Chinese Legacies
Opening August 15th and 16th
   

Lunar New Year began this year on February 7th, ushering in the Year of the Rat. In years gone by, there was a large Chinese community in Revelstoke, and it often celebrated the New Year in grand style. The Kootenay Star newspaper of February 10, 1894 described that year’s celebrations in Revelstoke as the most elaborate ever, stating that they started at midnight on Sunday and continued until Tuesday night. Firecrackers were the main feature of the festivities, with colored rockets and dragons exploding in the night. That year, the Chinese community spent $800 on the celebrations, with the small firecracker rockets costing 15 cents each, while the big firework dragons cost $15 each. On the Tuesday afternoon, merchant Wah Chung unfurled a large Chinese flag at his store on Front Street, and three large sleighs decorated with flags drove members of the Chinese community to the railway station and back again, with firecrackers being set off all along the route. The festivities ended with suppers at Wah Chung’s and Lun Ching’s stores, with presents given to all white visitors.

In this Year of the Rat, the Revelstoke Museum and Archives and the Revelstoke Railway Museum are opening two major exhibits, to be unveiled during Railway Days, August 15th and 16th. The “Chinese Legacies” exhibits will explore both the contribution of Chinese laborers during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway at the Railway Museum, and the subsequent Chinese community that developed in Revelstoke at the Museum & Archives.

We have been uncovering some fascinating stories and we look forward to sharing them through these exhibits. Several thousand Chinese men worked on the CPR mainline from Port Moody to Craigellachie, and it is estimated that between 600 and 2,220 of these workers died as a result of accidents, disease, and starvation. The Inland Sentinel newspaper, originally published at Yale, has many articles about the Chinese laborers, and while many people believed that their presence was necessary to construct the railway, they were greatly resented by the white population, and suffered a great deal of discrimination. Their wages were half those of white men doing the same jobs, and they were often exploited by their crew bosses.

             

Once the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, many of the Chinese laborers were left destitute. Quite a few of them settled in Revelstoke, where they worked mainly as cooks, servants, laundrymen, and laborers. In 1901, there were 113 Chinese people living in Revelstoke, close to one-tenth of the population. It is interesting to note that of those 113 people; only one was a woman, although half of the men were married. This was a result of the head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants, making it very costly for men to bring their wives to Canada. The community was a vibrant one, however, and continued to thrive for many years.