Chinese New Year and “the Chinese Lily.”

Posted on January 29, 2025 @4:52 pm by Andrew R. Sandfort-Marchese

This blog post is a special edition of RBSC’s series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

Happy Lunar New Year from the Chung Lind Gallery and the whole UBC Rare Books and Special Collections team! We wish everyone safe, healthy, and an auspicious year of the wood snake.

Chinese New Year celebrations have been a part of BC’s history and culture for at least over 150 years, enlivening both big cities and small towns with the sound of firecrackers, the rainbow colors of parades, bright red decorations, and the scent of special foods wafting in the air. There are many traditions and customs that vary both from region to region in China, but also family to family. Of the many traditions brought by the older waves of migration (lo wah kieu 老華僑), the visiting of flower markets (花市) and the cultivation of special lucky plants in the heart of the winter was and is cherished. One of the most prized plants was the Chinese Lily (水仙花), which is actually not a lily at all! This plant will be the topic of our celebratory blog today.

Known by many names, including the bunch-flowered daffodil, Chinese sacred lily, cream narcissus, and joss flower, Narcissus Tazetta was brought to North America by Chinese workers during the California Gold Rush. The plant itself is native to the Mediterranean and was brought to China along the Silk Road before the Tang Dynasty.  The early Chinese migrants to North American called it Sui Sin Fa “Water Fairy Flower,” a name likely derived from the Greek myth of Narcissus, which gave the flower its English name. Bulbs of the beautiful, highly fragrant flower were grown in Zhangzhou 漳州 Fujian 福建 and exported to Chinese communities all around the world. From there, it can be found naturalized in the fields, abandoned gardens, and Chinese cemeteries wherever Chinese were found in North America and wherever climate permits.

The flower was prized because of its tight bunches of blooms and strong scent that grew when planted in shallow dishes in late October-Early November; they would ideally bloom right as Chinese New Year began. Multiple blooms from one bulb also had symbolism of plenty and abundance. They decorated homes, businesses, altars, and even photo studios, where they were used as a lucky prop for portraits sent back home during the New Year celebrations.[i]

In BC, the flowers are found as early as the 1890s, though they most likely arrived earlier. In 1892, The Victoria Daily Times shared that the pet goat of a “well-known and justly popular saloon-keeper” had perished after eating a Chinese lily bulb gifted to the family by an employee for the new year.[ii] During the Chinese New Year season, Chinese servants would demand (and receive) vacation time, Chinese societies and social clubs would gather for banquets, and family businesses would give out gifts to partners, customers, and friends. The flowers and bulbs of the lily were very popular, leading to the following quote:

“Genii of the Water: All those who have visited the Chinese during the New Year festivities have noticed the sweet-scented flowers of the Chinese water lily, shin sin fa, water sprite flower, or water genii flower, which the Chinese always have in full bloom at their New Year. These, with branches of almond blossoms, pomelos and oranges, artificial flowers of paper and tinsel, a Chinese dragon embroidered in gold on a silken cloth, form the principal decorations of the Chinese New Year’s table, while upon it are Chinese candies, sugared fruits, laichis (Chinese nuts), and watermelon seeds, all in a lacquered box, called tsun hop, or complete box. These confections, and tea, wine and tobacco, are offered to all callers.”[iii]

By 1902, the plant was so popular among the non-Chinese community that a full page spread about how best to raise them was published in the Vancouver Daily News Advertiser. Ads for the bulbs were found prominently printed in the November issues of Chinatown Vancouver import-export businesses up to the 1970s, including the ad with instructions below.

We wish you all a happy new year!

花開富貴   瑞氣呈祥

Further Reading

Hodgeson, Larry. “The Little Bulb That Conquered China” November 8 2017, Laidback Gardener Blog. https://laidbackgardener.blog/2017/11/08/the-little-bulb-that-conquered-china/

Footnotes

[i] Adams, John D. Chinese Victoria: A Long and Difficult Journey. Victoria, BC: Discover the Past, 2022.

[ii] The Victoria Daily Times Feb 15 1892 Pg.5

[iii] Vancouver Daily World, March 23 1901, Pg.2

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Stories of Chinese Sailors in Canada’s Maritime History

Posted on January 18, 2025 @3:07 pm by Andrew R. Sandfort-Marchese

This blog post is long-form edition of RBSC’s blog series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

Early Entrances into Maritime Labor

The history of Chinese men working in the maritime industry in Canada stretches back to the initial arrival of the community to these shores in 1788. That year, 50 Chinese carpenters arrived in Yuquot as part of the Meares Expedition, hired for their skills in nautical repairs and as shipwrights.[1] As trans-Pacific connections developed between Asia, Oceania, and North America, Chinese sailors remained a part of the maritime workforce along the North American Pacific Coast. However, by the late 1800s they were more often assigned to the most grueling roles. Anglo-American culture had stereotyped Chinese as unreliable due to their lack of English, or because of their “superstitions” about weather or bad luck omens.[2]

With steamship travel increasing in the 1880s, out-of-sight Chinese firemen (also called coal stokers or boilermen) worked in the engine rooms enduring oppressive heat, while cooks, stewards, and cabin boys toiled above in the crowded, tight kitchen galleys and passageways. On Canadian Pacific (CP) steamships, Union Steamship Company vessels, and other lines associated with Robert Dollar’s shipping empire, Chinese seamen were indispensable, but usually laboured in these segregated, unseen roles. Aboard the CP Empress liners, for example, they prepared their own Chinese meals in separate kitchens, resided in isolated quarters near the “Oriental Steerage Class” passengers, and were relegated to the back of the ship—both physically and metaphorically.[3]

Despite these hardships, Chinese mariners—from engine-room firemen to “tea boys”—built social and cultural connections across the British Empire, of which the BC coast was only one hub. Chinese sailors were also a common sight on Japanese imperial lines, such as Nippon Yusen Kaisha, that sailed for North America. While initially predominantly Cantonese, soon men from Zhejiang, Fujian, and other coastal areas joined crews around the world. This network of nautical workers also extended to the United States, which had its own Pacific ambitions and growing maritime empire.

Global Connections: From Liverpool to Hong Kong

As the 20th century dawned, the world of Chinese sailors continued to expand, linking British ports such as Liverpool to colonial hubs like Hong Kong. Liverpool’s docks, for example, became a focal point and safe haven for Chinese seamen post-World War I. The Blue Funnel Line, headquartered in Liverpool and one of the most active shipping companies in BC Chinese migrant traffic, hired many of these men to work onboard their vessels.[4]

Migration is never a simple equation; through shipping White settlers to North America, Blue Funnel brought Chinese sailors to the UK, fostering a small multicultural maritime community in Europe. Organizations such as the UK-based Dragons and Lions group now preserve the legacies of mixed-race descendants from this era, whose ancestors suffered separation when the British government turned against these Chinese sailors, even after some served during both World Wars.[5]

Hong Kong, a key node in this global web, was where many Chinese mariners found work, retired, or kept families and businesses ashore. Others joined secret societies, mutual aid associations or sailors’ institutes.[6] Some even joined criminal gangs to make some money on the side through smuggling.[7] Here also, many were radicalized into political involvement.[8] The Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, recognizing the potential power of sailors to smuggle subversive documents world-wide, formed the Lianyi Society 聯義社, also known as the Chinese Seamen’s Association, in 1910.[9] It then coordinated the spread of revolutionary ideology, fundraised, and even transported contraband weapons across the often otherwise-exclusionary borders of empires.

The 1922 Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike demonstrated the immense collective power of Chinese laborers, disrupting service by most major Pacific shipping companies, like Canadian Pacific. The strike’s influence reached far beyond Asia, as British Columbia’s newspapers anxiously speculated about similar uprisings, creating ripples of fear in the Canadian trade establishment about potential labor unrest on their shores.[10] We will most likely return to this critical event in future blogs.

