAGE Toolkit and how to access it here. 

The latest exhibit at the Pop Cult Museum at PD's Hot Shop in Qualicum Beach follows skateboarding through the decades, from early homemade boards in the 1930s right to the present day.

Wheels of Freedom traces the evolution of skate culture, as well as the boards themselves — and how new technology influences the activity and vice versa.

Read the full article here.

A new collection of short videos has been released by the B.C. Labour Heritage Centre.

B.C. Labour Heritage Moments showcase key topics in over 100 years of B.C.’s labour history. The nine videos are 3-4 minutes each. Titles include Indigenous Longshoremen, Ginger Goodwin, Injunctions and Collective Bargaining Rights.

The Centre used clips from its own extensive oral history collection, as well as other archival sources to illustrate the videos.

Each video was researched and written by staff members Natasha Fairweather and Donna Sacuta. Fairweather also narrates each episode. Video and sound editing was provided by Rob Leichner of the Canadian Labour Congress.

The collection was released at the B.C. Federation of Labour Convention in November. The Centre encourages organizations to use the videos at their events, in education programs and on social media.

The Moments Collection can be viewed and downloaded on YouTube and on the Centre’s website.

In 2022, at the suggestion of the research project Agents mémoriels, un engagement citoyen d’hier à aujourd’hui, the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) and the Fédération Histoire Québec (FHQ) launched a call to national, provincial and territorial historical societies to initiate a conversation on common issues. The result was the Bridging the Gap initiative, which produced a report on the current state of historical societies in Canada.

The conversation broadened on November 4, when the first national meeting of Canada’s historical societies was held. In addition to the members of the steering committee - the CHA, the FHQ, the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française (IHAF) and the British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) - the following societies took part:

· Canada’s History

· Newfoundland & Labrador Historical Society (NFLHS)

· Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society (RNSHS)

· New Brunswick Historical Society (NBHS)

· Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society (SHKS)

· Historical Society of Alberta (HSA)

· Yukon Historical & Museums Association (YHMA)

At the meeting, they discussed the contemporary issues they face in order to continue their work and remain relevant to their communities and Canadian society today. They agreed to continue the discussion, with the aim of maintaining this link and encouraging the sharing of experiences and successes. To be continued.

Title page, Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, 1897. Courtesy Imogene Lim

An excerpt from the Winter 2024-25 edition of British Columbia History.

By Imogene Lim

When someone says the word “Chinatown,” a certain image comes to mind. In British Columbia, it is of Vancouver or Victoria’s streetscapes of narrow laneways or buildings of two- or three-storeys in height, recessed balconies, “Chinese” businesses and associations, as well as a gateway to signal to the visitor that they have arrived. Each of these Chinatowns holds a distinction in the Canadian context: Victoria as the oldest, Vancouver as the largest. Both are in populous urban centres. Historically, they were a hub for migration (or destination) and dispersal, as well as commerce. 

But many early immigrants to Canada sought opportunity and fortune outside Vancouver and Victoria (the reason that those early Chinese referred to their destination as Gold Mountain, Gum Saan). [1] Their existence is represented in the historical record through physical remains, including cemeteries; oral history; and ephemera. In BC, where did the early Chinese find work or home—a place of belonging—besides Vancouver or Victoria?

As a result of a Legacy Project of the province, launched in 2015, [2] Heritage BC produced Chinese Canadian Historic Places Cultural Map, available on its website: https://heritagebc.ca/cultural-maps/chinese-historic-places-map.

The interactive map, which announces the depth and expanse of the Chinese Canadian presence in BC, was created through a community-nomination process. What sites might be missing? What will be remembered after the last Chinese Canadian pioneer dies in their remote community, or when there are only “newcomers” present? Erasure happens. [3] According to John Meares’ s expedition, Chinese arrived as early as 1788 accompanying the ship’s crew as artisans. [4] 

Through the passage of time, information is lost. However, there is one resource that the average person interested in Chinese Canadian history may have overlooked—in part, because of its title, Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary. [5]

It is not obvious from the title that place names were included—to be valued by those who purchased or had access to it. [6] The back of the book includes names of countries from every continent except Antarctica, plus “Principal Town Names of Canada” [7] and “Principal Cities and Towns in the United States.” [8] Of specific interest to BC History readers is “Places, Names of British Columbia,” [9] which lists over 200 locations. 

Composite image of the BC place names listed in the Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, 1897

In the late 1800s, the places that mattered changed over the course of a century or more. As evident in BC, there has been an ebb and flow of population and industry, resulting in the boom and bust of communities. [10] For example, McDame Creek in the Cassiar Land District is unlikely to be known to most today; it is noteworthy because gold was found there by a prospector named Harry McDame.

