Chinatown

For the Jane’s Art Walk, our group decided to explore Chinatown. Our group had varying knowledge bases about the area, making for a group able to share the space and see it through fresh eyes. Chinatown is a very rich community in terms of history and art — to talk about the history of Calgary’s Chinatown is to talk about adaptation and survival. The implementation of this community for Calgary’s Chinese population started in the late 1800s — 12 years before Calgary officially became a city — when the first Chinese immigrants settled along the Bow River. The first ever Chinatown was established near Stephen Avenue, but when a fire burned down much of the community, Chinatown was relocated. In 1910, it was relocated again, forcing Chinese-Canadians to the present-day location: north of 4th Avenue, from 2nd Street to Macleod Trail (Wong, n.d.).

Pictured above is the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre — an integral piece of the preservation of Calgary’s Chinatown. Built in 1992, this non-profit organization serves as a community centre for the Chinese community inside and around Calgary. While we initially thought the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre was beautiful, it wasn’t until after our Jane’s Walk that we recognized the significance of the building’s architecture. Modelled after the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, this building itself is a work of art. The interior of the building is filled with hundreds of paintings of dragons and phoenixes, much like the Temple of Heaven, which was built in 1420 and was used by Emperors to pray and communicate with their gods. The blue tiles on the outside of the roof were even created by the same company that made the tiles for the Temple of Heaven, shipped from China to Calgary (Cultural Centre, Dr. Henry Fok Cultural Hall, n.d.). As the anchor of Calgary’s Chinatown, this building is extremely telling of how much intention is put behind the art and ethnic history that adorns the streets of this community.

This building, and what we experienced on this Jane’s Art Walk, is a significant example of how art is all around us in this city — we just have to look up to see it.