The Grip of Exclusion Tightens

While history around Chinese Exclusion has focused mostly on its impact on migrants who intended to stay in Canada for longer terms, these laws also often explicitly target the freedom of movement of Chinese sailors. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigration policies in Canada and the United States increasingly show a deep discomfort of the role of Chinese seamen in foreign trade.[11] After 1900, laws tightened further. The 1906 British Merchant Shipping Act, introduced language requirements that sought to exclude South Asian and Chinese mariners, the so-called “coolie and lascar” sailors.[12] Later, U.S. legislation, such as the 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone Act and the 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, imposed steep head taxes, mandatory photo IDs, confinement aboard boats at anchor, or even bond requirements on Asian seamen.[13]

By 1925, the British Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen) Order compounded these restrictions by requiring non-white sailors to register and carry identity documents, with the goal to drive away as many Chinese, South Asian, and Black sailors from their international fleet. This was important in a Canadian context, as all the Canadian Pacific’s Empress liners were British-owned and registered. The Chinese Nationalist government also introduced measures in the 1930s and 40s mandating overseas Chinese to register if they wished to remit earnings home or re-enter China. These overlapping policies subjected Chinese sailors around the world to constant surveillance and financial strain.

Navigating Vancouver’s Waters

By this time, Vancouver’s port had been a crucial transit point for Chinese sailors navigating trans-Pacific routes since becoming the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1887. The city’s Chinatown became a sanctuary for mariners who jumped ship, using shared clan and hometown connections to integrate into Chinese communities across the province.[14] From the 1870s to the 1970s, thousands of sailors disembarked illegally this way in North American ports like Vancouver, Halifax, and New York, often evading strict immigration policies.[15]

The Canadian Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 added layers of bureaucracy for Chinese mariners.[16] Shipping companies were required to list all Chinese crew members on special ledgers, with heavy fines imposed on the company for any absentees. Despite this, sailors found ways to subvert these measures, purchasing fraudulent identity documents to remain in Canada or assuming the identities of Chinese Canadians who had paid the head tax or were locally born. The stories of these “paper sons” exemplify the resourcefulness of Chinese mariners in circumventing exclusionary laws.

During World War I, Chinese mariners began to appear in more visible roles, above deck on Canadian Pacific’s Empress ships. Some became closer friends and coworkers to senior officers, like the Chief Stewards, Ships’ Surgeons, and Head Purser (Paymaster.)[17] These closer connections and better jobs sparked a backlash from white sailors’ unions and exclusionists, especially in British Columbia.[18] Debates in Canada’s House of Commons during the 1930s centered on whether the company should be penalized for hiring Chinese sailors over white Canadians while they received a large government subsidy.[19] While a 1937 recommendation to cut federal aid for Canadian Pacific failed, it highlighted the entrenched racism these workers faced.[20]

Acts of Resistance

Despite these challenges, Chinese sailors fought back. Beyond the 1922 Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike, there are many smaller examples of collective action. Sailors staged walk-offs, work slowdowns, or shared political and immigration information with Chinese migrants en-route to their new lives. The Lianyi Society (Chinese Sailors Society), working with popular Cantonese opera troupes, smuggled letters from revolutionaries and literature to communities around the world.[21]

Later, during World War II, 83 Chinese seamen in Halifax were detained for seven months after demanding hazard pay for navigating the treacherous North Atlantic warzone.[22] In February of 1942, 14 more Chinese seamen from Hong Kong escaped the Nova Scotian port after being rescued from a torpedoed ship and brought to the immigration station ashore, costing their employer 21,000 CAD in forfeited bonds under the Exclusion Act provisions.[23] That same year, two dozen Chinese crewmen in Vancouver sued their employer for false imprisonment when they were handed over for immigration detention after walking off the boat for higher wages.[24] Although these efforts often ended in deportation or legal defeat, persistent acts of resistance underscore Chinese sailors’ determination to assert their rights.

Sustaining Community and Culture

The contributions of Chinese sailors extended far beyond their roles aboard ocean liners, the merchant marine, or international trade. Traveling through global waters, they brought news and goods to isolated Chinese workers in canneries, sawmills, and mining communities along British Columbia’s northern and central coast.[25] Cooks on coastal ferries, steamers, and mail ships, like famous author Wayson Choy’s father, endured long hours away from family with the hope of saving.[26] Often they worked alongside their “cousins and uncles” from the same village clan, and when one retired, either to the village in China or to a Canadian Chinatown, they sought to replace them with another relative in need of work.

Post-War Transitions and Decline

After World War II, changes in the maritime industry and immigration policies transformed the lives of Chinese sailors. The American Chinese Exclusion Act ended in 1943, with the Canadian Chinese Exclusion Act following in 1947, though strict quotas and restrictions remained in both countries. Many young men fleeing the Chinese Civil War joined ships to escape turmoil, hoping to find new opportunities abroad. Despite their willingness, these working-class men were often passed over as precious quota spots were filled by wealthy and educated elites, unless they had a family member in Canada who could try to help them come.

The decline of trans-oceanic steamship routes further reduced opportunities for Chinese mariners. With travelers increasingly turning to air travel, shipping moved away from passenger traffic and towards shipping containers, reducing the need for cooks on vessels. Travel to China also steeply declined following the Korean War embargoes, although ties to Hong Kong remained strong. By the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese sailors in Canada were primarily employed as cooks and stewards on BC Coastal Ferries. Relatives, former classmates, and friends would vouch for new arrivals; this ability to support one another is a contributing factor to why Chinese cooks had a virtual monopoly over coastal vessels until the 1970s. For some, this was their first job in Canada, and a way to learn English and culinary skills that would allow them to open their own businesses; a path to the middle class. Programs like the 1960 Chinese Adjustment Statement provided amnesty for those who had entered Canada illegally, many of whom were former sailors.

Conclusion: Contemporary Parallels

Today, Canada’s ports continue to host crews from around the world, many of whom endure exploitative working conditions reminiscent of earlier eras. Most ships visiting Vancouver operate under “flags of convenience”—registered in countries with lax labor and safety standards—leaving their multinational crews vulnerable. Most modern sailors come from countries previously colonized by European powers. Advocacy groups continue to work to improve conditions for these modern mariners, offering legal aid, welfare visits, and essential supplies.

The history of Chinese sailors in Canada’s maritime industry reveals a story of perseverance and adaptability amid systemic racism and exploitation. Their labor was instrumental in connecting Canada to the global economy, yet their contributions remain underrecognized. By examining their struggles and achievements, we not only honor their legacy but also shed light on the ongoing challenges faced by seafarers worldwide.

If inspired to assist, consider supporting organizations dedicated to improving the welfare of sailors visiting Canadian ports, ensuring their dignity and rights are upheld in the modern era.

 

Footnotes

[1] You can learn about this history at the Chung Lind Gallery

[2] For example, this story about the Batavia in The Vancouver Daily News Advertiser

Thu, Aug 09, 1888 ·Page 3

[3] The Chung Collection holds many versions of blueprints of the Empress of Asia. Some show annotations which indicate the quarters of Chinese workers and passengers, located in segregate settings near the stern.

Canadian Pacific Railway Co. 1945 “Empress of Russia and Empress of Asia general arrangement plans” RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-OS-00119

[4] Records related to Blue Funnel line can be found at UBC RBSC and City of Vancouver archives. Their ship names are commonly seen on the General Register of Chinese Immigration and head tax certificates. The Liverpool Maritime Museum holds some of the company records in their archives.

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/records-of-blue-funnel-line-ocean-steam-ship-company

[5] https://dragonsandlions.co.uk/

[6] Kwok-Fai Law, Peter. “The Political Pragmatism of Steamship “Teaboys”: Reassessing the Chinese Labor Movement, 1927–1934.” Twentieth-Century China 46, no. 3 (2021): 287-308. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tcc.2021.0025.

