This untitled Rolly Ford photograph from the 1950s or early-60s shows Pender Street looking west towards downtown from Main Street. Just outside the frame to the right, you would find a sign for
Totem Lanes, a native themed bowling alley. To Ford's left, just one block south along Main Street at Keefer Street, was the New Delhi, a cabaret and restaurant offering “A Touch of India,” with dining, dancing, and nightly floor shows.
1 Behind Ford, on Pender Street east of Main Street, was an area of Chinatown and Strathcona that was home to a large Chinese community, but considered a “blighted” neighbourhood by city officials and slated for “renewal.”
2 Within his frame, Ford captured what, in 1956, a Vancouver city planning board described as the only part of the “whole Chinese quarter . . . which can be said to be a tourist attraction.”
3 Like official descriptions of this area, Ford's photograph all but eliminates the presence of people and depicts Chinatown as a bright, exotic, mono-ethnic neon corridor.
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| Photo: Rolly Ford - Park Royal Centre 1955. |
In the 1950s and 60s, Rolly Ford operated two photography businesses and appears to have worked primarily as a commercial photographer, taking photos commissioned by various clients.
4 Among his other photographs are numerous tourist locations around Vancouver, including Stanley Park and English Bay, aerial shots of the city, and assorted buildings and bridges. Although it is not clear if his photo of Chinatown was commissioned or directed by a customer, this photograph circulated primarily as a postcard. In this way, Ford's photograph was an idealized representation of Chinatown that could be used as a souvenir—a surrogate memory of sights and experience—or as a way to share these sights with friends and family elsewhere. In this case, the postcard doubled as an advertisement for the City of Vancouver and could be used to attract more visitors.
It was clearly Ford's intention to capture the neon signs of Chinatown, rather than the architecture or people of the neighbourhood. Whereas in daytime photos the neon signs are largely lost within the clutter of the assorted buildings, street signs, telephone poles and wires, in Ford's night photo, these signs become the focus as they sit against the dark background. And where
photos taken from the sidewalk at regular eye-level are able to capture the detail of a single sign in great detail, they are less able to show how the sign fits into the larger corridor of light. To accentuate Chinatown's neon signs, Ford's photograph is not taken from the sidewalk, but from an elevated position on the street that allows him to focus on the signs, rather than the storefronts or awnings below. Because the photo was taken at night, Ford would have used a longer exposure time to capture a clear image of the neon. This long exposure time is responsible for the path of red tail lights that contributes to the sense of vibrancy on the street, but also has the effect of eliminating nearly all of the pedestrians from the photo, except for two people caught in a conversation and the ghosted impression of passers-by.
Through the 1950s and 60s, the area of Pender from Main to Carrall Street was recognized for its “unique character,” though this character had less to do with the Chinese community or Chinese culture than, as Kay J. Anderson and Becki Ross suggest, with the neon signs and night life that helped to make Chinatown an exciting destination for “thrill-seeking white Vancouverites and tourists.”
5 The vibrancy and importance of this area, in the eyes of city officials, was dependent on its economic role within the city. Since this economy could be improved by bringing more tourists to the area, the Vancouver Planning Department explored ways that Chinatown's “character [could be] strengthened and its tourist potential enhanced.”
6 This included constructing a sixty-foot “neon dragon,” and suggesting that the “disarray of [other] signs should be ordered to reduce their conflict with the riotous gaiety of the neon signs which should not be restricted.”
7 Just as Ford's photo focused on the neon signs of Pender Street to the exclusion of any human subjects, city officials focused on the signs as a key to increased tourist appeal of the area to the exclusion of the area's Chinese population.
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| MacLean Park in Strathcona. Still from To Build a Better City. |
It was not just that city officials overlooked Chinatown's residents in their plan to enhance the area's tourist appeal; by the late-50s, officials were actively planning to redevelop the area east of Main Street where much of Vancouver's Chinese population lived.
8 This redevelopment was aimed at the area of Chinatown and Strathcona that city planners considered “blighted,” “unsavoury,” or simply, a “slum.”
9 The goal of city planners, besides increasing property values and tax revenues from the area, and preventing the spread of “blight,” was to force the Chinese community to disperse to eliminate “ethnic enclaves.”
10 So, while planners wanted to enhance the tourist appeal of one section of Chinatown, this project was taking place at the same time that they were planning to demolish the Chinese residential neighbourhood in favour of dispersal and high density public housing. In this way, the planning department was attempting to create an “Oriental” experience with bright and exotic signage within the tourist district of Chinatown, but without the Chinese people.
