Chinese Public School

In the late nineteenth century, Chinese students attended a number of educational institutions in Chinatown. Children of merchants had lessons at home with private tutors, and the Methodist Church ran a Sabbath School for Chinese adults and children from 1874, then a mission school from 1885. With the increasing population of Chinese children (about 100 in the 1890s), the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) opened a free school, called the Lequn Yishu (Sociability Free School) in January 1899. Lee Mong Kow (Li Mengjiu) was one of the local merchants who helped raise funds for the school, and he became its first principal, a position he held for 11 years. The Lequn Yishu, the first Chinese public school in Canada, was located on the third floor of the first building of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) at 554-560 Fisgard Street. When it opened there were thirty-nine students attending. In the early twentieth century, some organizations such as the Chinese Freemasons and the Chinese Empire Reform Association also ran their own schools.

These images show the grand opening of the Chinese Public School (originally called the Daqing Qiaomin Gongli Xuetang or Great Qing Overseas Chinese Public School), at 636 Fisgard Street on 7 August 1909. The building integrates Western and Chinese architectural features and was designed by David C. Frame (City of Victoria Archives, M05370 and M06930).

This is the first graduating class of the Chinese Public School, in 1915. The school principal was Lee Mong Kow, standing in the centre of the back row (Royal BC Museum, BC Archives, D-08821).

Since early immigrants from China tended to maintain their own cultural traditions, at first few of their children attended public schools in Victoria. When Rock Bay Elementary School opened in September 1900, it was the closest school to Chinatown. In 1901, however, only fifteen of the 108 school-aged Chinese children in Victoria attended public schools, mostly at Rock Bay. Nonetheless, already in February 1901, white parents started to complain about the routine practice of having their children study in the same classes with Chinese children, whom they accused of being dirty and ill-behaved. When the superintendent of education questioned teachers about these fifteen students, the teachers responded that actually, the Chinese children were generally hard-working and well-behaved. As a result, and due to the costs that would be involved, school trustees were at first reluctant to provide separate schooling for Chinese students. Chinese parents also argued that their children could better integrate into western society by studying with non-Chinese students. Some white parents persisted in their racist thinking, and engaged the support of the Trades and Labour Council to continue to lobby for separate schooling.

These are two signs for the west and east classrooms of the Lequn Yishu, the first Chinese public school in Canada. This school moved from the original CCBA building to the new school building at 636 Fisgard Street in 1909 to accommodate more students who were not allowed to attend Victoria’s public schools (Photos by Charles Yang, May 2012).

School board chairman, George Jay, initiated a regulation in late August 1907 stating that Chinese children had to pass an English examination before being allowed to attend public schools. This rule applied only to Chinese children, not to other non-English speaking children such as newcomers from French, German, or Dutch families. The CCBA raised funds from Chinese communities across Canada to hire lawyer Fred Peters to challenge the school board regulation. Peters argued that since all children were required to attend school in BC, the new rule was illegal. The CCBA lost its case, but the school board did allow children of Chinese families who were born in Canada to attend public schools. The forty Chinese-born children who would have attended public schools but who could not pass the English examination, were then crowded with other students into the Lequn Free School, where there was not enough space for them.

This poster shows the founders and directors of the Lequn Yishu, which was established in 1899. Lee Mong Kow (Li Mengjiu), the first principal, is on the top row, fifth from the left (Photo by Charles Yang, May 2012).

To create a larger space for the Lequn Free School, the CCBA decided to build a new school. It purchased land on Fisgard Street between Government and Douglas streets and engaged architect David C. Frame for this task. The school was opened on 7 August 1909 by the Chinese consul-general of San Francisco. The new institution was originally called the Daqing Qiaomin Gongli Xuetang (Great Qing Overseas Chinese Public School). When the Qing government was overthrown in 1912, the school was renamed the Chinese Public School (Hauqiao Gongli Xuexiao). Here, students were educated in Chinese language and also in English so they could pass the examination and enter public schools.

