Alayne McGregor
A new monument to honour Chinese Canadian workers who helped complete the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the 19th century will be erected in Chinatown this year.
Yukang Li, the executive director of the Chinatown BIA, told The BUZZ that his BIA’s board approved the final design of the memorial on April 11, after a consultation on Instagram attracted 449 likes and 17 comments.
The three-metre-tall bronze metal sculpture will take about three months to produce, he said, and will be installed by the end of October and possibly earlier. Its planned location is by the Chinatown Royal Gateway, replacing several boulders.
It will pay tribute to the “contribution and sacrifice of the 17,000 Chinese Canadian railway workers from 1881 to 1884.” Another monument to these workers was erected in Toronto in 1989.
In the 1880s, Chinese workers were brought in to build the B.C. section of the railway. According to a BC government website, they worked through the most challenging and dangerous terrain. “As well as being paid less, Chinese workers were given the most dangerous tasks, such as handling the explosive nitroglycerin used to break up solid rock. Due to the harsh conditions they faced, hundreds of Chinese Canadians working on the railway died from accidents, winter cold, illness and malnutrition.”
While the building of the CPR has been consider a major nation-building event for Canada, Chinese were cleared out of the way for the taking of the iconic historic photograph of CPR Director Donald Alexander Smith driving the ceremonial “last spike.”
Li said he did not yet have permission to disclose the funding source for the monument or the artist’s design.
The design shown on Instagram showed two workers laying railway ties. The railway tracks were configured to resemble the Chinese character for “human.”
He said he hoped “this beautiful piece of art” would add to the appeal of the street, bringing more visitors, and memorialize “a group of Chinese who contributed their time, their lives in building Canada over 100 years ago. This is a good way to remember those who have worked to build Canada to the great country as it is now.”
Comments on Instagram were primarily concerned that the sculpture not become vandalized like the previous fibreglass sculptures.