Victoria Chinatown Museum

Remembrance Day
2026-11-11 | Victoria Chinatown, Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, Canada
Each November, Remembrance Day invites us to reflect on and pay our respects to the people who served and sacrificed during times of war. Among them were Chinese Canadians from Victoria and across the country, whose contributions played an important role both overseas and at home. During World War I and World War II, Chinese Canadians volunteered despite facing discrimination and exclusion in their daily lives. More than 600 Chinese Canadians served in the Second World War alone. Many were not yet recognized as full citizens and were denied the right to vote. Still, they chose to serve, believing in the future of their community in Canada.
Some served in combat roles, while others worked in intelligence, engineering, logistics, and special operations. Kam Len Douglas Sam joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and flew missions in Europe. Victor Wong served overseas with the Special Operations Executive. Gordon Quan supported resistance efforts in Southeast Asia. Fred Lee fought at Vimy Ridge and disappeared at the Battle of Hill 70. Along with many others, these individuals contributed their skills, courage, and determination during critical moments in history. Families and communities in Victoria supported these efforts, and military service became closely connected to broader struggles for equality.
After the war, the contributions of Chinese Canadian veterans helped strengthen calls for equal rights. Their service is a vital part of our national story, embodying the fight for both global freedom and domestic equality. In 1947, Chinese Canadians finally gained the right to vote federally, marking an important step toward full citizenship.

Annual Fundraising Dinner and Auction
2026-09-20 17:30 - 21:00 (America/Vancouver) | Golden City Restaurant, 721 Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1R8, Canada
The Victoria Chinatown Museum Society invites you to the save the date for our biggest annual fundraising dinner.
What: Dinner, live auction and more!
Where: Golden City Restaurant, 721 Fisgard Street
When: September 20, 2026 5:30 p.m
Cost: Single ticket $180, table of 10 $1,500
Get tickets here

Anniversary of the 1922-23 Chinese Student School Strike
2026-09-05 | Victoria Chinatown, Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, Canada
The Chinese Student School Strike was a powerful, year-long act of organized civil resistance against institutionalized racism in Victoria. In September 1922, the Victoria School Board attempted to expand its existing segregation policy, ordering all Chinese Canadian students up to Grade 7 to be removed from public schools and placed into Chinese-only schools. On the first day of the new term, when principals marched the children to the segregated site, the students, acting on a plan organized by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) and other community groups, dispersed and went home instead of entering the segregated facility. This remarkable, coordinated boycott of over 200 students successfully halted the expansion of segregation for a year, forcing the community to establish a temporary Chinese Free School to ensure the children’s education continued. This pivotal moment demonstrated the unwavering resolve of the Chinese community to fight for equal rights and educational opportunity, laying a foundation for future battles against anti-Asian discrimination in Canada.

Awakening Chinatown 2026
2026-05-31 11:00 - 16:30 | Fisgard Street
The Fifth Annual Awakening Chinatown Returns

The streets of Canada’s oldest Chinatown will come alive once again as the fifth annual Awakening Chinatown Festival returns on Sunday, May 31, 2026. Presented by the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society (VCMS) in partnership with Chinatown businesses, this free, family-friendly festival invites the community to gather in the heart of Victoria’s historic Chinatown for a day of culture, celebration, and connection.
Mark your calendars and join us for one of Victoria’s most vibrant events of the year.

Date: Sunday, May 31, 2026 from 11 AM – 4:30 PMLocation: Victoria’s Chinatown District (around lower Fisgard Street)Admission: Free and open to all

Event Schedule

11:15 AM
Opening Ceremonies

11:45 AM
Alex Chen, Chinese Art Song

12:00 PM
BC Chinese Chamber Orchestra

12:30 PM
Elvin Chang, Cantopop

12:45 PM
Michelle Kwan, Guzheng

1:00 PM
Happy Drum Group & Chinese Opera

1:30 PM
Wong Sheung Kung Fu Demonstration

2:00 PM
Traditional Chinese Chamber Orchestra

2:45 PM
Elvin Chang, Cantopop

3:00 PM
Evergreen Senior’s Chinese Choir

3:15 PM
Chinese Dance Victoria

3:30 PM
Taoist Tai Chi Chuan

3:45 PM
Michelle Kwan, Guzheng

4:00 PM
Alex Chen, Chinese Art Song

4:15 PM
Wong Sheung Kung Fu Lion Dance

Celebrating Culture, Community, and History

Awakening Chinatown is a joyful celebration of the culture, heritage, and stories that have shaped Victoria’s Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in Canada and the most architecturally intact in North America.
Launched by the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society in 2022, the festival brings together community organizations, performers, businesses, and visitors to honour the contributions of Chinese Canadians while celebrating the vibrant life of Chinatown today.
Held annually at the end of Asian Heritage Month, Awakening Chinatown transforms the district into a lively gathering place filled with music, performances, food, and cultural experiences for all ages.

