Festivals & Celebrations

Chinese Dance

Traditional Chinese dance has been an important part of students’ education at the Chinese Public School. The school had a butterfly dance group in the 1920s and a girls’ drill team from 1949 to the early 1970s. Since 1992, school principal Kileasa Wong has revived the practice of folk dancing at the school. Students have even made field trips to the Beijing Academy of Dance. They perform regularly at local events in Victoria and compete in this city and in Vancouver.

A drill team performing in Vancouver around 1950 (Victoria Chinese Public School Archives, photo courtesy of Robert Amos).

The Chinese School Dance Group performing a fan dance at the school in 2008 (Photo by Robert Amos, 2008).

Cantonese Opera

Cantonese opera has been performed at Chinese theatres in Victoria since the beginning of Chinese settlement in the nineteenth century, originally by traveling professional performers. From the 1920s to the 1960s, few Chinese operas were performed in Victoria. In 1980, Leung Kwong Yip founded an amateur group of singers and musicians, the Gum Sing Musical Society. They perform traditional operas every two years.

These photos show an opera performance by the Gum Sing Musical Society that took place at the Ambrosia Centre on Fisgard Street in 2010. The screen behind the singers was painted by Robert Amos and Kileasa Wong (Photo by Robert Amos, 2010).

Hosting Community Events

The Chinese community hosts various events in Victoria such as a lion dance to mark Chinese New Year, and an annual picnic of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.

Members of the Sheung Wong Kung-Fu Club perform a lion dance for the Chinese Spring Festival celebrating Chinese New Year in 2010 (Photo by Robert Amos, 2010).

Girls take part in a footrace in the annual CCBA picnic, which was located at Gyro Park in Cadboro Bay in 2007 (Photo by Robert Amos, 2007).

Celebrating Canadian Multiculturalism

The Chinese community contributes to celebrations of Canadian multiculturalism by participating in parades, such as the Victoria Day Parade, a victory parade marking the end of the Second World War, and Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Veterans in the Remembrance Day Parade, 11 November 1972. Victor E. Wong is wearing a trench coat and sunglasses on the right (Photo courtesy of Victor Eric Wong).

Members of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association marching in the Victoria Day Parade in 2010 (Photo by Robert Amos).

The Chinese Community float in the Victoria Day Parade in 2010 (Photo by Robert Amos).

First prize float, made by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, in the Victoria Day Parade ca. 1940 (Victoria Chinese Public School Archives, photo courtesy of Robert Amos).

Victoria Chinese students participating in a victory parade celebrating the end of the Second World War in 1945 (Photo by Frank Peters Boucher, Royal BC Museum, BC Archives, I-20532).

Finalists in the Miss Victoria Chinatown contest stand in front of a float before the Victoria Day Parade in 1991 (Victoria Chinese Public School Archives, photo by Philip Chan).

Chinatown Night Market

Organized by the Victoria Chinese Commerce Association, the Chinatown night market started in 2011. Taking place on select evenings during the summer, the market showcases Chinatown as a cultural centre, and combines vendors selling food, crafts, and art with traditional Chinese dance and music events.

A dragon dance performed by students from the Chinese Public School at the night market on Fisgard Street in August 2011 (Photo by Robert Amos).

Young girls performing an Ocean Rain dance at the night market in 2011 (Photo by Robert Amos).

Butterfly dancers at the night market in 2011 (Photo by Robert Amos).