For Chinese pioneers coming to Gum Saan, knowing the locations of various gold strikes [11] offered the potential of economic success. Though McDame Creek was meaningful enough to be included in the CEPBD, [12] equally important is to acknowledge its cultural significance to Black Canadian history. McDame and his partner, John Robert Giscome, were both from the Caribbean. According to the geographical name’s origin notes, McDame and Giscome may have been part of the 1858 emigration of San Francisco Blacks to Vancouver Island. [13] 

Consider another place name, this time in the United States: Asotin, Washington. In 2024, it is neither a principal city nor a town, yet there it is in the CEPBD. [14] Its population in 2022 was just under 1,200. [15] Historically, it was known as a Nez Perce winter camp, [16] and more importantly to immigrants of the day, gold was discovered in the area. [17] Again, in the late nineteenth century, gold was an allure to many, including those who were Chinese.

Some place names were by association, that is, created with the use of the descriptor “China,” plus a “fill-in-the-blank” geographic feature, to create place names such as, “China Creek, “China Bar,” et cetera. [18]

Screenshot of a map of BC geographical names with the term “China.”
BC Geographical Names

Even the pejorative “Chink” was employed to denote where early Chinese had lived and worked. Although none of these anonymous Chinese sites are stated in the phrase book, the notes about the origin of a particular name in the BC Geographic Names database [19] are revealing.

For example, consider the phrase book listing of Beaver Creek; [20] in the BC Geographic Names database there are over a dozen locations with this exact same name.

Screenshot of a map of BC geographical names with “Beaver Creek.”
BC Geographical Names

Which Beaver Creek in the screenshot is the one listed in phrase book? Presumably one of these Beaver Creeks had an association with Chinese immigrants. As mentioned, “Chink” was used in past place names; this was true, according to the BC Geographic Names database, for a creek originally “identified as Beaver Creek in 1912,” then the name “Chink Creek [was] adopted 1 March 1938” and finally changed in 1963 to its current designation of Atrill Creek. [21] Given the location of Atrill Creek, a.k.a. “Chink” Creek, in the Bulkley Valley, it perhaps is the Beaver Creek listed in phrase book.

The association of “China” with a place establishes a Chinese presence, yet the individuals who lived there remain unknown. Being nameless, these individuals were “erased from the story of building BC and Canada,” [22] unlike the example of Harry McDame. Think again how the word Chinatown is used: China + town; it is a defined space outside of China that is inhabited by Chinese people and, more often than not, is located on the margins of a town or city. [23]

Yet, this town within a town has no moniker to honour the memory of any notable resident. This is part of a larger discussion on naming and memorialization [24] mentioned here to encourage the reader to consider how a place becomes known—within the community and outside of it. [25] For example, the eponymous cities of Vancouver and Victoria are named after Captain George Vancouver and Queen Victoria. [26]

These were and are the names familiar to residents and visitors since the 1800s. However, among those who resided in Vancouver’s and Victoria’s Chinatowns, each city was known by a Chinese name based on descriptors of their respective geographic locations, that is, 鹹水埠 haam sui fao (“saltwater city”) and 大埠 dai fao (“big port”), respectively. [27]

One other aspect to consider in thinking about “Chinatown,” whether the neighbourhood is an urban or rural setting, is that the name is assigned by those who do not live there. Though the word Chinatown might be used today, among early Cantonese speakers the place name was 唐人街 tong yun gai (“street of Tang [dynasty] people” [28]).

A Chinatown in the mid-twentieth century could consist of city blocks of buildings and thousands of residents, like in Vancouver or Victoria, or less than a handful of structures and families or individuals that everyone knew, like in Alert Bay. [29] As well, the sights and sounds of the place are marked by the people and not necessarily the structures.

People make the place. This is a reminder that our view of contemporary prominent Chinatowns, specifically Vancouver’s and Victoria’s, has affected the way we perceive, even “imagine,” Chinatowns of the past. By examining the place names of BC found within the Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, the reader comes to know the geographic extent to which early Chinese sought economic success. Moreover, with additional analysis of specific locales the narrative of one of the oldest settler groups in BC is enriched and expanded well beyond urban Chinatowns.

