At the corner of Pine Street and Hecate Street, a neon sign marks a neighbourhood that is no longer there. It is one of three installations in Lost Intersections, a public art project by Jackie Wong that the City of Nanaimo uses to mark the sites of the city's three Chinatowns. The other two stand at Esplanade and Victoria Crescent, and at View Street and Bing Kee Street. Between them, the three corners trace almost a century of Chinese settlement in Nanaimo, from the coal-mining 1860s to a fire in 1960.
This account follows the three sites in order, with the laws that shaped them, and closes with how the provincial and federal governments have since acknowledged that history. Dates and figures come from the City of Nanaimo, the Nanaimo Archives, the Province of British Columbia and the Canadian Encyclopedia, and where those sources differ, the difference is noted.
Coal and the first Chinatown, 1860s to 1884
The first Chinese residents came for work. During the 1860s, according to the City, the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company hired Chinese men to work in its mines and at first built housing for them near what is now Esplanade and Victoria Crescent.
The settlement grew beyond company housing. Chinese residents added stores and services for their own community, and the City describes the result as the third largest Chinatown in British Columbia. The coal that drew them had been mined there since 1852, when the Hudson's Bay Company took possession of the Nanaimo coalfields.
The City's account of why the first Chinatown ended is short. It sat on valuable land, Nanaimo was growing, and the Chinatown was displaced to the outskirts of the city limits. The City dates the move to 1884.
Politics, the vote and the 1884 commission
The move did not happen in a neutral climate. The Province of British Columbia's 2014 consultation report on historical wrongs describes how anti-Chinese politics became a mainstay of provincial life from the 1870s, after Chinese residents lost the right to vote. It names Nanaimo directly: "In Nanaimo and Kamloops, for example, civic governments segregated Chinese Canadians, attempting to confine them to the outskirts of town."
National politics were moving the same way. The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that Prime Minister John A. Macdonald defended Chinese labour on the Canadian Pacific Railway while it was needed, telling the House of Commons that "either you must have this labour or you can't have the railway." In 1884 Macdonald appointed a Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration, and the commissioners, Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau and John Hamilton Gray, heard 51 witnesses. Nanaimo was on their route. A list of local headlines compiled by the Nanaimo Free Press in 1934, now transcribed by the Nanaimo Archives, records the commission arriving in the city on August 20, 1884, "to hear complaints."
The commission reported in 1885 that there was little evidence for the claims made against Chinese people and that their immigration had benefited British Columbia. It recommended restriction anyway.
The second Chinatown and the head tax, 1884 to 1908
The second Chinatown stood around what the City now marks as View Street and Bing Kee Street. Its years, 1884 to 1908 by the City's dates, coincide almost exactly with the life of the head tax.
The Chinese Immigration Act was passed on July 20, 1885. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, it required most Chinese immigrants to pay $50 to enter Canada. The tax doubled to $100, and in 1903 Parliament raised it to $500, which the encyclopedia compares to about two years' salary. Chinese people were the only group that had to pay it. Over its 38 years, around 82,000 Chinese immigrants paid nearly $23 million. The act also limited ships to one Chinese passenger for every 50 tons of the vessel's weight, and payers received a certificate, classified C.I.5, that they needed to re-enter Canada after a trip to China; from 1912 it carried a photograph.
The City's Nanaimo pages give no local head-tax figures, and none are offered here.
The second site ended the way the first had. In the City's words, Chinatown "occupied valuable land; Nanaimo was a growing city," and the community was required to relocate again.
Deaths underground and the push to bar Chinese miners
The mine records belong in the same story. The 1934 headline list records the explosion at No. 1 Mine in Nanaimo on May 3, 1887, with "148 men (96 whites and 52 Chinese) killed." Eight months later, on January 24, 1888, an explosion at No. 5 Wellington killed 31 white and 37 Chinese men, the list says. Smaller entries record Chinese miners killed in shafts and on haulage chutes in 1884 and 1885.
The counts deserve some caution. The list is a newspaper's selection of its own past headlines, made nearly five decades after the explosion, so the figures are given here as the paper printed them.
The same list shows the labour politics that followed. In February 1888, a strike at East Wellington was settled on February 13 when officials agreed "to employ no Chinese underground." The miners walked out again two days later over the company's failure to keep the agreement, and on February 27 they resumed work "with no Chinese underground." Other entries on the list use the slurs of the period, which the archive's transcription keeps as printed.
Pine Street, 1908 to 1960
The third Chinatown was the largest and the longest-lived. It lined both sides of Pine Street, and the City says it "was said to have a population of 1,200 at the height of its existence." It was also a hub for Chinese people who worked and lived in outlying parts of Vancouver Island.
Its decline began in the 1920s, and the City gives two reasons. One was the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. The other was economic: Nanaimo's coal industry slowed, and many Chinese workers found jobs elsewhere in British Columbia, while others moved into other Nanaimo neighbourhoods.
If you stand at the Pine and Hecate sign today, it helps to know that the City's own panel for this corner contains a slip. It sends visitors to "Nanaimo's Second Chinatown at the intersection of Pine Street and Hecate Street," the corner they are already standing on, the City's other two pages place the second Chinatown at View Street and Bing Kee Street.
The 1923 exclusion law
The 1923 law did more than slow arrivals. It abolished the head tax and replaced it with a ban. On July 1, 1923, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Chinese Immigration Act, commonly called the Chinese Exclusion Act, barred all Chinese immigrants except a handful of merchants, diplomats and students. While the rest of the country marked Dominion Day, Chinese communities called it Humiliation Day and boycotted the celebrations. In Newfoundland, not yet part of Canada, July 1 had been a day of mourning since 1917, kept for the Newfoundland Regiment's dead at the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel.