Explore Chinatown

Festival-goers are invited to wander through the historic streets and alleyways of Chinatown, discover local businesses, and experience the neighbourhood’s rich architecture, culture, and cuisine.
And this year, the popular Awakening Chinatown Scavenger Hunt is back! Explore the district while searching for important landmarks, stories, and cultural touchpoints. It’s a fun and interactive way to experience the neighbourhood while learning more about the history and community that make it so special.
Visitors can also look forward to a dynamic mix of programming including:

Cultural Performances

Lion dancing, traditional drumming, and martial arts by Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club
Demonstrating harmony and balance: Taoist Tai Chi Society
Chinese opera and dance by Victoria Chinese Opera Club, Chinese Dance Victoria and Happy Drum Group
Live music performances spanning classical and contemporary styles including Alex Chen, performing opera and Chinese Art Songs in partnership and sponsored by Pacific Opera Victoria, and Michelle Kwan playing the Guzheng.
Plus, exciting NEW first time performances from the Chinese Evergreen Seniors’ Choir, the BC Chinese Music Association’s Traditional Chinese Instrument Chamber Orchestra from Vancouver, and Elvin Chang, acclaimed Canto/Mando pop artist!

Interactive Experiences

Calligraphy and Chinese arts demonstrations
Hands-on games and activities for families
Opportunities to connect with community organizations

Each year, thousands of visitors gather to experience the energy and pride of Victoria’s Chinatown and the stories that continue to shape it.
More details about performances, activities, and participating vendors will be announced as they are confirmed.

We are pleased to welcome RBC as the Presenting Sponsor this year. Martin Thibodeau, Regional President, says:
“RBC has been a proud supporter of Awakening Chinatown since 2022 and we’re honoured to return this year as the Presenting Sponsor. This festival celebrates the heritage, culture and local businesses that define Victoria—home to Canada’s oldest Chinatown. When we show up for our communities, we’re not just celebrating the past; we’re strengthening the community and helping it prosper. RBC is thrilled to be at the heart of this celebration.”

Victoria in the Time of Exclusion
2026-05-02 | BC
The Victoria in the Time of Exclusion exhibit examines a period in Canadian history when Chinese immigrants and Chinese Canadians were subjected to systemic discrimination through federal immigration law. At the centre of the exhibit is the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, commonly known as the Exclusion Act, which transformed immigration control into a daily reality for Chinese communities. As a major port of entry and home to one of the oldest Chinatowns in Canada, Victoria was a place where the effects of exclusion were enforced and deeply felt.
The Exclusion Act came into force on July 1, 1923, and almost entirely halted Chinese immigration to Canada for nearly twenty-five years. With only narrow exceptions for diplomats, students, and merchants, the law prevented family reunification and forced many Chinese Canadians to live apart from their loved ones for decades. Those already in Canada were required to register with the federal government and carry certificates of identity—documents that monitored movement rather than granting rights or belonging. The Act remained in place until 1947, leaving lasting social and emotional impacts.
The certificates displayed in the exhibit tell deeply personal stories of restriction, separation, and endurance. Issued under Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act and related regulations, these documents were required for Chinese residents to remain in, leave, or re-enter the country. What appear as administrative records were, in reality, conditions of daily life that shaped identity and regulated movement.
The wall of certificates makes the human cost of exclusion visible: each record includes a photograph, a name, and an identification number. For families, the certificates often marked years of waiting and uncertainty. Children grew up apart from parents, relationships were sustained across great distances, and reunification remained uncertain until the repeal of the Exclusion Act in 1947.
Printed across the exhibit is a stark reminder: “This certificate does not establish legal status in Canada.” Carried out of necessity rather than choice, these documents became symbols of both restriction and perseverance.

Asian Heritage Month
2026-05-01 - 2026-05-31 | Victoria Chinatown, Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, Canada
In May, the Victoria Chinatown Museum celebrates Asian Heritage Month with a range of events, programs, and community activities that showcase Chinese Canadian history, culture, and contributions. Established in Canada in 2001, Asian Heritage Month provides an opportunity to recognize the experiences and achievements of Asian Canadians and their role in shaping the country.

Save the date in your calendar for the Awakening Chinatown festival, sponsored by the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society. The full-day festival features performances, music, food and public programming in Chinatown’s historic streets.

Asian Heritage Month also creates space for learning and reflection. It encourages visitors to consider both the contributions of Chinese Canadians and the challenges they faced, including exclusion and discrimination. Come and visit the museum during May, and gain a deeper understanding of Chinatown as both a historic place and an active cultural community.