ENDNOTES

1. See Ann Hui, Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2019).
2. Government of British Columbia, “Historic Places,” last updated May 3, 2018, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/legacy-projects/historical-sites-artifacts/historic-places.
3. Imogene Lim, “Erasure: A Statement on Racism, Inclusivity and Equity,” Heritage BC (blog), August 9, 2020, https://heritagebc.ca/2020/08/09/erasure-a-statement-on-racism-inclusivity-and-equity/
4. Farzine Macrae, dir., 1788 (Vancouver: Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, 2008), 9:36, https://youtu.be/V7e9tTvpmvo?si=GdXpfVD6pXyvqMdP; Kathryn Mannie, “The Rise and Fall of Chinatown: The Hidden History of Displacement You Were Never Told,” Global News, May 26, 2022, https://globalnews.ca/news/8793341/chinatown-history-toronto-vancouver-montreal-canada.
5. Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary (Vancouver: Thomson Stationery Company, 1897). Two copies, with preface dates of 1910 and 1913, are available through the Chung Collection, UBC Library Open Collection. From the title page, the book appears to have been registered in 1897, which is the date I use in referring to it.
6. I own a copy of the Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, hereafter cited as Phrase Book, courtesy of my father, who acquired it on his return to BC in 1937. His family left Cumberland’s Chinatown, where he was born, in 1928. My copy has a preface with the date 1910.
7. Phrase Book, 367–372.
8. Phrase Book 372–391.
9. Phrase Book, 360–367.
10. Sheri Radford, “6 Real-Life BC Ghost Towns You Have to Visit Once in Your Life,” Daily Hive, July 22, 2024, https://dailyhive.com/mapped/ghost-towns-british-columbia.
11. Duane and Tracy Marsteller, “Cassiar Gold Rush,” The Historical Marker Database, last updated February 24, 2022, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=187916.
12. Phrase Book, 364.
13. Government of British Columbia, “McDame Creek,” BC Geographical Names (hereafter cited as BCGN), https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/16334.html.
14. Phrase Book, 372.
15. Data USA, “Asotin, WA,” 2022, https://datausa.io/profile/geo/asotin-wa.
16. The Nez Perce are an Indigenous Peoples who travelled with the seasons in an area “in what is now Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana.” Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, 2021, https://critfc.org/member-tribes-overview/nez-perce-tribe/.
17. City of Asotin, “History,” 2020, https://cityofasotin.org/area-information/history; Happy Avery, “Asotin, City of—Thumbnail History,” HistoryLink.org Essay 11080, June 30, 2015, https://www.historylink.org/file/11080.
18. Winnie L. Cheung, Carolyn Heiman, Imogene Lim, David H.T. Wong, and Jim Wong-Chu, Celebration: Chinese Canadian Legacies in British Columbia (Victoria: Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, 2017), 12–13, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/our-history/historic-places/documents/heritage/chinese-legacy/celebration-book-pdf-copies/celebration_final_with_cover_lo-res_spreads.pdf.
19. BCGN, database page, accessed September 1, 2024, https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/web.
20. Phrase Book, 361.
21. BCGN, “Atrill Creek,” https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/9840.html.
22. Imogene Lim, “Erasure 2.0: Gatekeepers,” Heritage BC (blog), August 2, 2021, https://heritagebc.ca/2021/08/02/erasure-2-0-gatekeepers.
23. “In Nanaimo and Kamloops, for example, civic governments segregated Chinese Canadians, attempting to confine them to the outskirts of town.” Government of British Columbia, “Anti-Chinese Politics,” Chinese Legacy BC, lines 11–12, last updated November 24, 2016, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/history/anti-chinese-politics. This is notable in Cumberland where the Chinese, Japanese, and Black communities were not part of the town proper; see Figure 11 in David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within Cities in Canada (Vancouver, UBC Press, 1988), 74. “Chinese Canadians were segregated socially, economically and politically.” Government of British Columbia, “Discrimination,” Chinese Legacy BC, line 1, last updated November 24, 2016, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/history/discrimination. See also Cheung et al., Celebration, 56.
24. See Cindy E. Harnett, “In An Act of Reconciliation, Victoria’s Trutch Street Gets a New Name,” Times Colonist, July 10, 2022, https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/in-an-act-of-reconciliation-victoria-street-gets-a-new-name-5568424; Sarah Reid, “Victoria Parents Pushing to Rename Elementary School,” CTV News Vancouver Island, last updated September 26, 2019, https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/victoria-parents-pushing-to-rename-elementary-school-1.4610897.
25. Prior to the changes in immigration policies in the late 1960s, the majority of Chinese immigrants came primarily from the province of Guangdong, China, and more specifically, from the Pearl River Delta; see Mannie, “The Rise and Fall of Chinatown”; and Paul Yee, Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1988), 9–10). Chinese Canadians today are much more diverse in their backgrounds; they are not a monolithic ethnocultural group.
26. BCGN, “Vancouver,” https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/24320.html; BCGN, “Victoria,” https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/22474.html.
27. Pronunciation is in the Cantonese dialect. See Yee, Saltwater; and Downtown Victoria Business Association, Mysterious Chinatown: Self-guided Heritage Walking Map, 2021, https://downtownvictoria.ca/downtownvictoria.ca/uploads/2021/10/mysteriouschinatown_e.pdf.
28. Mannie, “The Rise and Fall of Chinatown.”
29. See Imogene L. Lim, “Here and There: Re/Collecting Chinese Canadian History,” Canadian Issues, Fall 2006, 61–64, https://www.proquest.com/docview/208683910?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals; which reflects on assumptions of what a Chinatown looks like.

Imogene Lim (林慕珍) is an anthropologist with roots in Cumberland and Vancouver’s Chinatowns. Both her maternal and paternal grandfathers were head tax payers, arriving in 1892 and 1890, respectively. Much of her current work involves communities on Vancouver Island associated with early Chinese Canadians. Family documents continue to serve as a source of inspiration and research; they are a reminder that she is a lo wah kiu descendant.