The same year produced a very different milestone for Canada abroad, the 1923 Halibut Treaty, the first treaty Canada signed without a British co-signatory.
The exclusion act stayed in force for 24 years, until 1947. Chinese Canadians reacquired the right to vote after 1947, according to the province's Chinese Legacy BC pages, and the encyclopedia notes that restrictions on immigration based on race and national origin were not fully removed until 1967. The City names this law as one of the reasons the Pine Street population began to fall in the 1920s.
The fire of September 30, 1960
The last Chinatown ended suddenly. According to the City of Nanaimo, the third Chinatown "was destroyed by a fire on September 30, 1960," and it was never rebuilt, because by then the Chinese community had dispersed into the wider city. The City's pages do not describe the cause of the fire or any earlier fires at the Chinatown sites, and this account does not add details they do not give.
Apologies and commemoration
The governments responsible for the laws have since addressed them. On June 22, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in the House of Commons for the head tax and the exclusion that followed, and pledged symbolic payments to surviving head-tax payers and the spouses of those who had died. The provincial report puts those payments at about $20,000 each and estimates that only about 20 people who had paid the tax were still alive in 2006.
British Columbia followed on May 15, 2014. Premier Christy Clark issued a formal apology on behalf of the whole legislature for the historical wrongs of past provincial governments. The province's statement acknowledges that many of the offending laws were federal, but says they were "often encouraged or initiated by past B.C. provincial governments or federal members of parliament from British Columbia." The Canadian Encyclopedia counts more than 100 anti-Chinese laws and policies covered by that apology.
The provincial report attached to the apology recommended plaques or monuments, and it named Nanaimo among the possible locations. In 2023, the encyclopedia adds, the federal government recognized the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from 1923 to 1947 as an event of historical significance.
Locally, the Chinese Canadian Museum brought its travelling exhibition A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia to the Nanaimo Museum from September 28, 2024, to March 29, 2025. And the three neon signs of Lost Intersections now stand at the three corners. More of the city's past is gathered in early Nanaimo history, including Snuneymuxw weaving traditions in Coast Salish blankets.
The City's pages leave one question open: who lived on Pine Street in its last years, and where they went after the fire. The panels say only that the community had "dispersed into the greater population."
Questions
Where was Nanaimo's Chinatown?
There were three in succession. The City of Nanaimo places the first at Esplanade and Victoria Crescent, the second at View Street and Bing Kee Street, and the third along Pine Street at Hecate Street.
When did each Chinatown exist?
The City gives the first as the 1860s to 1884, the second as 1884 to 1908 and the third as 1908 to 1960. The dates come from the panels of the Lost Intersections public art project.
Why did Nanaimo's Chinatown move?
The City's own explanation is that Chinatown sat on valuable land in a growing city and the Chinese community was required to relocate to the outskirts. The province's 2014 consultation report names Nanaimo among civic governments that tried to confine Chinese residents to the edge of town.
What happened to the last Chinatown?
It was destroyed by fire on September 30, 1960, according to the City of Nanaimo, and it was never rebuilt. By then much of the Chinese community had already moved into other parts of the city.
How big was the Pine Street Chinatown?
The City says it was said to have a population of 1,200 at its height. It also served Chinese workers living in outlying areas of Vancouver Island.
Did Chinese miners work in Nanaimo's coal mines?
Yes. The City says the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company hired Chinese men for its mines in the 1860s, and newspaper records list Chinese miners among those killed in local explosions.
How many Chinese miners died in the 1887 explosion?
The headline list compiled by the Nanaimo Free Press in 1934 records 148 men killed in the No. 1 Mine explosion of May 3, 1887, 52 of them Chinese. The list was compiled almost five decades after the disaster, so the figure is best read as the newspaper's. The City of Nanaimo today gives the toll as 150.
What was the Chinese head tax?
It was a fee charged only to Chinese immigrants under the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885. It began at $50, was raised to $100 and then to $500 in 1903, and around 82,000 people paid nearly $23 million before it ended in 1923.
What was the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act?
Passed on July 1, 1923, it ended the head tax and replaced it with a near-total ban on Chinese immigration. It stayed in force until 1947, and Chinese communities called its date Humiliation Day.
Has the government apologized?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in the House of Commons on June 22, 2006, for the head tax and the exclusion law. Premier Christy Clark apologized on behalf of the B.C. legislature on May 15, 2014, for the wrongs of past provincial governments.
Is there a memorial to Nanaimo's Chinatowns?
The City's Lost Intersections project by artist Jackie Wong places neon installations at the three former sites. The province's 2014 report had also listed Nanaimo among possible locations for commemorative plaques or monuments.
Sources
- Remembering lives lost in BC's worst mining disaster, City of Nanaimo, 2023-05-02
- Lost Intersections (with First, Second and Third Chinatown pages), City of Nanaimo
- Third Chinatown, City of Nanaimo
- News Headlines in Nanaimo: 1874–1934 (from the Nanaimo Free Press Jubilee Edition, 1934), Nanaimo Archives
- Chinese Head Tax in Canada, Arlene Chan, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2020-06-03
- Chinese Immigration Act, Arlene Chan, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2026-03-12
- Chinese Historical Wrongs Consultation: Final Report and Recommendations, Province of British Columbia, 2014
- Discrimination (Chinese Legacy BC: History), Province of British Columbia
- Government of British Columbia Apology, Province of British Columbia, Chinese Legacy BC
- A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia (Nanaimo), Chinese Canadian Museum, 2024
