City belatedly recognizes Chinese veterans, workers

Scale model of the memorial, which features the figures of a Chinese soldier and a railway worker, currently being cast in China.

Photo by Dan Toulgoet

Chinatown activist and veteran Roy Mah has spent many of his 85 years rallying for the rights of fellow Chinese-Canadians.

The former newspaperman's fight is ironic, considering he was born in Edmonton. Despite his Canadian birth, Mah's Chinese heritage meant being treated like a "second-class citizen" for the first half of the last century: having to sit in Chinese-only sections in movie theatres and swim in segregated areas in swimming pools.

"We were a social pariah outside Chinatown," said Mah, who lives in Yaletown.

The government's hatred of the Chinese is described in a 1902 Royal Commission report on Chinese and Japanese immigration, which concluded that Asians "were unfit for full citizenship... obnoxious to a free community and dangerous to the state." Now, in 2003, Mah is pleased to learn the city has agreed to recognize the contributions of Chinese-Canadian war veterans and railway workers in a monument now under construction at the corner of Keefer and Columbia streets.

"It's a very appropriate gesture, considering the sacrifices," said Mah, who served in the Canadian army from 1943 to 1946.

Expected to be completed by Remembrance Day, the monument will contain at its centre a 20-foot high concrete column topped by an upright horseshoe-shaped design.

Six-foot bronze castings of a soldier holding a rifle will be built on one side of the column and a railway worker with a shovel on the other side. A maple leaf relief on the monument's base will divide the two sculptures.

Sculptor Arthur Cheng, originally from China and now living in Surrey, is currently in China to cast the soldier and railway worker figures. The castings will be sent to Vancouver by boat in about three weeks.

In July 2001, the then-city council approved $120,000 for the construction of a monument at Chinatown Memorial Square, across the street from the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and Garden.

Kelly Ip, vice-chair of the monument committee, said the cost is closer to $160,000, so the Chinese community is currently attempting to raise another $40,000.

"It's very important to remind the younger generations of the contribution of the Chinese, the pioneers and what they have done for Canada," said Ip, noting the project is part of the continuing revitalization of Chinatown.

Chinese immigrants first arrived in Canada in 1858 from San Francisco at the start of the Fraser River gold rush. Between 1881 and 1885, some 15,700 labourers came from China to build the western section of the Canadian Pacific Railway's cross-country line.

Hazardous working conditions and severe winters contributed a high death toll. When the railway was completed, some workers returned to China while others settled in Barkerville, Cumberland, Victoria and Vancouver.

Mah's decision to serve overseas during World War II, he recalls, came after a boisterous meeting at a church in Chinatown, attended by about 100 men. With the government against them, along with several anti-Chinese leagues, Mah said the only way to show loyalty to Canada was by going to war.

But unlike many of his fellow Chinese, Mah didn't see any combat. Trained as a demolition man in India, he was on the verge of going into battle when the atomic bomb was dropped in Japan, ending the war.

"In a time of need, we proved our loyalty. And we knew when we came back [from the war], the government would be morally and legally obligated to recognize us as citizens of Canada."

In 1947, the government did exactly that, repealing the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, which was implemented to stop Chinese from coming to Canada.

The decision meant all Chinese were given the right to vote.

When Mah returned from the war, he started The New Citizen newspaper in Chinatown to continue to fight for civil rights. The paper lasted about four years before Mah closed it down and started the Chinatown News, an English news magazine that reflected the importance of Chinese-Canadians in B.C.

It's now defunct, but Mah continues to spend his days reading newspapers at the Vancouver public library, honing his knowledge of current events.

"I like to know what's going on."