As a land of immigrants, it is not too surprising that Canada and its largest city, Toronto, are home to many people from Asia and those of Asian descent. Like in other cities around the world, Toronto’s Chinatown took root where the first Chinese immigrants settled. However, in contrast to many metropolises, Metropolitan Toronto boasts not of one historic Chinatown, but three thriving cultural hubs, along with many enclaves scattered throughout its municipality.
Rich in heritage and stories of Chinese people finding their place in Canadian society, these communities have formed out of more than two centuries of migration, segregation and integration. What began as an escape from poverty and political instability in the late 19th century has transitioned into the migration of students, entrepreneurs and investors in the pursuit of personal opportunities. This has shaped the areas now known as Toronto’s Chinatowns and ethnoburb.
Old Chinatown
Toronto’s first Chinatown dates to 1878 when Sam Ching opened a laundromat at 9 Adelaide Street East. Now known as Ching Lane, the street bordered St. John’s Ward, which was one of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods. The latter was also where many new immigrants first settled.
Bound by University Avenue in the west and Yonge Street in the east, with College Street to the north and Queen Street to the south, the community grew due to an influx of Chinese workers following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, plus migrants from the United States at the end of the gold rush.
The Chinese Canadian settlement developed into a significant place for business. By 1910 the community had formed two distinct clusters based on the political affiliations of the merchants: the Chinese Empire Reform Association (CERA) on Queen Street East, and the Chee Kung Tong secret society, which assembled on York Street, between Queen Street West and Richmond Street West.
The CERA dissolved with the downfall of the Manchu government in 1911. In turn, all its businesses moved out of the city’s east end. Meanwhile, the Chinatown on York Street continued to spread, gradually moving north to firmly establish itself on Elizabeth and Chestnut Streets between Queen Street West and Dundas Street West by the 1920s.
Unfortunately, growth of the community was greatly affected by the passing of the Chinese Immigration Act, Commonly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which restricted Chinese immigration to Canada. Things changed only when it was repealed in 1947, and families were able to reunite.
Old Chinatown continued to flourish until the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the City of Toronto made the controversial decision to build a new City Hall and the future Nathan Phillips Square in the neighbourhood without public consent.
Demolition of the area began in 1955; by 1958 nearly two-thirds of Chinatown was expropriated. Pushed out by the high land costs, Chinese businesses and residents packed up and moved west along Dundas Street West. Those who could not afford to relocate were closed, and the buildings bulldozed.
When the city planned to expropriate more land in 1965, concerned community leaders formed the Save Chinatown Committee to protect Old Chinatown from further destruction. Fast forward to today, this small stretch of Dundas Street still retains a smattering of Chinese elements although it has ceased to be recognised as Old Chinatown since the 2010s (and is now unofficially known as Little Tokyo).
Chinatown West (Toronto Central District Chinatown)
The Toronto Chinatown most refer to is the downtown hub concentrated around Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue. When the Chinese businesses, residents and institutions were forced out of Old Chinatown in the late 1950s, they moved into the Southeast Spadina properties vacated by the Jewish community who had relocated to newer residential areas north of the city.
Chinatown West’s growth is a direct reflection of Canada’s immigration history. In addition to the refugee families accepted in 1960 due to a special resettlement programme by Prime Minister Diefenbaker, there were four waves of immigrants.
First were the newcomers from Hong Kong who had migrated either due to civil unrest and overcrowding due to the influx of refugees from the Mainland in the 1960s and 1970s; anxiety over the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 that detailed Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997; or the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. Between 1993 and 1997, many Hong Kong investors and entrepreneurs looking for a safe place for their family and money were attracted to Toronto since they could apply as business-class immigrants through the Investment Canada Act of 1985.
Dramatic changes to the country’s immigration policy in 1967 brought in a second and third set of ethnic Chinese migrants from Vietnam and Malaysia, then Taiwan. Canada was the first country to adopt a points system for immigrants. It was based on factors such as job skills, language fluency and education. It was also much easier for people already living in the country to sponsor relatives from abroad.
