This follows the post immediately below. Those who haven't read it may want to start there. Continuity.
"If the Laurier government wished to act in accordance with the views of almost the entire population of British Columbia, it will prohibit absolutely the immigration of Chinese and arrange to kill off - if any legal way can be divined to accomplish that act - every mother's son of the almond-eyed pigtail wearer, living at present in any country inhabited by white men. He is a filthy, immoral piece of human machinery - not a man in the sense in which the word is used by civilized peoples. He lives like a dog, contributes nothing towards the up-building of the country and poisons every community in which he locates himself."
Editorial: The Chinese Question
Nelson Weekly Miner, Feb. 1902
This colonial attitude - probably the most virulent ever against Chinese in BC - exemplifies the Upper Hill attitude here/then (in watered-down versions for at least two generations to come), while local Chinese continue to work - we need them goddammit with half the pay for twice the work the only good thing about them! - as briefly described on the Commemorative Chinatown Rock, at Vernon/Hall since 2011.
Their continuing contribution (here) - despite the often horrendous treatment they suffer (here) - is precisely what leads to the government's Apology for Historical Wrongs Against Chinese-Canadians of 2014. Which - in turn - leads to "Historic places with provincial significance ... formally recognized under Section 18 of the Heritage Conservation Act." Within that the significance of Nelson's Chinatown-as-a-whole is formally acknowledged as having promoted "... heritage values ... that demonstrate the contribution of Chinese-Canadians to the development of British Columbia."
The terms "historic" and "heritage values" are of importance particularly here, what with Nelson's history not recorded in depth - warts-and-all - thus not taught systematically in our schools and "heritage" at City Hall still a strictly white-on-white-in-white concept: in Benjamin Moore's imaginary Heritage Palette.
The original newspaper clipping from the Nelson Weekly Miner is archived at Touchstones Nelson - Museum of Art and History, Shawn Lamb Archive.
As is a Kootenay Co-op Radio (KCR) program:
"The Chinese-Canadian Community of Nelson-As-Was
and
How Did It Get Here?"
From the 5 Counties in Guangdong (1793) - Fort Victoria and Nanaimo's coal-mines - the CPR - mining in the Kootenays - to Nelson's Lower Hill Chinatown in the CPR Flats by force, this program is presented from a Chinese-Canadian perspective.
There are 16 Chapters, 30 min each. These 16 archived CDs are available to the public at Touchstones, as they are from the Rossland Historical Museum and the Selkirk College/Castlegar reference library.
Programs will also be available again as podcasts, once KCR completes its change-over to a new internet-server.
"If you do not change direction - you may end-up where you are heading."
Laozi
Pond Series
Zhou Hao
Nelson City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca
Mayor Deb Kozak
dkozak@nelson.ca
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