Qing Ming: Honouring Ancestors
2026-04-05 | Victoria Chinatown, Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, Canada
Each spring, families in Victoria’s Chinese Canadian community and elsewhere observe Qing Ming, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day. This tradition is a time to honour ancestors and reflect on the lives of those who came before. One of the most significant places connected to this observance is the Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point, now recognized as a National Historic Site.
During Qing Ming, families visit gravesites to clean and care for them—sweeping and making offerings of food, tea, incense, and joss paper. These actions express respect, remembrance, and ongoing connection. The act of tending to a grave becomes a way of maintaining relationships across generations.
For early Chinese Canadians in Victoria, Qing Ming carried additional meaning. Many migrants lived far from their ancestral homes and could not return to visit family graves in China. Harling Point became a place where memory and tradition could continue, and where loved ones who built lives in Canada could be honoured.
Qing Ming also marks the arrival of spring, symbolizing renewal and continuity. Today, the tradition continues to connect individuals, families, and communities across time.

International Women's Day Short Film Screening
2026-03-29 13:00 | Canadian College of Performing Arts, 1701 Elgin Rd, Victoria, BC, V8R 5L5, Canada
Join us March 29 at 1 pm for two short films in honour of International Women’s Day: Born an Immigrant – The Dressmaker and In Search of Mah Hang. Stay for a panel discussion with director Jenn Lee, producer Catherine Clement, and VCMS Board Chair Grace Wong Sneddon.
Born an Immigrant – The Dressmaker
In a time of exclusion, fashion offers an opportunity for inclusion.
Directed by Jennifer Lee. Produced by Robin Pascoe.
23 minutes.
In Search of Mah Hang
During the era of Chinese exclusion, a Canadian-born Chinese woman dared to challenge tradition and power. In 1931, Mah Hang confronted the male-dominated Wong Clan Association in a courageous attempt to free herself and her children from an arranged marriage to a much older man.
Directed by Victoria So. Produced by Catherine Clement and Dr. Henry Yu.
23 minutes.

Lunar New Year Celebration
2026-02-22 11:30 - 15:30 | Fisgard Street
Lunar New Year’s Parade and blessing of merchants, starting at the Gate of Harmonious Interest. Celebrate the Year of the Horse! Presented by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. Join us at the museum to pick up a Chinese zodiac sticker and fortune cookie!

Lunar New Year at Mayfair Mall
2026-02-21 13:00 - 18:00 | Mayfair Mall, 3147 Douglas St, Victoria, BC, V8Z 6E3, Canada
Celebrate the Year of the Horse at Mayfair Mall! Enjoy the Lion Dance by the Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club at 1 p.m. and meet some of our board members and volunteers. Try out lantern making, Chinese calligraphy, the Chopstick Challenge, and other crafts. Don’t forget to enter the raffle, for a chance to win great prizes from Mayfair businesses. Gung hay fat choy!

Victoria Royals Hockey Game
2026-02-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, 1925 Blanshard St, Victoria, BC, V8T 4J2, Canada
If you’ve been thinking about getting out to a game, tonight is a great night to watch the Royals face off against the Wenatchee Wild at Save On Foods Memorial Arena (7 pm). Make sure to pick up 50/50 tickets at the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society table – the proceeds from tonight’s draw go to the museum! Get your tickets online at https://sofmc.com/event/wenatchee-wild-at-victoria-royals-february-20-2026/ or at the box office.

Lunar New Year 2026
2026-02-17 11:00 - 17:00 | Victoria Chinatown Museum, 10 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W1W3, Canada
Gung hay fat choy! February 17, 2026 is the beginning of the Lunar New Year, the year of the fire horse. The celebration of Lunar New Year holds deep cultural significance for Victoria’s historic Chinatown. Chinese Canadian pioneers brought many traditions with them when they began their new lives in Canada – including spending family time together and enjoying delicious foods during the Lunar New Year. As the most important holiday in many East Asian cultures, the Lunar New Year provides an annual opportunity to reaffirm cultural identity, honour ancestors, and pass down cherished traditions to younger generations. Join us at the museum and pick up a lai see – a red envelope with a gold coin – symbolizing good fortune and prosperity in the year ahead, and the welcoming of spring. Today is also the 4th anniversary of the founding of the Victoria Chinatown Museum – please help us celebrate.

Family Day
2026-02-16 11:00 - 17:00 | Victoria Chinatown Museum, 10 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W1W3, Canada
Join us for Family Day crafts at the museum! Learn to fold a fortune cookie or bao, or test your skills in the Chopstick Challenge!

Lychee Tasting
2026-02-15 11:00 - 17:00 | Victoria Chinatown Museum, 10 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W1W3, Canada
Taste treats at the museum! Did you know there are 50 kinds of lychee fruits? Join us today at the Victoria Chinatown Museum for free family activities and do a lychee tasting! Open today 11-5.

Valentine's Day
2026-02-14 11:00 - 17:00 | Victoria Chinatown Museum, 10 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W1W3, Canada
Valentine’s Day at the museum. Bring your family and learn how to make heart-shaped fans. Test your skills in the Chopstick Challenge – can you pick up a candied heart or gummy?