[7] Headlines about drug smuggling from sailors are common in BC and other North American ports through the 1970s. It is also a trope in some Hong Kong cinema films.

[8] Glick, Gary W. 1969. “The Chinese Seamen’s Union and the Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike of 1922.” Masters Thesis. History Columbia University. New York City, USA.

[9] In 1910 Lianyi was founded in San Francisco. Soon after a hub in Yokohama in a tailor shop. By 1915 central offices were in Shanghai, then Hong Kong, then Guangzhou. Operations ceased in 1927. The union used fake corporations to obscure their operations. (Huang Langzheng 黃郎正, “Brief Account of the Chinese Ocean Seamen Union 聯義社之概述” Kwangtung Culture Quarterly 廣東文獻季刊. Iss. No. 2. June 1, 1973

[10] For example: The Vancouver Sun Tue, Feb 28, 1922 ·Page 11; The Vancouver Sun

Sun, Jul 23, 1922 ·Page 12

[11] Canadian Head Tax in 1885 had no provision for Chinese Sailors, so their status was a gray area. In 1902 there was an attempt to land a Chinese crew of 30 in Victoria to staff a Seattle Ship on way to Russian Far East, which the government blocked through an administrative order (The Vancouver Semi-Weekly World, Dec 26 1902 Pg.5.) From 1882-1902, it was also a gray area for Chinese sailors in USA Exclusion laws. From 1903-1917 shipping lines to USA had to post 500 dollar bond forfeited if Chinese sailors hopped ship.

[12] Urban, Andrew. 29 Oct 2018. “Restricted Cargo: Chinese Sailors, Shore Leave, and the Evolution of U.S. Immigration Policies, 1882-1942.” Online Article. Rutgers University. New Jersey, USA. Accessed Jan 17 2025. https://t2m.org/restricted-cargo-chinese-sailors-shore-leave-and-the-evolution-of-u-s-immigration-policies-1882-1942/

[13] Urban, Restricted Cargo. 2018

[14] The Montreal Star Mon, Jul 11, 1910 ·Pg. 4

[15] Pegler-Gordon, Anna. 2021. Closing the Golden Door: Asian Migration and the Hidden History of Exclusion at Ellis Island. 1st ed. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. doi:10.5149/9781469665740_pegler-gordon.

[16] Library and Archives Canada. Statutes of Canada. “An Act Respecting Chinese Immigration, 1923.” Ottawa: SC 13-14 George V, Chapter 38. Sec. 25

The text of the Act allowed for Chinese sailors to land and then ”re-ship” with other outbound employment, but days after it was enacted this freedom was repealed by Order in Council (E.C.1275) and cash bond instated.

[17] Some would pool together money for an engraved plaque when these men moved to other boats or retired after long service. (Victoria Daily Times Jan 3 1933 Pg.8)

[18] Survey of Race Relations. 1924-1927 “Testimonial meeting on the Oriental, I.W.W. Hall, Cordova Street” Stanford University. Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. Box: 24, Folder: 16. Accessed Jan 17 2025. https://purl.stanford.edu/bd797xr7521

[19] Letter to Editor supporting Chinese sailors (Vancouver Sun Feb 10 1937 Pg 4)

Criticism of letter above: (Vancouver Sun Feb 13 Pg 4)

[20] House of Commons Journals, 18th Parliament, 2nd Session : Vol. 75 Pg.81-82

[21] A comprehensive history of Lianyi Society was published by Huang Langzheng in Hong Kong in 1971 titled 聯義社社史. The Lianyi Society overlapped with Hong Kong’s 八和會館opera union. There is an interesting connection through Red Boat travelling operas 紅船 , which link sailors, opera, kung fu, and secret societies.

[22] Meredith Oyen, “Fighting for Equality: Chinese Seamen in the Battle of the Atlantic, 1939–1945” Diplomatic History, Volume 38, Issue 3, June 2014, Pages 526–548, https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dht106

Mention also of this incident in William Lyon Mackenzie King’s journals.

[23] Regina Leader-Post, Feb 21, 1942 ·Page 19

[24] The Vancouver Province Oct 21, 1942 ·Page 8

[25] Christenson, Neil H. “All the Princesses’ Men: Working for the British Columbia Coast Steamship Service 1901-1928” Masters Thesis. Eastern Washington University. Spring 2022. EWU Digital Commons. Accessed Jan 17 2025.

[26] Choy, Wayson. “Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood.” Toronto: Penguin Books, 2000.

This path was also true for writer Fae Myenne Ng, as recounted in Ng, Fae Myenne. “Orphan Bachelors: A Memoir : On being a Confession Baby, Chinatown Daughter, Baa-Bai Sister, Caretaker of Exotics, Literary Balloon Peddler, and Grand Historian of a Doomed American Family.” New York: Grove Press, 2024.

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New Years 1932 Menu, the Empress of Britain World Cruise

Posted on January 3, 2025 @11:15 am by Andrew R. Sandfort-Marchese

This blog post is special edition of RBSC’s new series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

Happy New Year from the Chung Lind Gallery and the whole UBC Rare Books and Special Collections team! 

 

 

As we glide into 2025, may we all have a chance to experience some of the finer things in life, as these passengers aboard the 1932 Empress of Britain world cruise certainly did for this New Year’s Day feast. With a ten-course meal plus dessert, there was ample opportunity to ring in the New Year with a cornucopia of plentiful food.  

 

 

The Empress of Britain was the largest ship in the Canadian Pacific Steamship Co and considered the most luxurious. On Dec the 3rd 1931, she departed New York to begin her 128-day world cruise. During the Depression, this was a luxurious journey only very few could afford, with tickets starting at around $2000 USD per person at the lowest fare ($66,700 CAD in Jan 2025.) Posters and pamphlets advertised the “exotic locales” and opulent Jazz-Age interiors of the vessel, hoping to nab elite leisure visitors from the Anglo-American upper-crust. Servants like valets and maids could travel for lower rates, in cabins deeper in the ship. There were many shore excursions if you chose to leave “the floating palace.” On this voyage, the passengers spent ate their New Years dinner ashore on the banks of the Nile River near Cairo and the Pyramids, having spent Christmas in Mandatory Palestine.  

 

 

 

The menus of CP Empresses leaned strongly towards continental cuisine, especially French, with an emphasis on meat, seafood, and rich sauces. Between you and me, for this meal I’d skip the chicken in braised celery and clear sauce and go for the Tournedos Rossini (filet mignon pan fried in butter with a topping of pate, black truffle, and Madeira wine sauce.) On Pacific voyages, the Chinese chefs would prepare Chinese cuisine for the majority-Asian steerage passengers. 

 

 

Keep an eye out for new stories from the Chung and Lind Collections throughout 2025, and for new programming to come! 

 

Let us know if you would like more blogs about food and the Chung collection! 

 

Further Reading

Turner, Gordon. (1992). Empress of Britain

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The S.S. Tartar and the Tale of “Soapy” Smith

Posted on December 21, 2024 @9:57 am by Emily Witherow

This blog post is part of RBSC’s new series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

 

 

The SS Tartar, pictured above at a wharf in Vancouver, BC, was one of two steamships that the Canadian Pacific Railway purchased in 1897. They did so with the intention of capturing a portion of the Klondike Gold Rush traffic, as stampeders traveled northward from San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver to Alaskan ports in Skagway, Juneau, and Dyea. Although the Tartar and its companion, the SS Athenia, completed their weekly route from Vancouver to Skagway only six times before they were withdrawn from service in July 1898, the steamship became an unlikely figure in the saga of the American con man Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith. On July 12, 1898, the Tartar arrived in Skagway just in time to carry ten of Smith’s accomplices to Seattle, who were “hunted like wild beasts” and exiled by local citizens following Smith’s death a few days earlier.[i] 

 

re based on swindling travelers in Skagway, such as his famous “prize soap racket” where he would sell bars of soap which had the chance of containing money bills; of course, none did. As Smith’s cons redirected mining traffic away from Skagway, which became known for its crime and crooks, the local townspeople were outraged and formed a vigilante committee to restore law and order. On July 8, 1898, Smith exchanged shots with a member of the committee, City Engineer Frank Reid, with both men dying from their wounds. Reid’s funeral was the largest in Skagway history, with his gravestone inscribed with the words: “He gave his life for the honor of Skagway.”

