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Chinatown

Chinatown was originally the only place in Vancouver that white settlers allowed people of Asian descent to reside. It is the largest historical Chinatown in Canada and is located in the Downtown Eastside area of the city.

Useful Websites

Useful Website Description

Group that organizes to protect Chinatown through meetings, discussions and action.

Useful Website Description

Website for Chinese History art exhibition located throughout Chinatown.

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News and features about Vancouver's Chinatown.

Useful Website Description

A community strategy for social and economic development by Chinatown Action Group and Chinatown Concern Group.

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This study includes information on five heritage buildings that are owned by societies/associations in Chinatown.

Useful Website Description

Collection of stories that describe Vancouver's Chinatown as experienced by longtime Chinatown residents. Recorded audio interviews are paired with images to tell a visual story in the form of short videos, some in English and some in Cantonese with subtitles.

Useful Website Description

Artist-facilitated community digital storytelling workshops focused on the space and the subaltern histories of Vancouver’s Chinatown.

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A self-guided walking tour of Chinatown in Vancouver.

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Guide from Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Area Society (VCBIA).

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A list of fiction titles set in Vancouver's Chinatown.

Digital Library Resources

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British Columbia city directories from 1860 to 1955. Directories include detailed historical information about British Columbian communities.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
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Newspapers and Magazines Subject Icon

Digitized newspaper archives covering The Province (1898 - present), The Vancouver Sun (1912 - present) and The Times Colonist (1884 - present).

Issues from most recent 3 months not available in this collection. See Canadian Newsstream for current issues.

Access:
Everywhere for Vancouver residents
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Newspapers and Magazines Subject Icon

Search and view community newspapers from around BC published between 1865 and 1994. This collection makes many of BC's earliest newspapers freely available in digital format

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
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Finding tool for historical information about BC in books, magazines and newspapers in the Vancouver Public Library collection.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
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A selection of historical images of Vancouver and British Columbia from the 1880s to the 1980s.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
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The Vancouver Public Library created This Vancouver to share the stories of Vancouverites and the history of Vancouver communities through images, audio clips, and videos. 

Access:
Everywhere for everyone

Recommended Titles

William Lyon Mackenzie King and Canada (Department of Labour)
Call Number
323.1711 C21re
Publication Year
1908
Report by the Deputy Minister of Labour of the Canadian government, and future prime minister, on the anti-Asian riots in Vancouver in 1907.
Cover Image for Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood
Wayson Choy
Call Number
c823 C5521WC5p
Publication Year
1999
Award-winning Vancouver author investigates his past and tells the story of his Chinatown childhood in the 1940s.

Northwest History Index

This card index in Special Collection provides access to the Northwest History Collection, a heritage collection covering the early history and exploration of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

The collection includes:

  • magazine and newspaper articles
  • pamphlets
  • books
  • chapters in books
  • many other resources

As of August 1998, no new material has been added to the Northwest History Index. It is continued by the British Columbia Index.