Toronto’s Chinatown
The first Chinese man listed in the Toronto city directory (around 1881) was Sam Ching, who ran a laundry service in the York street area (between Queen and King street), a primarily Jewish community at the time (Ruprecht, 1990).
Toronto’s “Chinatown” emerged later, during the 1920’s — mainly occupying central Elizabeth Street, between the south side of Queen West and the north side of Dundas Street West (Thompson, 1989). Here, Chinese laundries, restaurants, tea shops, schools and community cultural institutions made home. In 1935, there were 300 Chinese laundry services occupying space on this strip behind Toronto City hall (Ruprecht, 1990). Today this area is known as “Old Chinatown” (Thompson, 1989).
Approximately one mile west along Dundas is the “new” Chinatown – built in the 50’s when the new City Hall was constructed (Ruprecht, 1990). Most Chinese newcomers during the 50’s and 60’s (mostly University students from abroad, staying in the city upon graduation) settled on this strip of Dundas Street West and along Spadina Avenue (Ruprecht 1990. Large numbers of immigrant skilled workers and businessmen from China and Hong Kong continued into the 80’s to join this community space.
This downtown locale remains today, a major Chinese arena – largely featuring Chinese cuisine and merchandise. But this block is no longer the sole settlement ground for Chinese immigrants. (Only about one-fourth of the Chinese community lives in Toronto’s Chinatown today) (Ruprecht, 1990). Many Chinese Canadians now occupy residencies in the suburban regions of the Greater Toronto Area.
Their transition out of the downtown core into the suburbs happened in two waves (Lo, 2006). The first wave, a result of the Chinese population gaining greater social and economic status, began in the 1970’s/early 80s with the movement of the Chinese population from downtown to the suburban regions – North York and Scarborough (Lo, 2006). The second wave happened in the 1990’s, encouraged by uncertain political conditions in Hong Kong, and a relaxation of mainland China’s exit policies in 1995. These domestic changes encouraged many affluent residents to migrate to Canada, settling outside of the downtown centre in Richmond Hill, Markham and Mississauga (Lo, 2006).
Though, as quickly as migrants left the downtown Chinatown, immigrants from Vietnam and Cambodia (in the late 70’s early 80’s) and mainland China (in the 90’s) filled these empty spaces.
Today’s Chinatown remains a city enclave of pockets, inhabited by immigrants from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam – far more heterogeneous than the old community it used to be (Lo and Wang 1997, in Lo 2006).
References:
Lo, Lucia. (2006). Changing geography of Toronto’s Chinese Ethnic Economy. In D.H. Kaplan and W. Li (Eds.) Landscapes of the Ethnic Economy. (Pp.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Lo, L. & L. Wang (1997). Settlement Patterns of Toronto’s Chinese Immigrants: Convergence of Divergence? Canadian Journal of Regional Science. 20. 49-72.
Ruprecht, Tony. (2005). Toronto’s Many Faces. Ontario, Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
Thompson, R.H. (1989). Toronto’s Chinatown. The Changing Social Organization of an Ethnic Community. AMC Press, Inc.: New York.