 

More than a century later, Jefferson “Soapy” Smith lives on in through a myriad of biographies, a dedicated museum in Skagway, and an annual Soapy Smith Wake on July 8, though the SS Tartar has been relegated to the back pages of those stories. After 1898, CPR re-directed the ship to supplement the Empresses on the Pacific trade route.  

 

Both the Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection, and the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection, have materials touching on this episode of history. For more images, documents, and information about “Soapy” Smith and the CPR’s coastal steamships, plan your visit to the Chung Lind Gallery here! 

 

 

 

 

[i] “Skaguay’s First Shipment of the Unwelcome,” The Daily Alaskan, July 12, 1898, p.4, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2017218619/1898-07-12/ed-1/seq-4/; “Arch Desperado Dead,” The Daily Alaskan, July 11, 1898, p. 3. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress,  https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2017218619/1898-07-11/ed-1/seq-3/  

 

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Within the Gaps Exhibition

Posted on December 17, 2024 @9:24 am by Claire Malek

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Part 2: A Tale of Seattle’s Chinatown 

Posted on December 7, 2024 @12:00 pm by Andrew R. Sandfort-Marchese

 

This blog is a continuation of a series exploring a letter in the Wallace B. and Madeline H Chung Collection. You can find part one HERE. 

 

Thanks to Jeffrey Wong for assistance on translation, and to the staff at the National Archives and Records Administration, Seattle branch. 

THE MAN, THE LETTER

The story of the Shaunavon Crystal Bakery, introduced to me by a single letter found in the Chung Collection, offered an intimate lens into the lives of every-day Chinese Canadians: their resilience, and the vibrant networks of family and business they built across the Prairies and beyond. As we shift our focus from Saskatchewan to Seattle, we’ll explore how these transnational connections informed another story, beginning with Harry K. Mar Dong, the letter’s recipient. 

First off, what does the letter itself say? 

 

“To Younger Brother Gim Dong, 

Last time I received a letter from you about these matters, but I haven’t heard back from you about things and miss folks dearly. I am now writing to you to inquire if all was done properly regarding Oct 30th money transfer to Hong Kong so that [Mah] See Gey can pass over the $300 cash to [Mah] Gay Yun. I have yet to hear from See Gey that he has received this money and the last money I sent previously, so now I’m asking you now if you can inquire on both the money transfers to ensure they have received.

From Gim Sing.”

 

This letter is a somewhat everyday business affair that reflects some of the dynamic networks that connected the Chinese Canadian and American communities, namely those for sending money back to family in China. From our small town of Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, this author is writing to a broker, someone who is a trusted and maybe powerful member of the Mah clan who is facilitating the transfer of these hard earnings. That person is Harry K Mar Dong. 

 

 

According to historical records, Mar Dong was born in 1881 above a shop in San Francisco Chinatown, to a shopkeeper and his wife. When interviewed by US Immigration in 1923, he had sworn witnesses to attest to this fact, and even his mother’s death certificate, to establish he was a native-born US citizen. This all, however, was false. Mar Dong was a “paper son.” [1]

 

The term “paper sons” refers to Chinese immigrants who entered the United States and Canada by falsely claiming citizen status, domicile, merchant status, or descent from citizens using real or fake government documents. This practice grew widespread after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which destroyed city records, allowing many Chinese individuals, including Mar Dong, to claim U.S. citizenship. These claims often involved elaborate stories and forged documents, helping immigrants bypass restrictive laws like the US Chinese Exclusion Act and build new lives in America.  

 

 

According to Mar Dong’s son Al Mar, the real story is that his father arrived in the United States in the late 1800s with a brother, working in Montana, and then Seattle, where he witnessed the violent 1885-86 anti-Chinese riots.[2] By the 1920s, Mar became a powerful labor contractor managing mostly Chinese and some Filipino cannery crews. When US canneries moved towards employing more of the latter, his business declined. He did not lose his status though, for he soon became a transportation agent for the many transportation companies that Chinese immigrants relied on to travel in a world of Exclusion barriers.[3] Maybe these is the reason he bought papers to establish his US citizen status, which would improve his business and personal legal protections. 

 

You can learn more about the Chinese Diaspora’s role in the Pacific Northwest cannery industry and the importance of Chinese ticket agents at the Chung Lind Gallery. 

 

By 1924, Mar Dong was the official Chinese agent for the Admiral Oriental Line, a steamship line with offices across the globe, and was meeting their regular ship arrivals in Canada every month by taking coastal ferries like the CPR Princesses to Victoria and Vancouver. This required the swift navigation of both the US and Canada’s labyrinthine Exclusion regulations. However, with powerful friends in the shipping industry, this was possible. In fact, Mar Dong was issued a special permit and ID card to cross with their assistance. Emboldened, he even tried to get permission to cross on CPR ships without being manifested, a bold tactic that most of the poor, single Chinese workers could never dare to try, fearful of being deported or turned away on arrival.[4]

  

In 1926, Mar was implicated in an affair where a detained potential immigrant, Wong Yick, sought entrance to the US. Ticket agents were powerful brokers, often using bribes, false papers, and political influence to shape Chinese movement across borders, but also could exploit these migrants for profit. According to Al Mar, his father was deeply enmeshed in this trade of paper lives.[5] The incident above may or may not have involved shady dealing, but it definitely involved the strategic deployment of a box of feces.[6] 

 

The Hotel Mar

 

In 1927, one of Mar Dong’s most lasting legacies was completed: The Mar Hotel building, still standing at 507–511 Maynard Ave. S. in Seattle. It was at this address that our humble letter arrived in 1944. This building became the hub of Mar’s offices, his ticketing and money transfer business, as well as a bustling residential hotel. The Mar Café, yet another business of his, opened on November 10, 1927, with a public announcement in the Seattle Star proclaiming that it was not only “offering under Oriental atmosphere-the best food, best service-Chinese and American food, dancing and music” but that it was “The only original Chinese Cafe in America.”[7]

Big banquets of both the White and Chinese community were held there in the following years, with one notable occasion featuring the full live orchestra from the SS President Pierce.[8] It’s no coincidence that this steamship was part of the Dollar Steamship Co. and American Mail Lines fleet that Harry K. Mar Dong was now the Chinese agent for. Harry Mar Dong was also a founding executive of the Seattle branch of the powerful Hoy Sun Ning Yung Benevolent Association when it was formally incorporated in 1928.[9] The celebratory banquet, with delegates from across the North American Toisanese diaspora, was held at the Cafe Mar in the Mar Hotel.[10]

 

 

The Mar Hotel was often called the “Hong Kong Building” after the Mar Café transitioned into the popular Hong Kong Restaurant.[11] In the 1930s, the Mar Hotel hosted an infamous nightclub and dance hall called the Hong Kong Chinese Society Club, nicknamed the “Bucket of Blood.”[12] During the latter years of Prohibition, the club was raided, catching some of Seattle’s blue-blues red-handed at the craps table, sipping on bootleg whiskey (potentially smuggled from Canada) and in-house moonshine.[13] The blaring headlines did not stop the community of mostly Chinese men living in the tiny single rooms of the Mar Hotel, or even some famous Chinese visitors, from making use of this so-called “sordid structure” as a place to lay their head at night.[14] The Mar family continued to run the Hotel until 1941, when Al Mar sold it. Interviewed by the Seattle Times about his father in 1993, Al remembered his father as ““jolly; he was one of Chinatown’s most prominent members, but he wasn’t that Chinafied; a lot of his association was with the lo fan [white folks, lit. barbarians 佬番].” 