A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia
2025-11-13 - 2026-04-13 | Victoria Chinatown Museum, 10 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W1W3, Canada
This award-winning exhibition explored historical and contemporary stories of Chinese Canadians in BC and their struggles for belonging. Using food and restaurant culture as an entry point, the stories in the exhibit highlighted the great diversity of immigrant experiences and of the communities that immigrants develop.
The exhibition featured interactive story panels, videos and audio clips that provide snapshots of the lives of Chinese Canadians. These stories underscored the extent of systemic racism in British Columbia and its enduring impact, while highlighting the ability of Chinese Canadians to resist, organize and thrive.
A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia is a travelling exhibition from the Chinese Canadian Museum in partnership with the Museum of Vancouver and the University of British Columbia. Visit the Chinese Canadian Museum’s website to learn more.

Peering into the Past
2025-10-22 00:00 | BC
Creating innovative ‘living museum’ spaces in Chinatown
Chinatowns, located throughout the Americas and other continents, are important sites of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Today, they face myriad changes and crises, including balancing new urban developments, gentrification, population shifts, and the preservation of historical architecture and aura.
The Peering into the Past study documented the process of creating a short-term exhibit that animated and enriched an unconventional outdoor space, and considered the long-term goal of making Canada’s oldest Chinatown in Victoria a future “living museum” site.
The opportunity arose in November 2019 when the Salient Group (a development company) offered the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society and the Royal BC Museum a 103 square foot space in a courtyard off Fan Tan Alley, a famous landmark.
The result of this collaboration was a dynamic urban pop-up exhibit that opened in July 2020 at 3 Fan Tan Alley. Visitors experienced a mix of digital media and panels displayed on the courtyard walls and windows, all designed to highlight the space’s historical location and context and a single artifact through digital animation.
This study, conducted by Dr. Tzu-I Chung in partnership with the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society, Royal BC Museum, and the Salient Group, addresses the challenges and future possibilities of working with community and development partners to create living museum sites in unconventional spaces, as a new way to revitalize and reimagine the future of Chinatowns.
Click the button below to view and download, “Peering into the Past”.

Download PDF

International Mahjong Day
2025-10-22 00:00 | BC
International Mahjong Day is August 1st, and we’re
gearing up for a fun night of Mahjong to celebrate! In
collaboration with the Victoria Mahjong Club, we will be
hosting International Mahjong Day on Friday, August 1
from 7pm to 9pm, an evening where you can join us to
learn, play and, observe mahjong. From beginners who
have never played before to experienced players,
everyone is welcome! Space is limited, so register soon
to make sure you don’t miss this exciting event!

Chinese Canadian students in Victoria boycotted public schools for one year – 1922-1923
2025-10-14 08:00 - 17:00 | Victoria Chinatown, Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, Canada
Grace Wong Sneddon, Ph.D
Vice-Chair, VCMS

The boycott was a response to the growing Anglo pro-segregation pressure across the West Coast in the 1920s for a more complete separation of the Chinese and white races in public schools. The school protest was a vital struggle against a rising anti-Asian movement in Canada.
The Chinese community accused the school trustees of acting on racial prejudice as they segregated their children in Chinese-only schools. At this time, Indigenous children were being sent to residential schools. They were concerned that if they tolerated the proposed expansion of school segregation to their children, not only their children but all future generations would face diminished opportunities.
The first stirrings of school segregation in Victoria occurred in February 1901 when a few white parents delivered a petition to the school board demanding that the Chinese children attending Rock Bay Elementary be placed in a separate school because they were unclean, untidy, depraved, ill-mannered, and had a demoralizing influence on the white children. Their teachers refuted these allegations and praised the Chinese children for their good behaviour and diligence (The Colonist, Nov. 13, 1902). The School Board did not take action at this time; but, with additional pressure from the Trade and Labour Council, they set up an ad hoc committee to consult the provincial department of education to determine whether they had the power to establish an ungraded school exclusively for the Chinese children. The provincial department of education informed the school board that while it had the power to establish an ungraded school, the school should not be based on creed, colour or nationality (The Colonist, Oct. 09, 1902). In January 1903 the school board placed 15 junior Chinese students in a separate classroom in Rock Bay Elementary followed by 3 rulings:

No Chinese children to be admitted to public schools “until they could so understand the English language as to be amenable to the ordinary regulations and school discipline”
Only those pupils who entered Victoria before April 1, 1907, were accepted to public schools, on the pretext that they had taken private instruction in English
Permits to attend public schools would be issued only to Victoria-born Chinese children

