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Vancouver invest millions to protect historic buildings in Chinatown

Xinhua, December 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

The city of Vancouver in western Canada has recently approved a plan to invest millions of dollars into the city' s Chinatown in a bid to preserve the community's past and future.

Among the rehabilitation plan are 12 of the most important heritage buildings in Chinatown in the east part of downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver City Councillor and acting mayor, Raymond Louie, told Xinhua on Monday that he was busy with helping to lead the project with community organizations and donors.

According to Louie, many buildings in Chinatown are in dire need of repairs and many Chinese businesses and residents have moved elsewhere.

"It's lost the vibrancy and the energy it once had in terms of both the young, the old, and the commerce that would interact on a daily basis here," he said.

Many of Chinatown's most important buildings and businesses are owned by social and cultural organizations, called benevolent societies. Some of these societies were created by the immigrant Chinese more than a century ago to provide social services to their own clans and to others in the community.

According to the city, these organizations own 56 buildings in the neighborhood, including 12 official heritage structures, but many of these buildings have fallen into disrepair. The city is worried that many of the current buildings wouldn't sustain an earthquake.

To change that, the city is seeking to create a 36-million-Canadian dollar (26-million-U.S. dollar) fund to be used to revamp 12 of the most important buildings. That amount would be matched by other organizations and donors. The balance would be sought from the provincial and federal governments.

"If we don't take action soon, we'll lose them forever. And so this next program is intended to attract federal and provincial money along with nonprofit and charitable organizations to come together," Louie stressed.

He added that many young Chinese people in Vancouver have lost an understanding and connection to their own family history in Chinatown and moved out of the place for good, that is also a big worry for Chinatown. As Louie said, without the younger generation to stay and work in Chinatown, there would be no future for it. Endi