 

 

In the early 1950s, the Sakamoto family, survivors of internment at Minidoka and Tule Lake Camps, purchased the Mar Hotel. Daughter Janet Sakamoto provides the following description of residential hotel life: 

 

“Our family had the entire second floor of rooms where we lived right next to the lobby. We children didn’t go upstairs to the floors where the guests were staying. At the top of the stairs from the first to the second floor was the lobby with a check-in desk, mailboxes, and a switchboard system connected to the rooms. There was also a huge kitchen and a ballroom floor that was once part of a restaurant. It wasn’t used when we bought the hotel and hadn’t been for years. We rode our bicycles on the marble dance floor. Most of our residents were either white or African Americans who worked in the neighboring train stations or jazz clubs. Sarah Vaughn and Count Basie stayed at our hotel along with other Black entertainers who weren’t allowed to stay in the other downtown Seattle hotels.”[15]

 

Living legacies of objects, place and space.

 

The lives of those who inhabited hotels like the Hotel Mar often represent a historic cross section those most marginalized by urban society: poor Chinese bachelors, single working-class women, sex workers, transient LGBTQ+ folks, performers, homeless, addicted, widowed seniors on fixed pensions, and more. By 1971, the Mar Hotel closed, but the building continued to live on the street level. Seattle icon Ron Chew shares a memory from his time as a busboy with his head waiter father at the Hong Kong Restaurant downstairs:  

 

“The Chinese men had very Spartan lives… A lot of the kitchen help lived in the Mar Hotel upstairs or other hotels in the district. You learned things from paying attention to the men you worked with…you’d just know some things without their saying a word. Picture yourself…12 hours, non-stop with a few breaks for food…standing and running back and forth with trays that weighed 50 pounds. You could do it in your twenties and thirties, but forties, fifties, sixties, seventies…it wasn’t a way to live your life. Some of the waiters faded away because they couldn’t continue to handle the ten to fourteen hour days on their feet. Both waiters and busboys would be so tired at the end of the day…you’d open up the door and smell the air outside of the kitchen along with your own clothes that smelled of grease and subgum.”[16]

 

One of the main reasons inspiring me to write this series was to highlight how our encounters with daily objects, or even the spaces we inhabit and move through each day, can connect us back to a deeper history if we seek it. Behind each archival object is a real memory, a person with a family and story. In the case of the Chinese diaspora community, these are stories that have been too often ignored, erased, appropriated, or papered over. Working class stories are minimized or forgotten. Real work remains to reclaim the archive as a place of reconciliation and community story sharing.  

 

The same holds true for physical spaces, especially Chinatowns, which currently face displacement across North America. Returning to our narrative, the Hong Kong Restaurant in the Mar Hotel closed in mid to late 1980s, a period corresponding with many beginning to move away from Chinatowns to suburbs. Entrepreneur James Koh purchased the historic Mar, Milwaukee, and Alps residential Hotels in Chinatown in 2003. By 2008 the Mar reopened with offices for rent.[17]

 

I hope you have enjoyed this two-part series, please keep an eye out for continued blogs about the Wallace B. and Madeline H Chung Collections, as well as the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection on this webpage or HERE. 

 

 

Further Reading 

Groth, Paul. Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999 

Wong, Marie Rose. Building Tradition: Pan-Asian Seattle and Life in the Residential Hotels. First ed. Seattle, WA: Chin Music Press, 2018. 

Endnotes

[1] NARA Seattle, Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files series, Mar Dong, Box 566, Case File 7030/4626

[2] Links To History — Passengers And `Paper Sons’ In Chinatown, The Seattle Times, Sep 5 1993, Online Edition, https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19930905/1719427/links-to-history—-passengers-and-paper-sons-in-chinatown

[3] McKeown, Adam. Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders. 1st ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

[4] There are extensive correspondences on these dynamics or border crossing in Mar Dong’s Seattle Chinese Exclusion Act case file. Reference above.

[5] Links to History, Seattle Times, 1993

[6] Mar had to provide some excuses for this incident to immigration authorities and was banned from the building for a time. NARA Seattle, Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files Series, Mar Dong.

[7] Seattle Star Nov 10 1927 Pg.3

[8] Seattle Union Record Jan 11 1928 Pg.3

[9] 台山寧陽會館 the Native-place association for those from Taishan/Toisan county. Notably, both Mar Dong and our Mah men of Crystal Bakery in Shaunavon are Toisan men. Perhaps they came from the same village area?

[10] Seattle Star, Dec 8 1928 Pg.2

[11] Historic South Downtown Oral Histories: Marie Wong Discusses Her Research on Seattle’s SRO Hotels and the Men and Women Who Lived in Them, historylink.org. Essay 11135. Nov 2 2015. https://www.historylink.org/File/11135

[12] Wong, Marie Rose. Building Tradition: Pan-Asian Seattle and Life in the Residential Hotels. First ed. Seattle, WA: Chin Music Press, 2018. Pg.248

[13] Seattle Star, Feb 12 1931 Pg.1

[14] Famous General Fang Zhenwu 方振武  (Fang Chen/Cheng-Wu) stayed at the Mar Hotel while on his North America leg of a two year anti-Japanese imperialism tour in 1936 (Seattle Star, May 27 1936 Pg.2) . He later stopped in Victoria and Vancouver (see RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-TX-301-23). General Fang was assassinated by the KMT in 1941.

[15] Pg. 236, Building Tradition, Wong

[16] Pg.298, Building Tradition, Wong

[17] Pg.332, Building Tradition, Wong

 

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The Northland’s Greatest Disaster – The Sinking of the SS Princess Sophia

Posted on November 29, 2024 @10:13 am by Emily Witherow

By 1918, the world had all but forgotten the Klondike and smaller rushes had lured away Dawson City’s population, leaving small pockets of miners, merchants, tourists, and civil servants along the Yukon River. On October 23rd 1918, the Canadian Pacific Railway steamer SS Princess Sophia arrived in Skagway, Alaska, completing her regular three-day route between Vancouver-Skagway to bring a load of these Northerners ‘outside’ for winter. Her passenger list included Dawson City politicians and merchants, miners, employees of the Yukon Gold company, and their families. 

As the Princess Sophia departed several hours late, perhaps Captain Leonard P. Locke and First Officer Jerry Shaw were looking to make up for lost time. Either way, despite heavy snow and reduced visibility, the Sophia showed no signs of slowing when she entered the Lynn Canal, and at 2:10 am October 24th she ran aground on the rocky Vanderbilt Reef, more than a mile off course. Rescue ships were immediately dispatched to the canal, but as the Sophia wasn’t taking on water and high waves kept rescue ships from approaching, passengers remained onboard for a tense 40 hours, hoping for relief. As a blizzard raged and rescue vessels retreated to shelter on the night of October 25th, the ship began taking on water and radioed desperately for help, but to no avail – other ships captains could hardly see the Sophia, let alone navigate to her. When the US steamer Cedar approached the reef the next morning, all it saw of the Princess Sophia was 40 feet of foremast above the surface of the water. All 343 passengers had perished – 275 men, women, and children, and 68 CPR employees, including 11 Chinese workers, making it the worst maritime disaster in the history of the West Coast. 

Although residents of Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria reacted to the Sophia’s sinking with shock and horror, the news was quickly overshadowed by the spread of the Spanish flu and by the end of the First World War. In fact, as Vancouver celebrated Armistice Day on November 11, the SS Princess Alice steamed into Vancouver harbour, returning the bodies of Sophia’s passengers to their families for identification and burial. In the North, however, the tragedy created a gaping wound. In the “Northland’s Greatest Disaster,” an already-fading Dawson City lost almost a tenth of its population with every Klondiker knowing at least one person on the Sophia. Many were leading figures in the North’s community, business, industry, and government, including William J. O’Brien, a Territorial and city councilor who was travelling with his wife Sarah and their five children, William Scouse, a wealthy miner credited with taking the first bucket of gold out of Eldorado Creek, and John Zaccarelli, a local merchant.  

