David Chuenyan Lai

Professor Lai with Queen Elizabeth when she visited the revitalized Chinatown in 1983. (Photo courtesy of David Chuenyan Lai).

Professor Lai was appointed a Presiding Officer of the Citizenship Ceremony from 1996 to 2003. Here he poses with an R.C.M.P. officer. (Photo courtesy of David Chuenyan Lai).

David Chuenyan Lai taught geography at the University of Victoria for thirty-five years until his retirement in 2003. He was a trailblazer in researching Chinatowns and Chinese communities in Canada and the United States. He began his research on Victoria’s Chinatown in 1971, and went on to conduct studies across North America. He has published the results in hundreds of books and articles and been a consultant for municipal governments in Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Portland.

Professor Lai earned his M.A. in geography and geology from the University of Hong Kong and his Ph.D. from the London School of Economic and Political Science, University of London. He came to Canada in 1968. He is currently professor emeritus at the University of Victoria where he is also a research affiliate at the UVic Centre of Aging and an adjunct professor in the David Lam Centre for International Communication, Simon Fraser University.

Professor Lai’s work on Chinatown in Victoria played a crucial role in the decision by the City to revitalize the area. Victoria City Council made him an Honorary Citizen in 1980. He was named to the Order of Canada in 1983. He has been a member of British Columbia’s Multicultural Advisory Committee since 2003.

David Chuenyan Lai received his Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 at Government House in Victoria (Photo courtesy of David Chuenyan Lai).