Confucius Statue Marks Duncan’s former Chinatown

A bright, overcast sky favoured October 4th’s well-attended ceremony for the unveiling of a life-size statue of Confucius to mark Duncan Chinatown.

The striking figure of the ancient Chinese philosopher, erected in China Gardens Park and donated by the family of Wah Sing Chow, is dedicated to “the Chinese pioneers who, from the early 1890’s, established a Chinatown in the heart of Duncan that stood here for nearly 70 years”.

Family descendant Wah Sing Chow and Duncan Mayor Phil Kent just before the unveiling.

That Chinatown, alas, was torn down in the early 1970s to make way for a new provincial government office building, courthouse and library.

Wah Sing Chow arrived in Duncan in 1908, aged ten, and began working in his father’s grocery store. After graduating from high school he studied law and became a court translator and human rights activist, advocating for the equal treatment of Chinese immigrants who were then subject to the infamous ‘head tax’.

He married Helen Lai Yee Lowe, five years his senior, in 1923. Described as a “dynamic and gentle fellow,” and “exceptionally literate,” Chow was a respected community leader–“the little mayor of Chinatown”–until his death in 1962.

Kathryn Gagon, curator of the Cowichan Valley Museum, described Duncan’s Chinatown as “a vibrant community in the early years of the 20th century. Hundreds of Chinese workers and merchants lived in and around this enclave. Like Chinatowns established in other major economic centres, it provided cultural insularity and relief from the overt racism that was often experienced by Chinese immigrants.”

This was true in Duncan, too, unfortunately, as early issues of the Cowichan Leader newspaper make very clear.

The new statue complements a permanent outdoor exhibit commissioned in 2010 by the Duncan Business Improvement Association, on Station Street. A temporary exhibit in the museum displayed artifacts from specific sites in the Cowichan Valley, such as those used by Chinese miners who worked at the Mount Sicker copper mines as well as those relics that were saved from the demolition of Chinatown.

Although most people now regret the loss of Chinatown its obliteration has, Ms. Gagnon noted, “brought to light the need to consider the retention of our built heritage and later influenced policies to address this”.

Among those who attended the Confucius statue ceremony were Chow’s children and grandchildren.

Voila! this fine bronze statue of the venerated Confucius in downtown Duncan, B.C.

In 2003 the Chow family planted a gingko tree and dedicated a wooden bench to Wah Sing Chow. “We feel sad about Chinatown being gone but at least we’re commemorating it today,” family spokesperson Viola Ong, a resident of Issaquah, WA said at the time. As of 2003, five generations of Chows have been involved in Duncan’s commercial sector.