In 1908, the school board introduced another ruling that required Victoria-born Chinese children or children of naturalized Chinese to pass an English examination before they were permitted to attend public schools. In November of that year, all the Chinese pupils from grade one to grade four were segregated from public schools. The impact of this partial segregation proved to be detrimental to the Chinese children. Lacking an opportunity to practice English with English speaking children, it slowed their progress in English which resulted in awkward and difficult communication with their white classmates when they moved to grade five.
The detrimental effect of segregation was pointed out by Principal Cunningham of the Boys’ Central School in his letter to the school board in 1914:
“…..the moment the principle of segregation is adopted, the children will continue to use Chinese as the medium of thought, and become less able to be assimilated then if they play with the white children as is now the case. Hence, it is no remedy to establish a separate graded school for the Chinese, who would thus never thoroughly learn English or western ways” (The Victoria Times, February 2, 1914).
Then in November 1921, the School Board Trustees of Greater Victoria, led by Board Chair, George Jay, voted to segregate Chinese children from public schools to the end of grade 7. The Chinese-only schools consisted of three sites: Rock Bay Elementary, King’s Road School and the Railway Street School which the Chinese called the Chicken Coop because this school was comprised of two wooden huts relocated from the closed Fernwood School where the children shared the grounds with chickens. At this time, a majority of children, including Chinese students, left school to work at age 14, thus, the new policy effectively excluded them from interacting with other Canadian children.

From Dr. Tim Stanley, author of Contesting White Supremacy:
School Segregation, Anti-Racism, and the Making of Chinese Canadians
The Chinese parents had accepted the partial segregation because they believed that it was better to have the children in a segregated school than to have them barred completely from attending public schools. For the Chinese community, English language schooling was important. They felt that the children, the majority of those segregated were locally born, would not be able to integrate fully into Canadian society without access to English language schools. The Chinese community believed that as taxpayers, their children were entitled to equality of educational opportunity especially as the children were here to stay and to become Canadian citizens.
On September 05, 1922, the first day of school of a new school year, all Chinese students were called out of their schools. They were to be marched to the Kings Road School by their principals. As they walked towards the school, one of the senior boys gave a prearranged signal to the students. In response, all the students dispersed and the principals were left alone on the route. This remarkable act marked the beginning of the anti-segregation movement of 1922-23 when the Chinese in Victoria boycotted public schools to protest against the expansion of racial segregation.
Three organizations organized the boycott: The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and the Chinese Canadian Club, the latter were locally born Chinese youth. The Chinese Community in Victoria came together from families, merchants, single bachelors, rich and poor, clan and county associations. These three organizations utilized their networks and raised money throughout British Columbia and Canada to support the boycott and to fund a court challenge. They also appealed to their Anglo allies in Canada and submitted a petition to Victoria’s school board. As disenfranchised residents, they were legally powerless and could only appeal on moral and diplomatic grounds. They a developed a resistance plan that included the following:

Unite major overseas Chinese organizations (working through CCBA)
CCBA calling on the Chinese government, including the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa to intervene.
They retained a lawyer
An organized community support which included a $2.00 contribution for each affected student to pay for legal fees,
An organized letter writing campaign to challenge the school board
CCBA established a Fight School Segregation Association led by Joe Hope, President of the CCC and used tactics borrowed directly from Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement, “No purchases of Canadian goods and no patronage of educational institutions fostered by the Canadian authorities’.
An alternative community school (Chinese Public School) in Victoria’s Chinatown was established (Oct. 28, 1922) where the boycotting students received education in English and Chinese taught by three teachers

There were many allies who tried to mediate: Harry Hastings, Alexander Won Cumyow (founder of CCBA in 1884) and one of the oldest locally born non-Indigenous people in the province, W. E. Perry, a Presbyterian missionary and Neville Lascelles-Ward, head of Anglican missions in British Columbia.
After one year, the Chinese protest stopped the advance of school segregation. The school board returned to the pre-boycott segregation policy. Chinese children living in the North Ward District had to attend a separate Chinese-only school in Rock Bay for the first four years of their elementary education. After Rock Bay School was demolished in the late 1920s, all of the Chinese students were transferred to the Railway Street School or as the Chinese called it, the Chicken Coop. This is where the Chinese students attended until after the Second World War. One small concession was that Chinese children who succeeded in rapidly learning English could be promoted earlier to integrated schools at the discretion of their teachers and principals.
The Chinese fought for their children to have equal rights to educational opportunity and to be able to go to school with other children. Although the boycott did not advance their fight, they held ground. It represented a stand against British Columbia’s anti-Asian movement, they stood up to what had to be done because they believed that if they permitted school segregation to be expanded then it would affect all the generations of Chinese that followed.
On September 05, 2022, the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society invites everyone to walk the route of those earlier Chinese students. This is an opportunity to acknowledge the students who had the courage to defy their principals and who acted on their conviction. On this day, we will walk together supported by our communities and our allies to stand up for equality and the right to education as any other person. Those of us, of Chinese descent, who were born and raised in Victoria, who went to school in Greater Victoria were able to attend public schools because of those who preceded us. Their organized and multi-faceted campaign of resistance put the spotlight on the racism and their courageous actions made, at least, one step in the ongoing struggle for equal citizenship.
Walk in Commemoration of the Chinese Students School Strike 1922-1923 | September 5, 2022
Where: George Jay School 1118 Princess Avenue
Time: Gather at 10:00am
Walk Start: 10:30am
Plaque presentation at Kings Road by Ryan Painter, Chair of Greater Victoria School District Board of Education
Commemorative Luncheon | September 05, 2022
Where: Golden City Restaurant, Fisgard Street
Time: 12:15pm
For ticket information email: Alan Lowe at alanlowe@shaw.ca
Presentation by: Dr. Tim Stanley, author of Contesting White Supremacy: School Segregation, Anti-Racism, and the Making of Chinese Canadians

