Shanghai Alley, 1903

Vancouver’s original Chinatown was located near east Pender Street, but when the Great Northern Railway set up shop in 1905, the now displaced businesses and peoples relocated to Canton and Shanghai Alleys. This ‘New Chinatown’ included an opium factory, Sing Kew Theatre, sundry shops, the Chinese Empire Reform Association, Chinese Empire Reform Association — group based in Victoria B.C., focused on returning Guangxu to power after the Empress Dowager Cixi’s coup of the government in mainland China. and tenements that mainly housed Chinese workers and prostitutes. The influx of sex trade workers eventually gave leaseholders the idea to increase rent, forcing many Chinese residents and businesses to move out of Shanghai Alley.

An anti-sex trade campaign in 1907 forced prostitutes to relocate from Shanghai Alley, and a Chinese-only policy was instituted in the area. Shanghai Alley, along with Canton Alley, were also targets of the 1907 riots, and an iron gate was installed at the entrance of the latter to protect it from similar attacks in the future.

Fig. 4. Excerpt from newspaper article denoting VPD’s intention to ‘clean up Chinatown’, i.e. herd the Chinese community into a single pen, Daily World, 1907.

Fig. 5. Excerpt from newspaper article denoting VPD’s intention to ‘clean up Chinatown’, i.e. herd the Chinese community into a single pen, Daily World, 1907.


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King Harald hops between the waves, the master of the packet slaves.