Community group hopes to revitalize Saskatoon's historic Chinatown
CBC
A grassroots project in Saskatoon is looking to shine a light on the city's forgotten Chinatown history through art and stories from its past and present.
The initiative, called Project Riversdale Chinatown, wants to revitalize the area with a combination of public art installations, community programming and archival preservation.
Saskatoon's original Chinatown dated back to the early 20th century, when the area currently known as River Landing was populated by many Chinese immigrants and various businesses.
In 1930, the city decided to make way for a technical collegiate and relocated many of the businesses to the Riversdale area, scattering them on and around 20th Street and Avenue C.
"Unfortunately nowadays there isn't much Chinese business there [in Riversdale]," said project-lead and urban planner Hermes Chung.
"We're trying to reconnect with this part of history and to reimagine Riversdale as an area of the town that is very central, but also having this connection with the history."
Chung moved from Hong Kong to Saskatoon when he was in high school.
"I was still in high school, Grade 10, and I heard there used to be a Chinatown and I was like, 'Oh, why is it not here anymore?'"
Saskatoon's first Chinese community started to form in 1904 with the opening of the B.C. Restaurant on 20th street, according to Saskatoon archivist Jeff O'Brien.
He said Canada's immigration policy at the time worked to keep Chinese numbers very limited, with the majority being men. In a 1911 consensus, there were 250 men to one woman.
The first mention of "Chinatown" appeared in a 1909 newspaper, but O'Brien contends it wasn't until later there was a physical entity resembling a Chinatown.
"[In] 1911 you get your first Chinese entry in city directories," said O'Brien. "On 19th Street was a grocery store, and by 1912, there's three of them there and then by 1917, you could legitimately say that Saskatoon had a Chinatown."
In 1919 there were around 40 Chinese owned businesses in the city. Chinatown was comprised of restaurants, grocery stores, boarding houses and the offices of the Chinese Nationalist League.
When the city decided to find a place for the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate in early 1930, there were around four potential sites, but O'Brien said from the beginning the Saskatoon's downtown business community was very much in favour of the area where the Chinatown was located.
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