The fourth group came from the People’s Republic of China when more liberal policies concerning emigration were introduced in 1985 by the Mainland, and in response to the Canadian humanitarian programme for Chinese nationals following the Tiananmen incident.
Today, Chinatown West is packed with commercial and residential spaces and remains one of North America’s largest and most diverse Chinatowns. While it was designated an area of special identity by the city planning department in 1979 to protect its character from massive redevelopment, the neighbourhood has grown beyond its ethnic Chinese scope to include Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese businesses.
Despite the changing landscape, many hungry customers are still drawn to the bustling streets for dining stalwarts including Rol San, Rosewood, Mother’s Dumpling and Dim Sum King. Others frequent the area for groceries, to pick up speciality dried goods or to stop in Chinatown Centre – a complex filled with many small vendors.
East Chinatown
Priced out of the thriving Chinatown West, many lower-income Chinese immigrants moved into working-class Riverdale, establishing an East Chinatown in the 1970s. Centred on Gerrard Street East and Broadview Avenue, the neighbourhood had lower rents and cheaper properties (by several thousand dollars), the massive Riverdale Park, a library and other public amenities and services. It was also an easy streetcar or bus ride away from Chinatown West.
While smaller, East Chinatown is home to several notable landmarks. There is a bronze statue of Dr Sun Yat-Sen, founder of the Republic of China, which was erected in 1985 in the southern part of Riverdale Park. The Zhong Hua Men arch was added in 2009.
The Outer Chinatowns of the Greater Toronto Chinese Communities
The 1980s saw new Chinese immigrants bypassing the traditional ports of entry in the inner city to settle directly into suburban areas. A large wave moved to the northeastern quadrant of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), predominantly into Agincourt (in Scarborough), northeast North York, Markham and Richmond Hill.
Home to some of the biggest Chinese shopping centres and plazas, these became Toronto’s suburban Chinatowns when clusters of Chinese residents and businesses settled around the malls. Unlike the crowded, inner-city Chinatowns that formed due to cultural marginalisation, these ethnoburbs developed largely because of the community’s economic strength and buying power.
It started with the success of Torchin Plaza (Scarborough), which attracted more Chinese restaurants and grocery stores to the area in 1977. Other businesses soon followed including hairstylists, real estate agents, travel agents, bakers, doctors, dentists and even an acupuncturist.
Chinese customers began referring to the area as Scarborough’s Chinatown. However, this title was dropped in the 1980s when several plazas sprang up nearby along Sheppard Avenue East and Brimley Road, plus more at the intersection of Finch and Midland.
The unofficial heart of this third Chinatown was the now-defunct Dragon Centre Mall. Built in 1984, it was North America’s first Chinese shopping mall. Home to Dragon Dynasty Chinese Cuisine (a 350-seat Chinese restaurant) and 20-plus Chinese stores, the mall was so popular that it attracted Chinese customers from all corners of the city. This led to traffic congestion and parking issues that annoyed the area’s residents and businesses, and sparked racial tension.
The growth continued north in the 1990s with the creation of larger malls such as Pacific Mall in Markham and Times Square in Richmond Hill. These enticed traffic away from once-popular places such as Dragon Centre Mall.
The hub these days is the stretch of Highway 7 running between Markham and Richmond Hill. Peppered with newer plazas, this area has become the diaspora’s go-to location for Cantonese and Northern Chinese cuisines. It is still able to maintain its culture and traditions despite being a multicultural ethnoburb.
Acknowledgements
Much of the information, and all maps reproduced, in this article are from Toronto Chinatowns 1978-2012 by David Chuenyan Lai and Jack Leong at the David See-Chai Lam Centre for International Communication at Simon Fraser University and collated by the Chinese Canadian History Project Council; published papers (notably Zhuang and Chen, Journal of Urban Design, 2016) and other documentarians (including Harvey Low, research manager of the social research unit at the City of Toronto, and Meredith Gillespie, an urban planning specialist).