The Magic of Tony Eng
2025-10-14 08:00 - 17:00 | Victoria Chinatown, Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, Canada
The Magic of Tony Eng exhibit was a favourite of visitors and volunteers. Tony Eng, magician extraordinaire, touched the lives of Victoria’s many communities. He was a mentor, teacher and role model. The Victoria Chinatown Museum Society was proud to share some of his legacy and family story.

Fundraiser Dinner
2025-09-29 17:30 - 20:30 | Golden City Restaurant, 721 Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1R8, Canada
Get ready for a fun-filled evening with delicious food and community spirit in support of the Victoria Chinatown Museum. Whether you’re purchasing a table or attending as an individual, we warmly welcome you to be part of this special event.

Dragon Boat Festival at the Museum
2025-08-05 08:00 - 2025-09-09 17:00 | Victoria Chinatown Museum, 10 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W1W3, Canada
Celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival and see the original dragon head from the first Dragon Boat Race in Mexico.

Commemorative Fundraising Luncheon of the Chinese Students School Strike
2022-09-05 | Victoria Chinatown, Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC, Canada
Address for the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society on the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Students Strike, September 5, 2022
Timothy J. Stanley, PhD | Professor Emeritus
Faculty of Education and Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies
University of Ottawa

It is a privilege to once again be on the territory of Songhees First Nations of the lək̓ʷəŋən people. I honour their Elders, knowledge keepers and leaders as the keepers of this land, past, present, and future. I would like to begin by thanking the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society for organizing today’s event and for making it such a success. The commitment to fighting racism by organizing within the community and reaching out to allies shows that the spirit of those involved in the students strike live on.
100 YEARS AGO today, Victoria elementary school principals called Chinese students, some as young as six, out of their classes and marched them down the road to Chinese only schools. Trustees alleged that these children needed special instruction in English and retarded the progress of other students. Trustees also said there was not enough room for the Chinese and what they called “our” students in the regular schools. The Chinese only schools would be Rock Bay, the oldest in the district, King’s Road, condemned by the Provincial School Inspector as having “quite possibly the worst physical conditions of any school in the province,” much of the school was actually below ground level, and the newly established Railway Street whose two
wooden huts the Chinese called the “Chicken Coop School.”.
In 1922 most Victoria residents thought the Chinese were aliens who did not belong in Canada, let alone in the public schools. The Victoria Chamber of Commerce, the Retail Merchants Association, the Great War Veterans Association, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and most trade unions supported segregation. Long-time School Board chairmen George Jay had advocated segregating the Chinese from the moment that he was first elected in 1901 when there were only four Chinese in the
district. Trustees John L. Beckwith and Christian Siveertz were members of the Chamber of Commerce’s Asiatic Exclusion Committee that had called for school segregation as well as other anti-Chinese measures. Beckwith, the former mayor of Victoria, called the mixture of Chinese and white students in the public schools “abominable.” Siveertz, the secretary treasurer of the Victoria Trades and Labour Council and former president of the BC Federation of Labour, called segregation “well calculated to meet a difficult situation.” Trustee Cecilia Spotford was the principal organizer of the WCTU in BC and a powerful advocate both for white women’s rights and Asian exclusion. Meanwhile in January 1922, Municipal School Inspector George H. Deane had urged segregation for sanitary reasons.
But, as the Victoria Times reported, when Major Jeffree Cunningham, the principal of the Boy’s Central School, and his charges reached the King’s Road School, “A Chinese boy holding the reputation of being the quietest and most studious in the class shouted something in the Oriental lingo, and like a flash the parade disbanded, leaving Principal Cunningham in the middle of the roadway and wondering how he would overcome the difficulties of the situation.” The Chinese had organized a student’s strike to protest the school board’s racist actions. The strike would continue for the entire school year.
Many of those being segregated did not require special instruction in English because English was their first and only language. Far from retarding the progress of the others, most were in the top half of their classes and had been promoted into the next grade. The city health inspector had debunked the idea that they were a health threat. The very same Principal Cunningham left standing in the middle of the roadway had publicly pointed out that segregated instruction failed to teach English The Chinese well knew that it threatened the quality education that students from merchant and professional families, who were the majority of strikers, needed. Above all the Chinese were no more and no less alien to Victoria, British Columbia, and Canada than were any other non-Indigenous people. 85 per cent of the 240 striking students had been born in Victoria, many had roots in the city deeper than most others except Indigenous people.
The strikers were challenging a racist system and not just the individual prejudices of the trustees. Racism was a social structure that circumvented their lives at nearly every turn. It determined their political rights, where they could live and with whom, what work they could do and for how much, and even where they could be buried. In 1922, British Columbians racialized as Chinese along with Indigenous people, Japanese and South Asians, could not vote in federal, provincial, municipal, and school board elections. They could not become lawyers, pharmacists, hold logging licenses, or serve on juries. The Chinese could not work for the BC government, on government contracts, or for private companies incorporated by the province. Municipal regulations limited access to commercial licenses and banned them from swimming in Victoria’s Crystal Pool. The $500 head tax separated Chinese workers from their families who had to remain in China. Racist violence had closed entire districts of the province to the Chinese.