 

 

Although the 1918 Princess Sophia tragedy was washed away by news of the Spanish Flu and the long-awaited end of the Great War, its passengers continue to be mourned and commemorated, most recently by a traveling SS Princess Sophia exhibit in 2018 that visited the Maritime Museum of British Columbia and other museums across Alaska and the Yukon. 

For more information on the Yukon’s post-Klondike Gold Rush history and the CPR’s Princess steamers, please visit the Chung Lind Gallery. 

 

Further reading: 

“Submerged in Memory: The Sinking in Cultural Context.” Remembering the Princess Sophia: Titanic of the Pacific West Coast, WordPress, University of Victoria HIST 359. Accessed November 27, 2024. https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/ssprincesssophia/victoria-reacts/submerged-in-memory/. 

Coates, Ken and Bill Morrison. The Sinking of the Princess Sophia: Taking the North Down with Her. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990. 

Belyk, Robert C. Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001. 

BC Historical Newspapers – For more insight into newspaper reactions, check out the BC Historical Newspapers project, which contains digitized archives from The Province (1894-1910), The Times Colonist (1884-2010), and The Vancouver Sun (1912-2010), as well as this archive of The British Colonist (1858-1980). 

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Remembering Loo Gee Wing (1861-1923)

Posted on March 13, 2025 @9:39 am by Andrew R. Sandfort-Marchese

Loo Gee Wing: The Forgotten Tycoon Who Helped Shape Chinese Canadian History

This blog post is part of RBSC’s new series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

Part 1: Do you know this man?

Compared to famous early Chinese Canadians like Yip Sang 葉春田, Chang Toy 陳才, and Won Alexander Cumyow 溫金有, very few known the name of Loo Gee Wing 盧梓榮  (or 盧仰喬 Loo Yet Kue.), despite him being one of the richest and most prominent leaders of those early times. His portrait, in fact, hangs in Vancouver’s Chinese Benevolent Association alongside such well-known and respected company, as a “founding father” of Chinese Vancouver, and indeed Chinese Canadian history.

Loo was born around 1861-1863 to a yet unknown woman and Loo Chew Fan 盧超凡, one of two main partners in the massive Kwong Lee Company 廣利號. This firm was the largest corporate landowner in the colonial period after the Hudson Bay Company, and Chock Fan was one of the first four Chinese merchants in British Columbia. Just a few years before his birth, in the summer of 1858, his father’s Hop Kee Company 合記號 brought the first boat of Chinese gold miners to Fort Victoria from San Francisco, starting the first large wave of Chinese migration to British Columbia.[i] His mother, or one of his father’s wives, may have been the first Chinese women to enter what would eventually become Canada. [ii]

 

You can view the historic 1858 deed issued to Loo Chock Fan, perhaps the oldest record of a property owned by a Chinese person in all of Canada, in the Chung Lind Gallery.

 

Loo’s childhood is unclear; we don’t know if he grew up in China or spent his early years in North America. However, there is evidence that he was in San Francisco managing the massive Hop Kee Co headquartered at 617 Dupont St, in his father’s absence in Victoria until at least 1885.[iii] At that time, Hop Kee was one of the largest Chinese companies in North America.[iv] In 1887 he bought out the smaller, but still titanic, Kwong Lee firm from bankruptcy due to family and business disputes. He then relocated to Victoria to manage the large operations, traveling frequently between both key Chinese ports of North America. Kwong Lee Co supplied dry goods and labour for operations up the Fraser Canyon to Yale, Quesnel, and then beyond to Barkerville, netting a fortune in the early years of settlement and mining.[v]

 

According to Head Tax payment data, many Loo 盧 surnamed people in Canada had origins in the counties of Jang Shing 增城, Hoksan 鶴山, Namhoi 南海, and Shundak 順德 in Guangdong/Canton province.[vi] These were places that didn’t send tons of men to Canada, so they formed a very small group compared to people from the Szeyup, or Four Counties 四邑, that formed the majority.[vii] More men may have come from the smaller sending-areas during the 1850-1885 gold rush period, but are unrecorded. Victoria seems to be the hub for this clan surname, as well as eventual farming operations in the Okanagan run by Jang Shing countrymen, including famous hockey player Larry Kwong’s father.

By the 1890s Loo was firmly part of the merchant elite of Victoria, forming a business and political alliance with Lee Mongkow 李夢九 (translator, comprador, and CPR ticket agent), Chu Lai 徐全禮 (Hakka merchant supplier) and others from non-Sze Yup origins. In 1892 — alongside these merchant brokers and others from the business community — Loo offered a $300 dollar reward to find out who had forged the names of his faction members on a notice posted on a public bulletin board, hiring someone to kill prominent translator Yip Wing and another man. This shows that tensions were brewing between factions based on place of origin that would later continue to grow even larger.[viii] The community presented a united face, when “the Chinese Bismarck” Li Hung Chang visited Vancouver, with Loo attending alongside Chinese big-wigs from across the Pacific Northwest.[ix]

Part 2: Building an Empire

Loo Gee Wing naturalized as a British subject in 1895, and one of his wives Jsong Mong Lin did so in 1899. She signed her documents in English and had been in Canada for at least ten years. She formed a part of the Kwong Lee business empire in BC, signing partnership documents in her own right, including in 1897 for the formation of a dry goods and general store branch in Barkerville called Kwong Lee Wing Kee 廣利榮記.[x] The building for this store still stands in the large National Historic site. Hydraulic gold mining in the Cariboo region for the Loo family firm also operated under the Kwong Lee Wing Kee Company name. Kwong Lee had business with numerous copper and gold mines across the province throughout its existence. In addition, the Point Hydraulic Gold Mining Co. which was active in the Slough Creek claims near Barkerville, was also managed for a time by Loo’s son Leon J Loo 盧宗亮.[xi]

 

There are many items relating to Kwong Lee Company activities in many collections through UBC Rare Books and Special Collections. We display some documents and artifacts at the Chung Lind Gallery.

 

In 1897, Loo Gee Wing submitted an application to the privy council through the Minister of Trade and Commerce requesting that when he sent his children to China for education, upon their return to Canada they would not pay the head tax. He listed his children as follows: Loo Chung Sheung and Loo Chung Leung, twins both of age 11; Loo Yuo Bet, age 9; Loo Chung Key, age 6; Loo Part Wo, age 2; and Loo Gem/Gein Mon, age 1. All children recorded as Canadian-born. The Minister requested the Privy Council approve the request and “that assurances be given to Loo Gee Wing that on return of the children to Canada the amount of the Capitulation Tax [Head Tax] payable under the existing law will be remitted [re-payed] on proper application and evidence of identity.”[xii] This shows Loo already was a known quantity to the federal government, powerful enough to get this direct line to the top, and wealthy enough to pay up front for so many head tax costs.

