Remembering the Chinese CPR Workers: Port Moody Station Museum
by Peter Yu
The Port Moody Station Museum, located at 2734 Murray St., was the second station in the area built by the Canadian Pacific Company (C.P.R.) in 1908. The C.P.R. is an east-west transcontinental railway in Canada, linking the entire region across steep valleys and mountains (Eagle 1978). This allowed the C.P.R. to play a vital role in the development of Canada. During the time when the Port Moody Station was in operation, the first station built in the area, the Western Terminus, was located nearby. Later the C.P.R. decided to build the extension of the railway from Port Moody to Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet in 1887 (Tully 2006). The Western Terminus was out of commission in the 1970s and the Port Moody Station officially opened as a museum on July 1st, 1982.
Today the Port Moody Museum is open to the public and, aside from its permanent displays, often exhibits a variety of temporary displays during special events. The permanent displays include a telegraph office featuring an operational telegraph system equipped with antique typewriters, adding machines, and a safe. In addition, there is a late 1920s styled kitchen furnished with a Hotpoint stove and a 1920s General Electric refrigerator. Other permanent artifacts displayed on the walls and in glass enclosures include First Nations artifacts from the Fur Trade, artifacts from the logging and lumber mills, and Coast Salish basketry. Outside the museum sits the Venosta Sleeper Car, which was built in 1921, and a heritage garden. One of the special events hosted by the museum in 2012, called the Chinese Legacies: Building the Canadian Pacific Railway, featured a campsite of the Chinese railway workers and some artifacts that are reminisce of the Chinese life in Canada during the construction of the railway (The Port Moody Museum 2012). The Chinese Legacies exhibit includes a variety of artifacts, such as opium pipes, mahjong tiles, incense burners, tea sets, and sets of historical photos. In addition, the exhibit recounts the discrimination and difficulties that thousands of Chinese workers experienced at the time, from being forced to do the most dangerous tasks to being paid half the salary.
Today the Port Moody Museum is open to the public and, aside from its permanent displays, often exhibits a variety of temporary displays during special events. The permanent displays include a telegraph office featuring an operational telegraph system equipped with antique typewriters, adding machines, and a safe. In addition, there is a late 1920s styled kitchen furnished with a Hotpoint stove and a 1920s General Electric refrigerator. Other permanent artifacts displayed on the walls and in glass enclosures include First Nations artifacts from the Fur Trade, artifacts from the logging and lumber mills, and Coast Salish basketry. Outside the museum sits the Venosta Sleeper Car, which was built in 1921, and a heritage garden. One of the special events hosted by the museum in 2012, called the Chinese Legacies: Building the Canadian Pacific Railway, featured a campsite of the Chinese railway workers and some artifacts that are reminisce of the Chinese life in Canada during the construction of the railway (The Port Moody Museum 2012). The Chinese Legacies exhibit includes a variety of artifacts, such as opium pipes, mahjong tiles, incense burners, tea sets, and sets of historical photos. In addition, the exhibit recounts the discrimination and difficulties that thousands of Chinese workers experienced at the time, from being forced to do the most dangerous tasks to being paid half the salary.
The significance of the Port Moody Station is that the British Columbia (BC) portion of the railway was largely built with the help of the Chinese immigrants of British Columbia (Chan 1982, Lai 1988, Yee 2006). Building the railway required a large labour force and involved a number of dangerous tasks. Since there were not enough white labourers in the BC region at the time, the Canadian Pacific Company, under the supervision of Andrew Onderdonk, hired the companies Lian Chiang, Tai Chong, and Lee Chuck Company to help recruit Chinese labourers from California and later from China, predominantly from Hong Kong, to provide additional labour (Chan 1982, Lai 1988, Yee 2006). This brought in the second wave of Chinese immigrants in 1880. The first wave of Chinese immigrants to BC was brought in by the Fraser River gold rush in the 1850s. The Lee Chuck Company recruited Chinese labourers who had worked in the California and Oregon regions on the Central Pacific Railway (Lai 1988). The Chinese labourers’ role in building the C.P.R. started on May 14, 1880 (Chan 1982). Onderdonk imported Chinese workers because he felt the Chinese were hardworking, industrious, and steady. In addition, the Chinese workers helped save the C.P.R millions of dollars (Chan 1982). The reason for this was that the Chinese workers were paid half of what their white counterparts received—a dollar a day and sometimes less (Chan 1982, Lai 1988, Yee 2006). This was part of the discrimination that the early Chinese immigrants faced. However, jobs were scarce back in China during that time and working on the railway allowed the Chinese immigrants to send some money back to their families. The completion of the railway occurred on July 29, 1885 (Chan 1982). This was the time when the C.P.R. reached Port Moody and the discussions of building the extension began. During the time of the completion of the railway, around 1884-1885, the BC Legislature passed an Anti-Chinese legislation which limited the Chinese immigrants in many ways (Yee 2006). These limitations ranged from restricted further entry into Canada to their standard of living. The Chinese immigrants were accused of working for low wages to displace the white labourers. This added to the discrimination that the Chinese workers were experiencing and also made it difficult for the Chinese immigrants to find jobs. The provincial government passed other anti-Chinese legislations that were later turned down by the federal government. However, the federal Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was passed and it imposed a block on Chinese immigrants and forced the Chinese to pay a head tax (Yee 2006). William Van Horne, the president of the Canadian Pacific Company at the time, played a prominent role in the negotiations of the extension of the railway with the government (Eagle 1978, Tully 2006). Van Horne and the government agreed on a formal contract that consisted of several provisions, one of which prohibited the employment of Chinese workers to work on the extension line.
Despite the difficulties and challenges that the Chinese labourers had faced in the Nineteenth Century, Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken acknowledged the contributions of the Chinese workers and the benefits they have brought to the country (Yee 2006). Dr. J.S. Helmcken was a physician and a politician who played a significant role in bringing BC to the Canadian Confederation. This indicated the beginning of change in attitude towards the Chinese immigrants but on a small scale, which applied to several individuals at the time. The Chinese workers worked in a variety of occupations that ranged from working in farms and mines to working in canneries and tanneries, making boots and shoes. They have largely benefitted the growth of Vancouver, however, the challenges and discrimination did not end just yet. Many of the Chinese immigrants in the Nineteenth Century resided in Chinatown and established their families and businesses there. The same anti-Chinese hostility was taken up by the local white communities and involved much violence (Yee 2006). This was the beginning that paved the way for an anti-racial Vancouver in the Twentieth Century.
Bibliography
Chan, Anthony
1982 Chinese Bachelor Workers in Nineteenth-Century Canada. Ethnic and Racial Studies 5(4):513.
Eagle, John A.
1978 Railways and Canadian Development. Acadiensis 7(2):159-164.
Lai, David Chueyan
1988 Chinatowns: Towns within Cities in Canada. UBC Press, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Yee, Paul
2006 Saltwater City. Douglas & McIntyre. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
1982 Chinese Bachelor Workers in Nineteenth-Century Canada. Ethnic and Racial Studies 5(4):513.
Eagle, John A.
1978 Railways and Canadian Development. Acadiensis 7(2):159-164.
Lai, David Chueyan
1988 Chinatowns: Towns within Cities in Canada. UBC Press, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Yee, Paul
2006 Saltwater City. Douglas & McIntyre. Vancouver, BC, Canada.