These exclusions were central to the settler colonial project that had made BC. The whole point of this project was to convert the territories of Indigenous people into the private property of people of European and especially British origins. Indigenous people and Asians were excluded from the Canadian state system from its inception in BC; both were barred from voting and from pre-empting land. In 1885, when John A. Macdonald was inventing a federal polity made up of the owners of private property, he took the right to vote away from all those of “Chinese or Mongolian race” for fear that Chinese property owners in BC might control the vote there. According to Macdonald, the Chinese threatened what he called “the Aryan nature of the future of British North America.”
By 1922, BC was the white man’s land. BC schools not only taught young people that the Chinese were biologically different from whites, but also that they were foreigners who did not belong. For example, a 1907 geography text urged students to consider, “the Chinaman who keeps a laundry. . . .You can easily see that he is not a native of this country. He does not speak our language. The color of his skin is different from ours. He has no family, no wife, no children.” The transpacific family connections of Chinese workers were invisible, the workers themselves aliens, while white people and the English language were naturalized as “native” to the country. This text and hundreds of others not only erased the realities that Chinese people lived, they effaced
the Indigenous peoples and languages that were truly native.
In this context, the 3,500 Chinese residents of Victoria strongly supported the strike, even though most were so-called bachelor workers whose families were in China, and they did not have children in the schools. A shared sense of being Chinese and of being threatened by exclusion brought them together. When people from Guangdong province first arrived in Victoria in the middle of the nineteenth century, they had little sense of being part of the same group. They primarily identified with their home county. They spoke Hakka and different dialects of Cantonese and belonged to different ethnic groups.
Racist violence and exclusion forced them to band together. Blocked from access to the Canadian state system, they created their own alternate institutions. Of these the most important was the 中華會館 or the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), which the late David Lai has correctly called a Chinee local government. Formed in 1884, two years later most Chinese in BC were its members.
Its authority was tacitly recognized by Canadian officials. By 1922, the first generation Chinese belonged to Chinese political parties, Sun Yat-sen’s Guomindang and the rival Zhigongdang or Constitutionalist party. They read newspapers that regularly reported on the Chinese in Canada and in China and elsewhere in the diaspora. For example, The Vancouver-based Chinese Times reported on students strikes in Canton and on a 1921 Chinese student strike against school segregation in Mississippi.
Above all, the first generation were connected back to family members in China where the Nationalist Chinese Revolution had overthrown the imperial system. Thus, in February 1922 the CCBA warned the school board that segregation would be opposed “by the whole of the Chinese people.” During the summer, it organized the meetings with parents that led to the strike. The day the strike began it formed the Kangzheng Fenxiao Tuanti Hui or a Fight School Segregation Association which mobilized the support of Chinese communities across the country and even in China, raising over $16,000, the equivalent to a quarter of a million dollars today.
CCBA rallies filled the Empire Theatre to overflowing and featured all the leading Chinese associations and political parties. By November, it was evident that the strike would be protracted, so it organized a free Chinese language school held at the Chinese Public School for the striking students. As explained at the time, if the children were not allowed to be Canadian, they would be Chinese.
People supported the strike even when it was against their personal interests to do so. Since 1904 community leaders had often obtained special permits exempting their children from the board’s various segregation efforts. For example, in 1908 Lee Mong Kow, the immigration interpreter, obtained permits for his third-generation children. During the 1922-3 strike, the board issued 94 such permits, but none were made use of.
The extent of popular support also became evident In March 1923 when the Victoria Police raided #2 Fan Tan Alley at 2 o’clock in the morning. They arrested twenty-two people who were in a room filled with gambling equipment, interrupting 5 men involved in a poker game. When those arrested appeared in front of the magistrate, they argued that they were not gambling, but were attending an informal meeting of the Zhigongdang that was trying to decide whether to allow their headquarters to be used as a school for the striking students.
