Charlayne Thornton-Joe (left) and John Adams will be speaking about Chinatown (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a place that I deeply love, and it\u2019s fairly important that we share the story about our Chinatown, and let people know why Chinese came to Victoria, why they stayed in Victoria, and some of the discrimination they encountered, as well as some of the successes, and doors that opened for them for the future,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Thornton-Joe got involved with the Chinese culture as an educator in her adult life as a way to resolve earlier difficulties growing up and accepting her status as a Chinese person in an overwhelmingly racist culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I grew up, I faced a lot of discrimination, and because of that, I rebelled against my Chinese culture, I didn\u2019t want to learn to speak the language, I was actually ashamed of being Chinese, and I did everything to be less Chinese, if there was such a thing,\u201d she says. \u201cAs I grew up to an adult, I really realized what I missed, and I wish I had more of an opportunity to talk to my grandparents and learn more about my culture. So part of doing this work is because of my own regret that I didn\u2019t appreciate it when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Victoria\u2019s Chinatown is the oldest in Canada, many of the current shops are not Chinese-owned, but Thornton-Joe says that rather than being an example of the gradual overwriting of Chinese culture, this actually signifies a victory on behalf of the early founders of Chinatown.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents worked hard, they worked double jobs, and for them, they didn\u2019t want me to take over the shoe store or grocery store that we had,\u201d she says. \u201cThey wanted me to go to university and possibly get a job that had a pension, that had medical and dental, that paid better, so I didn\u2019t have to work seven days a week and 12-hour days. When you see some of the businesses not being Chinese, that\u2019s a success story, that their children have gone and done other things than take over their businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thornton-Joe says that it\u2019s important to show respect for the people who sacrificed much in their lives so that their descendants could have a better life than they did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to honour those that paved the way for us,\u201d she says. \u201cI meet so many young Asians today, and myself as well, I took for granted my life without knowing the sacrifices that those generations before me had to endure so that I would have the freedoms and the opportunities that I have today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Historical and Cultural
\nPerspectives on Victoria\u2019s Chinatown
\n7:30 pm, Thursday, March 23
\nFree for VHS members,
\n$5 for guests
\nJames Bay New Horizons,
\n234 Menzies Street
\nvictoriahistoricalsociety.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On March 23, The Victoria Historical Society will present \u201cHistorical and Cultural Perspectives on Victoria\u2019s Chinatown,\u201d a talk featuring historian John Adams and former Victoria city councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, who will share her own experience with the Chinatown community. \u201cChinatown has always had a place in my heart,\u201d she says. \u201cWhether it\u2019s the sounds of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,238,285],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-life-sports","category-march-22-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23800,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23798\/revisions\/23800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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