The issue of separate schooling arose again in the early 1920s. To achieve segregation without referring directly to race, the school board tried to use unsupported arguments that Chinese students were unclean, or that they were delaying the progress of classes as a whole. George Jay, elected back into the position of chairman of the Victoria School Board, decided that over two hundred Chinese elementary students then attending public schools should be moved to buildings on Kings Road and in Rock Bay. This move was described by the Chinese community as Huangbai Fenxiao, or “Yellow and White in Separate Schools.”

This photo shows teachers and students at the Chinese Public School in 1913 (City of Victoria Archives, M07972).

In September 1922, principals lined up the Chinese students from George Jay School and the Boys’ Central School and started to march them to a segregated school at King’s Road. The CCBA, Chinese Canadian Club (Tongyuan Association), and Chinese Commerce Association, however, had organized a student strike. Instead of walking to the new school, the Chinese students simply went home. The three associations formed an Anti-Segregation Association (ASA) and challenged the separate schools policy. In November, the ASA set up a Chinese Free School for students to attend during the strike. The strike lasted for a year as the ASA and the school board tried to come to terms. In September 1923, the school board allowed all Chinese students to return to the schools they attended before the strike, and seventeen students with poor English skills had to attend a special class until their English improved. The CCBA accepted these terms and the strike ended. Partial segregation continued, however, as Chinese students in the first four years of elementary school continued to be educated separately (as they had been before the strike), and Chinese students were transferred to the dilapidated Railway Street School in the late 1920s when the Rock Bay School was torn down. It was only after the Second World War that students of Chinese origin were fully integrated into public schools in Victoria.

The Butterfly Dance Group of the Chinese Public School in 1924 (Victoria Chinese Public School Archives, photograph courtesy of Robert Amos).

Once Chinese students were free to attend public schools, the Chinese Public School became an institution that has offered education in Chinese language and culture in addition to public schooling. Students currently take classes here in the late afternoons and on weekends. Most students come from Chinese Canadian families, and a few students have just one parent of Chinese ancestry or belong to another ethnic group. While the emphasis is on learning Cantonese, the language of most of the earlier Chinese immigrants to Victoria, the school also teaches cultural traditions such as calligraphy, Chinese brush painting and dance. The school has a dance troupe that was founded in 1949, active into the early 1970s and revived in the early 1990s. Students also take part in celebrations surrounding Chinese New Year. The Chinese Public School hosts tours of Victoria students from public schools to teach them about Chinese culture, and maintains ties with China through pen pal programs. With more Mandarin speakers arriving in Victoria in recent decades, the school has added Mandarin classes in 1997, and evening Mandarin courses for adults. The headquarters of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and the Palace of the Saints, are also located in the school building. An impressive structure built to educate Chinese youth during a time of intense discrimination, the Chinese Public School has played different roles over time as it continues to serve as a cultural centre of Victoria’s Chinatown.

By Jenny Clayton

Sources:

Lai, David Chuenyan. Chinese Community Leadership: Case Study of Victoria in Canada. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 2010.

Lai, David Chuenyan. “The Issue of Discrimination in Education in Victoria, 1901-1923.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 19:3 (1987), 47-76.

Wickberg, Edgar, ed. From China to Canada: A History of the Chinese Communities in Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982.

Wong, Kileasa Che Wan. “History and Significance of the Victoria Chinese Public School, Huaqiao Gongli Xuexiao, 1899-1999.” MA Thesis, University of Victoria, 1999.

Wong, Kileasa Che Wan. “History and Significance of the Victoria Chinese Public School, Huaqiao Gongli Xuexiao, 1899-1999.” MA Thesis, University of Victoria, 1999.

This thesis is available on the University of Victoria Library website: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443//handle/1828/2677.

Further Reading:

Ashworth, Mary. The Forces Which Shaped Them: A History of the Education of Minority Group Children in British Columbia. Vancouver: New Star Books, 1979.

Stanley, Timothy J. Contesting White Supremacy: School Segregation, Anti-Racism, and the Making of Chinese Canadians. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.

Stanley, Timothy J. “White Supremacy, Chinese Schooling, and School Segregation in Victoria: The Case of the Chinese Students’ Strike, 1922-1923.” Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire de l’éducation 2 no. 2 (1990): 287-305.