 

Not just accumulating wealth and power in Canada, Loo Gee Wing accompanied the famous late-Qing reformer Kang Youwei 康有爲 to the east as his translator in 1899. At that time he was a director of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Victoria, and still managing Kwong Lee and Co.[xiii] The Chinese Empire Reform Association (CERA) was one of the first mass political parties in Chinese history, and deeply connected to the elite merchants of Western Canada. Loo and the Kang party were the talk of the town in Montreal that May, with many remarks on Loo’s fine silk attire, perfect English, and impeccable Victorian manners.[xiv] Loo eventually became disillusioned with the Empire Reform movement by later that Summer, when Kang failed to get support in Europe. At that point he left the organization, returning to Victoria to try to get Lee Mongkow to distance the Victoria merchants from Kang’s plans but was shunned by powerful Reform partisans. Eventually unknown enemies tried to assassinate him multiple times.[xv]

 

In the early 1900s, Loo invested in three things that brought even more money to many of BC’s Chinese merchant dynasties: Vancouver real estate, labour contracting, gambling operations, and opium.[xvi] Each of them had him involved in legal cases both inside and outside the Chinese community, including bribing police and attempted murder. In this period, Loo seems to relocate the center of his operations to Vancouver, where the Chinese community was growing on the land between the Burrard Inlet and False Creek; future Chinatown. He built a Chinese opera theatre and patronized troupes as an important contributor to the rise of early Cantonese opera in Canada.[xvii]

 

Loo remained active in fights between those with Szeyup origins and his minority community. This evidenced by a letter in our collection from 1903 about his “bullying and threats” sent to powerful Vancouver Szeyup merchant Yip Sang, asking for his support in the struggle.[xviii] Around the same time, the Loo residence on Fisgard St. caught fire in a case of arson, shortly after an attempt to blow it up had failed.[xix] Leon Loo, one of his elder sons, courageously broke through the wooden walls at great risk to his own life to save his mother, brother, and cousin from the flames.[xx]

 

Apparently not fazed, Loo backed an attempt led by non-Szeyup merchants to break the hold of the Yip clan over the corrupt Vancouver Chinese immigration machine. The Yips were CPR ticket agents, translators, and connected to Vancouver’s white elite, and had the ability to prevent entry of Chinese who were not their clients. Using accusations of fraud lobbed by rakish instigator and fixer David C. Lew 廖鴻翔, their enemies tried to unseat their control of the growing city and Chinatown.[xxi] Not incidentally, Lew was a manager for Loo Gee Wing and in his own words considered him “like a father…he raised me” and was close to Loo’s son Claude Loo Chung Key.[xxii]

 

These internal fights over control of illegal immigration and “middleman” positions like broker and translator exploded onto the national political stage in 1911, heightening anti-Chinese sentiment still simmering from the 1907 Vancouver riots.[xxiii] Loo Gee Wing testified before the commission alongside Chang Toy with the English Press reporting:

 

“This morning the two wealthiest celestials in British Columbia appeared, Loo Gee Wing and Sam Kee, their combined wealth exceeding a million dollars…The remarkable difference between Loo and Sam, the former dressed like a tailor’s model in the suit of a prosperous Englishman down to his patent leathers, while Sam still retains his Chinese costume and speaks only in his native tongue.”[xxiv]

 

Loo Gee Wing built some of his most lasting and famous buildings during this time. They include: the Sun Ah Hotel Building, famous for the Ho Ho Restaurant, in 1911, the Chinese Theatre, presently home of Dragon Boat BC offices, in 1909, the first two stories of the Wong Benevolent Association Building in 1908, and the Loo Building, present-day Abbott Mansions, in 1909. The latter construction led to many courtroom battles, with Loo trying to construct this massive edifice in spite of permit restrictions by short charging or avoiding his suppliers and builders. This eventually culminated in an appeals court case.[xxv] For these and other buildings, Loo seems to have had the mentality to dare the city and contractors to come for him, preparing a strong and well-funded legal team to fight back. This pattern of shady behavior ran in the family apparently, with Yorkshire Guarantees and Securities Co. suing Loo Gee Wing’s son Claude Loo for issuing a bounced cheque for $2574 in 1915.[xxvi] Loo would assign leases and property ownership to relatives to avoid debtors, though practices like this appear in records of other prominent Vancouver and Victoria merchant families.

Part 3: The End of an Era

This powerful family who could easily sweep away legal obstacles would not last. Loo Gee Wing’s capable son Leon J. Loo died unexpectedly in 1918, a personal loss that stripped him of one of his chosen successors.[xxvii] Loo himself then died in 1923, leaving an estate valued at $245,000 dollars (4.3 million in 2024). In a twisted reflection of what Loo himself had done in picking up the Kwong Lee Co in the aftermath of a family feud, his own vast family now fought over their inheritance. His estate had 17 named beneficiaries, but only two sons, Loo Chung Sheung 盧宗向 and Claude Loo Chung Key remained in Canada. To their horror, the vast fortune evaporated when the will was probated (submitted before the court). This was due to huge mortgages on the many buildings Loo had constructed, debtors calling from all across BC and the Pacific, outstanding tax debts, judicial payment orders, and even much of his property being seized by the federal government.[xxviii] The net valuation as a result fell to just $28,274, with one sixth set aside for his wife alone, with an additional $300 dollars for her maintenance.

 

Claude Loo, the perennial family troublemaker, then contested the will in court, alleging his father was not of sound mind and that he had forgotten to include the Barkerville gold mines and his bank account in his assets.[xxix] Claude also claimed that at the end he was disoriented, unable to clothe himself, ordered 12 meals a day, and was “indulging in vulgar and foolish talk with his servants.” As the family fought, Loo Gee Wing’s body lay embalmed in the Nunn & Thompson Funeral Parlor awaiting transport back to China. This writer does not know if Loo Gee Wing ever made it back home, but his body sat there for over four years at least.[xxx] In the meantime, Loo’s fixer, the fiery courtroom battler David Lew, was gunned down in September 1924 in what is still one of Vancouver’s longest cold cases. Claude Loo soon lost his fight for the will, and seemingly left Canada permanently in 1926 with only his father’s funeral home and estate lawyer as contacts in immigration documents.

Despite this sad end, Loo Gee Wing’s legacy does live on. He was a founding director of the Vancouver Chinese Benevolent Association and a builder whose business empire shaped our image of Vancouver Chinatown today. His businesses and family left traces in archives across the province, including the UBC Chung Collection and the Barkerville Historical Society. As an early “pioneer” he was close to the center of all Chinese Canadian historical moments from the mid-1800s till the beginning of the Exclusion era. While some of his family seemingly did return to Canada during that period, they never reclaimed the prominence they formerly had.[xxxi] By the 1920s and 30s the monopolies of the early merchant dynasties like the Yips, Loos, Lee Kee, and Chang Toy families were losing centrality. In their place rose a new generation of Chinatown businessmen, local-born brokers, and western-educated elites

Edited March 13 2025: Thank you for Gordon Fulton for providing more information on Loo Gee Wing’s parentage and family.

Endnotes

[i] Zhongping, Chen. “Vancouver Island and the Chinese Diaspora in the Transpacific World, 1788-1918.” BC Studies no. 204 (2019): 45-65.

[ii] The British Colonist, March 1 1860 Accessed 20/11/2024 https://www.mhso.ca/chinesecanadianwomen/en/database.php?c=1512

[iii] Victoria, B.C. 12 Mar 1885 3c Insurance Cover to Loo Gee Wing https://allnationsstampandcoin.com/victoria-b-c-12-mar-1885-3c-insurance-cover-to-loo-gee-wing-sfr/

[iv] San Francisco Chronicle, Aug 26 1883 Pg.8

[v] Tzu-I Chung, “Kwong Lee & Company and Early Trans-Pacific Trade: From Canton, Hong Kong, to Victoria and Barkerville,” B.C. Studies, 185 (Spring 2015), 137-161.

[vi] This was based off the author’s original research and assessment of head tax databases. Many Loo clan members also came from a scattering of villages in Northern Chungsan (formerly Heungsan) County to the BC Lower Mainland.

