Item #3670 [Oak Bay] Chinese Cemetery - Victoria, B.C. B. Jenkins.
[Oak Bay] Chinese Cemetery - Victoria, B.C.

[Oak Bay] Chinese Cemetery - Victoria, B.C.

Victoria, BC: B. Jenkins. Photograph. A nice early image of the first cemetery created for the sole use of Victoria's Chinese Canadian residents taken circa early to mid 1900s. An original gelatin silver print measuring 4-5/8 inches tall x 6-3/4 inches wide, mounted on card stock measuring 9 x 11 inches wide, signed at bottom right "BJ" and titled at bottom left "Chinese Cemetery. Victoria, B.C." with the photographers rubber-stamp verso "Photographed by B Jenkins Victoria, B.C.". Card stock with soil, stains and toning, print toned w. silver mirroring to edges. Image offers interesting details of the stone altar, the many still extant headstones looking out to sea and a Chinese pagoda not seen in later photos. Good. Item #3670

Opened in 1903, "This was the first cemetery for the sole use of Victoria’s Chinese residents. An altar was built here, in addition to a brick house for storage of exhumed boned in their crates waiting for shipment back to China. Foul Point became known as Chinese Point. Gradually, settlement was increasing around this area, which in 1906 was included in the new municipality of Oak Bay. In the 1920s and 1930s, some local residents thought that the site should be open to urban development, and they claimed that the cemetery was a health hazard, an argument that was rejected by the Provincial Medical Health Officer. Chinese Point was renamed Harling Point, after Dr. Fred Harling, who died trying to rescue people off this point in a storm in January 1934. In 1909, the CCBA had taken over the shipment of bones from the shantang, and sent the collected crates back to China every seven years except during wartime. The CCBA’s archives show that the Chinese Cemetery handled the remains of Chinese residents from different Canadian cities, not only those from Victoria. The shipment of the crates of bones continued until 1949, when the establishment of the People’s Republic of China made this no longer possible. Individuals started to choose the Royal Oak Burial Park (est. 1923) for their interment, and the Chinese Cemetery was closed in 1950." uvic dot ca.

Price: $145.00 CAD  other currencies

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