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Heritage and Har Gao for Canada's Birthday Week

It's Canada's birthday week and one of our favourite things about Canada is the mixture of diverse cultures that built this country and that continues to develop as we celebrate another year.

It's Canada's birthday week and one of our favourite things about Canada is the mixture of diverse cultures that built this country and that continues to develop as we celebrate another year. This week, in homage to that special 'Canadian-ness' we went back to Chinatown, a part of Vancouver that has thrived despite many obstacles. Chinatown is one of those places we go back to again and again because it is a constantly changing mix of old and new. On the same street you can find modern furniture galleries like Studio 126 and dozens of historic Chinese buildings.

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Often, when walking through Chinatown, we look up and wonder about the history of an older building or what goes on inside it. One lucky day, as we stood in front of 525-531 Carrall Street wondering exactly that, a young woman approached us and asked us if we had come to attend the Mandarin classes. When we explained that we were really interested in the building, she invited us up and introduced us to Orville Lim. Over the course of the next couple of hours, we got a crash course in local history and a look inside one of Vancouver’s hidden treasures.

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Originally built by the Chinese Empire Reform Association of Canada in 1903, the building is today home to the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association. The Reform Association’s original mandate was the reform and modernization of the Qing Dynasty. By 1912, however, the last Emperor of China was forced to abdicate, leaving the purpose of the building up in limbo. It functioned as a Chinese school for many years and eventually took on its current role as the home for the Lim ‘clan society’.

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Almost every large overseas Chinese community around the world has (or had) ‘clan societies’. These associations, like Lim Sai Hor, filled many roles in a time of overt racism and discrimination against Asian immigrants. Associations were organized on an extended kinship basis (with the surname Lim and all its variations in the English alphabet forming the basis for Lim Sai Hor).

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The building on Carrall street housed workers in single room occupancy units in a time when the Chinese community was forced to live within the boundaries of Chinatown. Members of the society helped each other with translation of documents, facilitated money transfers to family in China, created a library, and offered meeting space. Like other associations across North America, Lim Sai Hor worked to protect the interests of its members. By hosting events like dances, it also functioned as a centre of social life in the community, especially important in a time of blatant racism.

Though times have changed for the better, this has not necessarily made things easier for the Lim Sai Hor Association. The community does not need the centre in the same way it once did. Members who don’t speak English usually have younger family members who do, and people move freely and socialize wherever they want to.

For Orville Lim and the board who lead the Association, this means that they must change with the times while somehow preserving the history of a community institution. The first step was to win recognition for the role the building played in one of Canada’s most vibrant neighbourhoods. In 2003, the building was designated a place of historic significance. Today the Association is planning renovations (in cooperation with the city) to return the facade to its original state.

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The building is still the site of a large and beautiful funeral altar first established in 1993. Family of members who have died place ancestral tablets to remember loved ones and there are frequent offerings of flowers, incense and fruit. Currently there are almost 200 Association members remembered in the altar. Though Lim Sai Hor still has several hundred active members, many of them are older and have difficulty climbing the stairs up to the main hall.

Mah jong games have been shrinking as result, but weekly Mandarin classes have been growing steadily. Previously taught only as a heritage language for people of Chinese descent, today there are classes open to anyone each Saturday. This is one way in which Orville Lim and the board are maintaining the Association as a vibrant and relevant community institution. As the Chinese community has integrated into city life, the Association is also doing so.

Connecting to a younger, wider community while also preserving the history and contributions of the Association is the long term challenge of Lim Sai Hor. All of us, however, have benefitted from their work on behalf of the Association, and all of us will benefit from their continued role in our downtown community.

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To see and learn more about buildings like Lim Sai Hor, print this PDF from Vancouver Heritage Foundation and create your own tour.

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Your tour should take advantage of range of traditional and modern foods as well. Depending on the time of day and how many are in your group, here are some delicious dining options:

Bao Bei, Chinese Brasserie, at 163 Keefer Street, offers Taiwan and Shanghai inspired cooking, with a modern twist. They are open for dinner, beginning at 5:30 pm and don't take reservations unless you book a family table. Family tables, for groups of 8 - 10, get customised tasting menus ranging from $30 - $45 per person.

Sai Woo, at 158 E Pender Street, a different but also modern Chinese restaurant is open for dinner from 5 pm. They take reservations and they have dim sum and cocktail happy hours.

For more traditional Chinese food (also easier on the wallet) check out Gain Wah restaurant at 218 Keefer. Gain Wah is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner starting at 10 am.

Gain Wah photo from @foodology

Last but not least, if you’re in a real hurry, or want to eat some hot and delicious Chinese dim sum at home, it's worth the short, 7 minute walk from Pender and Gore over to Gah Lok Dim Sum at 416 Powell Street. the first frozen dim sum in Vancouver, and buy some of their frozen dim sum to go. We love the dumplings but they have spring rolls and steamed buns too.

There are so many interesting things to do in Chinatown and so many buildings to explore. And maybe, on one of your walks, you will be lucky enough to have someone invite you inside.