If These Walls Could Talk 舊牆留聲
New Exhibit
As we walk through Victoria’s Chinatown, we see only what exists today. However, these buildings have stood for decades and each holds multiple stories within its walls. The architecture tells us about the origins of the owners and their aspirations in Victoria, while the businesses that operated in these spaces have been vital to the region’s economic and social development.
Beyond the architecture and commercial history, the personal narratives of families provide a window into the daily lives of those who once lived in these buildings—offering a glimpse into the past and weaving together the rich tapestry of Chinatown’s legacy.
“This exhibit not only celebrates the history of Chinatown, but also highlights the dedication and collaborative spirit of our community,” says VCMS Board Chair Dr. Grace Wong Sneddon. “We are grateful for the contributions of community members who made this exhibit possible by generously sharing their family stories. We invite everyone to join us in exploring the many layers of Chinatown’s legacy.”
“If These Walls Could Talk: Exploring Chinatown’s Stories 舊牆留聲“ marks a significant milestone as it is the first exhibit curated by museum staff and board members. The exhibit will run until spring 2027.
A Little Bit Sweet: Confections, Culture and Community
A Little Bit Sweet: Confections, Culture and Community
As you enter this exhibit, you encounter more than desserts. You encounter stories of family, adaptation, and belonging told through food.
For Chinese Canadian families in Victoria, sweets are not only treats—they are part of everyday life and cultural memory. Recipes travel across oceans and generations, changing over time while preserving connection. Some desserts come from long-standing traditions in China, while others emerge from encounters with Canadian ingredients, technologies, and cultures.
Western-style cakes, or sai béng, became popular in Hong Kong and Chinatowns worldwide as Chinese bakers adapted European techniques and local tastes. In Victoria, families like that of Chin Nee Young embraced decorated cakes and pastry traditions that blended Chinese and Western styles. His tools, cake tips, and decorating kit reflect the care and craftsmanship behind each creation. For his family, baking was not only work, but part of daily life—cookies, cakes, and memories shared around the kitchen table.
Other sweets tell stories of migration and continuity. Tapioca cake, or chin chéng go, carries symbolic meaning: its many layers represent prosperity and good fortune. Sesame balls (jin deui) are crisp on the outside and soft within, connecting generations through shared preparation and celebration. Rose cookies (jah fa) reflect cultural exchange across continents, shaped by Chinese, Indian, and European traditions. For one family, bringing these cookies to school transformed moments of exclusion into acceptance, showing how food can soften barriers and create connection.
Everyday objects in the exhibit—mixing bowls, molds, flour, and handwritten recipes—reveal the work behind these traditions. These tools supported both home kitchens and family businesses, where baking provided income, stability, and creative expression.
This exhibit invites you to consider how something as simple as a sweet can carry stories of migration, resilience, adaptation, and care. Through baking, families preserve traditions strengthen community in Victoria’s Chinatown.
Moment of reflection
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What foods connect you to your own family, culture, or memories?
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How can food help people feel accepted, welcomed, or understood?
We are proud to showcase this inaugural exhibit curated by a team from the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society. The exhibit was generously sponsored by the Doane Grant Thornton Foundation.
Welcome to the Museum
Lions and archway
As you enter the Victoria Chinatown Museum, you will be welcomed by the suspended lion heads and colourful archway. The archway once belonged to Ming’s Restaurant, a long-standing social hub in downtown Victoria, where food, celebration, and community life came together.
The lion heads are ceremonial objects, used over many years in lion dances by Victoria’s Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club. Constructed from layered materials, fabric, paint, and decorative elements, they were designed for performance and movement. At festivals and on special occasions, dancers animated the lions with rhythm and coordination, their expressive features and bold colours energizing shared spaces while bringing energy and blessings.
The archway below the lion heads reflects Chinese architectural traditions that use decorative framing to mark thresholds. Such structures often signal welcome, protection, and transition, moving from the street to the interior, from everyday activity into communal space.
Placed at the museum entrance today, these elements create a meaningful continuity between past and present, inviting visitors to enter and experience the stories within.
Safe from Don Mee Restaurant
Standing on your right as you enter the museum, this safe once belonged to Don Mee Yuen Kee Co., a long-standing Chinese restaurant in Victoria’s Chinatown. Its solid weight and worn surface speak to years of daily use—opening and closing, counting receipts, and securing what mattered at the end of each day.
For Chinese-owned businesses, a safe was more than storage. It protected earnings, records, and responsibilities in a time when security and self-reliance were essential. Quiet and unassuming, it supported the visible life of the restaurant while remaining largely unseen by diners.
Time has left its marks here. The scuffed metal, working dial, and sturdy hinges tell a story of repetition and care. Today, the exhibit invites visitors to turn the combination, open the door, and sign the book—transforming a once-private routine into a shared experience.
Moment of reflection
How did elements of Chinese performance, decoration, and architecture help to shape social life in Chinatown?
How is cultural expression woven into everyday places, such as restaurants and public celebrations?
Explore Chinatown
The history of Victoria’s Chinatown is deeply embedded in the history of British Columbia. Our ancestors came here from China with nothing. They had to work hard, prove themselves, and create a lifestyle that integrated two cultures.
Victoria’s Chinatown is the oldest surviving Chinatown in Canada, and the only one in North America to retain its 19th century townscape. The buildings still have their picturesque arcades, narrow alleys, and enclosed courtyards. In 1995, Canada’s Historic Sites and Monuments Board designated Victoria’s Chinatown a site of national and architectural significance.
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Victoria’s Chinatown is the oldest in Canada and one of the oldest in North America. Its streets tell stories of arrival, labour, resilience, and community.
Established in the mid-nineteenth century, Chinatown grew as Chinese migrants came to the West Coast seeking opportunity, particularly during the Fraser River Gold Rush and construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. While many travelled onward to the goldfields, others remained—establishing businesses and homes near Cormorant and Johnson Streets, forming the heart of Canada’s first Chinatown. In a new and often unwelcoming society, they built places to live, work, and belong.
By the late nineteenth century, Victoria had become China’s primary gateway to Canada. Chinatown prospered as a dense, vibrant district of stores, theatres, temples, cafes, workshops, and social spaces. Merchants lived above their shops, while workers occupied lodging houses and cabins. Narrow alleys and enclosed courtyards—most famously Fan Tan Alley—animated daily life and community interaction. At its peak in the early 1900s, Chinatown covered six blocks and was home to thousands of residents.
Chinese residents played a vital role in Victoria’s development, yet their lives were shaped by discrimination and exclusion. Restrictive laws such as the head tax and the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 limited movement and employment, and prevented family reunification. In response, Chinatown became a centre of mutual support. Family-run businesses, community associations, schools, and social networks helped sustain daily life and protect cultural identity.
Although many residents moved elsewhere after the repeal of the Exclusion Act in 1947, Chinatown’s physical landscape remains largely intact. Chinatown was (and is) not only a commercial district, but also a cultural and social world. Language, food, celebrations, and traditions connected residents to family histories while adapting to life in Canada. Alleyways, storefronts, and meeting places became spaces where cooperation and resistance unfolded side by side.
Today, Victoria’s Chinatown is recognized as a site of national historic and architectural significance. Its arcades, alleys, courtyards, and richly detailed buildings reflect more than a century of adaptation, resilience, and cultural continuity, making it a living record of Chinese Canadian history.
Adapted from an essay by Dr. David Chuenyan Lai. Learn More
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