[vii] Loo Gee Wing made a large donation in establishing a benevolent society for those with Zengcheng/Jang Shing origins 增邑仁安堂公. This was done in partnership perhaps with Loo Nai Tong 盧乃堂 of Chee Jone Wo Co 致中和 of 67 E Pender or Yen Nam Tong 87 E Pender St)

[viii] Victoria Daily Colonist, Tues Nov 8 1892

[ix] Vancouver Semi-Weekly World, Sept 15 1896 Pg 5

[x] Atkin, John. Coupland, Andrew “Loo Gee Wing” buildingvancouver, blog, accessed 20/11/2024, https://buildingvancouver.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/loo-gee-wing/

[xi] Quesnel Cariboo Observer, May 5 1917, Pg. A1

[xii] Privy Council Minutes. 7 Jan-12 Jan 1897. Library and Archives Canada. RG 2, Series 1, Vol. 715. http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=ordincou&id=163519&lang=eng

[xiii] Chen, Zhongping 2023. Transpacific Reform and Revolution: The Chinese in North America, 1898-1918. 1st ed. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press Pg.31

[xiv] Montreal Star, May 13 1899 Pg.11

[xv] Chen, Transpacific Reform Pg. 34

[xvi] Loo Was head of the operations of the Man On Company, 330 Carrall St, which traded labour contracts and opium. Documents relating to this viewed by author in private papers of the Ian Lee family, accessed July 11 2022.

[xvii] Ng, Wing Chung. The Rise of Cantonese Opera. 1st ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pg. 155-157

[xviii] Letter to Yip Chun Tien complaining somebody’s evil behavior, 1903, Yip Sang Collection. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0113998. UBC Open Collections.

Original Format: City of Vancouver Archives. Yip family and Yip Sang Ltd. fonds. Correspondence. Older letters in Chinese. AM1108-S2-3-083.

[xix] Victoria Daily Times Apr 25 1907 pg.1

[xx] Daily News Advertiser April 26 1907 Pg.1.

[xxi]Mar, Lisa. Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada’s Exclusion Era, 1885-1945. 1st ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Pg. 22

[xxii] 1911 Immigration Commission: Vol 2, Chung Collection, Box 130 folder 18, Pg.839. Pg.968

[xxiii] David Lew interpreted the 1907 Riot commission before W.L.M King. In the aftermath of the 1908 Opium Act which King wrote after the riots, Loo also lost access to the vast revenues of legal opium factories in Victoria and Vancouver, which numbered about 15 at their height. David Lew then led the 1911 immigration corruption debate.

[xxiv] The Province Jan 04 1908 Pg.4

[xxv] Loo Gee Wing v. A.F. Amor (1909), 10 W.L.R. 383 (B.C. Co. Ct.)

[xxvi] Sept 30 1915, Vancouver Daily World, pg 12

[xxvii] Leon J Loo Chung Leung 盧宗亮 was born in Victoria in 1885 with twin brother Chung Sheung, and an active manager in Loo Gee Wing’s businesses. He was recorded as entering the country March 2 1902 in the Head-Tax General Register (probably after studying abroad). He travelled to HK October 1916, using a head-tax certificate even though he was native-born (CI.5 #33702, Vic. NB CI 9#219) He was issued a replacement head tax certificate with photo when he returned March 5 1917 (CI 36#12404). Leon Loo died young at age 33 on Oct 3 1918. Grave at Mountainview has nothing but English name, Chinese name, and death date. Interestingly, someone registered under his identity for a Native-born CI 9 to go to China in Oct 1923 (Vic. NB CI9#828). Under instructions from the Chief Controller of Chinese, Nov 12 1930, this CI 9 permission was removed, i.e. canceled, preventing return. This indicates that it was fraudulent and had been caught.

[xxviii] The Province Aug 4 1923 Pg.21

[xxix] The Province, Sept 26 1923 pg.11

[xxx] The Province May 30 1926 Pg.30

[xxxi] Loo Chung/Jung Yat 盧宗日. CI 44#57901, born in Vancouver Oct 18 1918, left as a child age 4 to China, returned July 17 1935 under status of student to Vancouver. In 1946 he was 27 years old and living in North Vancouver working as a merchant in the food industry. That year he married Chu Shut Far, daughter of Victoria merchant Chu Kum Wah.

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26 Above Bonanza

Posted on November 20, 2024 @11:13 am by Emily Witherow

This blog post is part of RBSC’s new series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

When Phil Lind’s grandfather, John (Johnny) Grieve Lind, arrived in what was then part of the Northwest Territories in June 1894, he first traveled to a mining town on Fortymile River. Following the discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek in August 1896, Johnny and several business partners purchased interests in a dozen mining claims in the Klondike – including one of his most famous and wealthy claims, 26 Above Bonanza, pictured below.[1] 

With his partners, Johnny bought half of 26 Above in January 1897 for $12,000 cash (around $360,000 today). To prepare it for mining, they purchased lumber, provisions, nails, and tools at high prices and built sluice boxes, flumes, dams, a food tent, and a cabin. By spring 1897, they employed 200 men working two shifts per day. Their payroll alone cost their business $4,000 a day, and Johnny recalls that the returns were “at times enormous and at other times hardly anything.”[2] Sometimes, however, the pay dirt was fabulously rich – in a single day, 26 Above once yielded over $50,000 in gold dust and nuggets. For every dollar Johnny and his partners made, they re-invested it into other claims, until they grew to be large operators; in February 1898, they purchased the other half of 26 Above for $200,000. 

 

In July 1897, when Dawson’s nouveau riche arrived in Seattle and San Francisco carrying half a million in Klondike gold and setting off a mad stampede north, they also carried some of the gold mined from 26 Above Bonanza. Johnny, who cashed out of the Klondike in 1902 and established a cement company in St. Mary’s, Ontario, with his mining partners, was always proud of his role in helping to ignite the famous Klondike Gold Rush (1897-1898). 

 

This image is currently on display at the Chung Lind Gallery. For more information or to plan your visit, please visit the Chung Lind Gallery website. 

  

[1] Mining claims were staked in relation to the first claim, or Discovery claim, on each creek. As Johnny wrote in his family memoir; “Discovery did not have a number, but was always know[n] as discovery. The first claim downstream was No. 1 below, next No. 2 and so [on], as far as they were staked.” John Grieve Lind, 40 Mile River and the Klondike [Unpublished Memoir] (1983), 24. 

[2] Lind, 40 Mile River and the Klondike, 25.

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The Wide World of Queer Travel

Posted on November 13, 2024 @8:42 am by cshriver

Many thanks to guest blogger Quinn Monleon for contributing the below post! Quinn is a graduate student at the UBC School of Information and completed a co-op position with Rare Books and Special Collections at UBC Library this past summer.

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As Project Librarian at RBSC during a summer co-op from May to August 2024, I undertook the task of organizing and processing a significant donation from Rick Hurlbut, a former travel agent operating in Vancouver and specializing in LGBTQ+ travel and tourism from the early 1990s to the late 2010s. The donation consisted of 15 loosely organized bankers boxes which contained an assortment of over 3,500 LGBTQ+ travel and tourism-related items including ephemera, artifacts, business correspondence and other records, monographs, serials, and audiovisual resources from the 1970s to the late 2010s.

The Rick Hurlbut LGBTQ+ travel, tourism and hospitality collection offers a unique window into the private circles of LGBTQ+ tourists and travelers and the ways in which they connected with one another before the internet was widely used. At first, I had little knowledge of this specialized travel industry, but the more I examined each item in this collection, I discovered the remarkable level of detail and specificity that characterized this industry. Also, based on the sheer volume of materials collected on locations such as Palm Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Key West, and Puerto Vallarta, it became clear that these were “queer destinations,” at least historically.

I wanted to share some of the materials in the collection that stood out as highlights; these are only a few of the types of materials found in this very diverse collection.

 

The Rick Hurlbut LGBTQ+ travel, tourism, and hospitality collection showcases the diversity of materials available for research at Rare Books and Special Collections, and adds an important collection for research into the material history of 20th century LGBTQ+ travel.

To access the collection, contact RBSC about making a research visit. You can also learn about other resources related to 2SLGBTQIA+ community and organizations through our 2SLGBTQIA+ History and Archives research guide.

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