The locally born Chinese who were young adults in 1922 were the real leaders of the strike. There were only about 100 locally born adults at the time. Most came from merchant and professional families and had been educated in the city’s public schools, often in integrated classes. Several had graduated the Victoria High School, and some were university graduates. Many had also attended Chinese schools and at least one was a Chinese high school graduate. They were culturally assimilated to life in Canada, while maintaining connections to people and things Chinese; collectively they had considerable Canadian and Chinese cultural capital; They were also organized. The Chinese Canadian Club, the group that invented the term Chinese Canadian, was formed in 1914 as a young men’s social group. In 1919-20, they waged an unsuccessful campaign to get the vote for the locally born and war veterans. It was at their well-appointed clubhouse, surrounded by their library that included the complete works of Jane Austen, that they came up with the idea of the strike. They put together a threefold strategy: first working through the CCBA to mobilize support for the strike, second, building on the collective identity of Chinese to make clear that the strike threatened all Chinese in Canada, and third, waging a letter writing campaign in the English language newspapers of Victoria to win support from the larger white community.
Joe Hope, Low Kwong-jo, the club president was the most prominent spokesperson, but other leaders included Cecil Shit-Shun Lee and his wife Grace Won. Grace was the third-generation daughter of Won Alexander Cumyow who was the first Chinese born in Canada and one of the founders of CCBA. Hope became the president of the Resist School Segregation Association and spoke for the strikers at public meetings in Chinese in Victoria and Vancouver and lead delegations to the school board. Along with other locally born, he publicly exposed the Board’s justifications for segregation. As Hope explained, segregation put the future of the locally born into question, so that we will be unable to take our part by the side of other Canadians, and we will then be pointed out as those who refuse to learn the customs or social life of the country — in fact, refuse to assimilate. It will have been forgotten by then that it was not because we did not want to learn, but because certain narrow-minded autocrats have taken upon themselves the responsibility of preventing our learning.
Importantly, in a world that said you could either be Chinese or Canadian, the locally born affirmed that they were both. Another key player in the strike was Harry Hasting. Hastings was a Chinese-English interpreter, and importer/exporter, who often acted as a gobetween between for the Chinese and the larger white community. He was born in Taiwan to a British father and a Chinese mother, both Christian missionaries, and grew up in Hong Kong where he attended the leading English private schools. Hastings published several articles and dozens of letters to the editor directly challenging the board in the English language press. He even published the names and class standings of close to 200 of the 240 striking students. Many people thought that Hastings was the leader of the strike, and he may even have thought of himself as such, but he did not become involved until mid-September and does not appear to have participated in the CCBA rallies. Still, in early October, Hope introduced Hastings to the Board as the leader of a delegation and for a time, the board communicated through him. However, his vitriol against the board was such that early in 1923 it banned him from meeting with them.
By the end of 1922, the letter writing campaign was beginning to win over the larger white community. The school board elections that year elected two trustees determined to end the strike. However, attempts to resolve the dispute fell apart as they did not go far enough.
In May, the federal government introduced the Chinese Immigration Act, effectively banning the immigration of people of Chinese race, and requiring all those living in Canada, including the locally born, to register with the federal government. Failure to produce the certificate of registration could result in fines, imprisonment, and deportation. One of the Canadian born forced to register under the act was the seven-year-old Annie Fong of Montreal, my mother.
During the summer of 1923, the board ordered inspector Deane to reach a settlement to which the exhausted parents agreed while Hastings who thought the strike should continue was out of the country. In September 1923 Chinese students went back to their original classes. However, all new students entering the schools had to attend a special class at North Ward School (held at King’s Road) until their English was judged sufficient for integration into the regular classes. This class continued for Chinese,
Japanese and South Asian children until after the Second World War.
Looking back, what is the significance of the strike? In 1960, Joe Hope compared it to the struggle against school segregation that was then unfolding in Little Rock, Arkansas and further suggested that the unity created during the students strike ultimately enabled the Chinese to achieve full political rights.
I think the strike shows that racism is not only a social structure that people make, but that the key to fighting racism lies in mobilizing the excluded group around key demands while also bringing home the lived consequences of racist exclusion to members of the dominant group. The strike reminds us that racism, including racial school segregation, has been integral to the making Canada. The last racially segregated public schools in Canada were only closed in the 1980s, while segregation continues in some ways in the separate system of First Nations education controlled by the federal government.
Perhaps most importantly, the strike shows that if racism has lost its grip on public policy in Canada today, it is because people have actively resisted racism. Finally, the strike exposes the central lie of white supremacy; absolute differences between racialized groups is a myth. People live across and between the either/ors of identity categories. If we can openly live this diversity today in Canada, it is because people like Joe Hope, Grace Won and Cecil Lee gave life and public affirmation to a term they had invented to describe the reality of their lives. They were Chinese Canadians.