Part of the difficulty of using a photograph like Ford's as a primary source is that it can very easily be interpreted to fit whatever pre-existing narrative of Chinatown you subscribe to. This narrative can be about the invisibility and marginalization of the Chinese community, the caricaturization of Chinese culture, or the vibrancy and excitement of Chinatown in the 50s and 60s. Because, as Anderson argues, the idea of Chinatown has been shaped by shifting racial ideologies and civic legislation, it is difficult to make a claim about how Chinatown should look, or whether it should exist at all.
11 These questions about the meaning of Chinatown were also circulating in the Chinese community in the late-50s and 60s, as some merchants and community leaders participated in, and profited from, the creation of the Chinatown tourist district. Although Anderson argues that the attempt by some Chinatown merchants and leaders to “propound their Chineseness through the medium of tourist Chinatown” was an attempt to “defend the area from demolition,” as Becki Ross notes about non-white exotic dancers performing around Chinatown and the East End at the time, it was often profitable to play to white stereotypes of ethnic culture.
12
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| Photo: John Atkin. Source: Neon in Vancouver (Flickr). |
The Civic Arts Committee's role in removing neon signs from Vancouver's streets in the 60s and 70s is well-documented, yet is unclear why or when the neon signs captured in Ford's photo began to disappear.
13 A City Planning Department document from 1974 that called for the “preservation and encouragement” of neon signs in Chinatown as long as they “reflect[ed] the traditional motifs and character” of the area suggests that, by this time, the signs were on their way out.
14 Of course, as Anderson notes, neon is not part of traditional Chinese architecture, yet it has become a defining feature of the memory of what is now referred to as “historic Chinatown.”
15 This connection between Chinatown's history and its neon is exemplified by the Chinatown Plaza sign installed by the City of Vancouver in 2010 at Keefer and Quebec Street in Chinatown. On his
official website, Mayor Gregor Robertson reflects this connection, saying that “Chinatown was historically a vibrant business hub decorated with colourful neon signs,” and adding that by installing the “spectacular” Chinatown Plaza sign, and encouraging other businesses to install their own, he is determined to “bring economic prosperity back to the neighbourhood.” Just like in the 50s and 60s, the economic prosperity of Chinatown is tied to its neon signs.
Because Ford's photograph of Pender Street was sold as a postcard, presumably to tourists, it focused on the elements of Chinatown that were considered a tourist attraction. This meant the neon signs rather than the people. For their part, the Vancouver Planning Department and city officials in the 50s and 60s focused on Chinatown's economic contribution to the city. This meant encouraging neon signs to “strengthen” the character of the tourist district, rather than strengthening the Chinese community who lived across Main Street in nearby Strathcona. Vancouver's neon nostalgia is not confined to Chinatown, but because Chinatown as a neighbourhood and as an idea holds a dubious place in Vancouver's history, it offers an opportunity to consider what place these neon signs have in the city's history and in its future. While Mayor Robertson sees neon signs as a key to the vibrancy and economic prosperity of Chinatown today, the vibrancy and prosperity of the Chinatown captured in Ford's photo only extended to a small portion of Chinatown's residents and businesses. Although I understand the appeal of Vancouver's neon past, it is important to remember that simply recalling an idealized past is not the same thing as creating a more equitable future.
1 See New Delhi ads in Becki L. Ross,
Burlesque West: Showgirls, Sex, and Sin in Postwar Vancouver (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), 59, 63.
2 Kay J. Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown: Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875-1980 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991), 188-89.
3 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 188.
4 Stephen Chen, "Historical Vancouver: A View of Post-War Commercial Photographers," 6-8. (https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/44423/Chen_Steven_GEOG_429_2013.pdf?sequence=1)
5 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 193; Ross, 60.
6 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 197-98.
7 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 198.
8 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 189.
9 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 189-91.
10 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 189-93.
11 See, Kay J. Anderson, "The Idea of Chinatown: The Power of Place and Institutional Practice in the Making of a Racial Category," in
Immigration in Canada: Historical Perspectives, ed. Gerald Tulchinsky (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1994), 223-248.
12 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 179; Ross, 86-140.
13 See, See, Katherine Hill, "Our Neon Nightmare: The Role of the Civic Arts Committee in Dismantling Vancouver's Neon Sign Jungle, 1957-1974," in
British Columbia History 46 no.3 (2013), 5-14
14 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 224-25.
15 Anderson,
Vancouver's Chinatown, 176.
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