WATCH YOUR STEP/

by Johnson C. H. Tai

You may be walking on
century old graves”
unknowingly

 

he Chinese have been in New

Westminster since the early

1860s. Most of them were

lured by the Fraser River Gold
Rush which brought thousands of
people of various nationalities and
ethnicities to British Columbia. At one
point in time New Westminster boasted
not just one but sve Chinatowns!

The original Chinatown was located
near the foot of Mary Street (present day
6th Street). A second one was in the
“swamp,” a miniagure wetland area just
west of the corner of 8th Street and
Columbia. The second Chinatown was
rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1898, and
went on to become a thriving commu-
nity, second in size only to the China-
town in Victoria.

But what happened to the Chinese
after death? New Westminster city
curator, Archie Miller, picks up the story
from here:

"THE CEMETERY

“The Chinese cemetery in New
Westminster in the 1860s, when the city
was just starting, | am not sure they
would have buried Chinese at that time.
I would think they were buried at the
same area as the New Westminster high
school site. There was going to be a
cemetery up there but I don’t know
where a Chinese would be buried at that
time because it was supposed to be
Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist.

If the Chinese person was Methodist
or Presbyterian he probably would have
been buried there. I would think they
probably did bury them up in the area
there if there was Chinese who died at
that time. There was another early little
cemetery that was from where we are
right now at the museum. It was actually
two blocks towards the Pattullo Bridge
along Agnes Street but I know who was
buried out there and there is no one in
there from the names that would be
Chinese.

So, I think early on if someone
Chinese died they were probably buried
up on the high school site just in a
random area. In time, I’m not really sure
when it starts but I know it becomes to
be referred to as a Chinese cemetery.
And all my information has it toward
the corner of 10th Avenue and 8th
Street as opposed to being in the middle
of the block. There was a cemetery for...
I refer to it as white but that’s not fair
because there were other people in there
but I have to make it different from the
Chinese cemetery. So you have the rest
of the community, Europeans for
example, there were people who came
from the asylum.

There were people who were in what
was known as the pest house. A pest
house is a place where they used to put
people when they had a contagious
disease to isolate them. So that was
toward the middle of the block, school
board area, the Chinese one would be
down toward Tenth avenue. It would be
there until well into the century. Some
of the information they told me that it
was closed down early. Others tell me it
was still there a couple of decades into
this century. I don’t think so. I think it
was closed down fairly early.”

HOMECOMING AFTER DEATH

“Most of the stories to do with the
Chinese cemetery have to do with what
people who were at that time youngsters.

I had one lady recall that [the
Chinese] used to dig up the bones, pack
them up and ship them back to China.
Then between the First World War and
the Second World War, the practice

stopped.

The way that was explained to me at a
meeting in Victoria—by a Chinese man,
I should say, who had studies this. He
said that it got to the point where the
generations had moved along, and a lot
more younger people were saying, “This
is home! So why are we going there
[China]? This is home.’ And you mix
that with the fact that the wars were on
and it wasn't easy to just put everything
on a boat, and send it to China. That
practice stopped.

There are stories to do with that. This
is the first weird story. I have not had
this confirmed yet but I hear these
stories repeatedly. Somewhere after
WWII, so these bones have been stored
for a long time. They were obviously
ready to be shipped but never went. And
somebody did find a couple of large
rooms full of boxes of bones. I never did
hear what happened to any of them. But
this story still buzzes around. These
bones were boxed and never did go.”

GRAVEYARD IS OUR

PLAYGROUND

“Up in the high school site, [the
Chinese] would dig up the graves and
pick up all the bones, box them all very
carefully and properly. They didn’t
always fill the holes in. I talked to people
who remember going in there and they
played in the holes. One woman who at
that time was a little girl said that they
would play war. Because you had all
these holes, you could jump into and
then shoot each other. She said they
were always playing jumping in and out
of the holes because there were holes all
over the place.”

FORGOTTEN GRAVE SITES

“There was another story. Obviously
some of the graves weren't dug up. And I
had people tell me that when they got
up to...oh boy, let me think now...they
would be talking about almost the
Second World War. There was a military
camp on that end of the site. Now the
cemetery is gone but obviously some of
the graves weren't all dug up. Because
when they would be digging and doing
things for the military camp they would
come across bones. This one fellow said
that they remember seeing dogs running
around with these bones so they went
running after them gathering [the
bones] up, and burying them some-
where.”

PICKING UP THE PIECES

“T talked to people who remember [the
high school site], and also Fraser, when
early on there would be a group. A
group would arrive to dig up the grave.
They dig up the grave, then everyone
would be sitting, picking up the bones.
One man said that he was sure that they
had chopsticks to pick up the small
pieces. I don’t know if it is true but it
could be because I have the same story
from Fraser. I guess that is very much
second nature. I might use a spoon or
fork or garden trowel to pick up
something. [The Chinese] might just go
and pick [the bones] up [with chop-
sticks]. Because it would be easy. People
would remember these things because
they were different. It’s a difference of
culture. Nothing wrong with it. It is
rather interesting.”

SMELLY GRAVES?

“A lot of the graves, from what I
understand when they were digging up
the Chinese graves is that they weren't
very deep. There are stories. But you

have to remember now, that some of
these [stories] have to do with the fact
that these [bodies] were Chinese. So you
put that belief aside and say ‘OK, that’s
racism.’ Then you look for reason. There
is an element of truth to [the stories]. If
you are not burying people very deep
there are stories and reports in the
newspaper that you could smell that
cemetery. So it may be that we are only
burying three feet [deep]. You find
comments in the paper. There is even a
couple of accounts when they sent the
city health guy up because you could
smell the cemetery. So if it is warm and
the body is decaying not far from the
surface, it may not have been very
good.”

FUNERALS WITH A PARTY

ATMOSPHERE

“If an European had a long funeral
procession then it was probably very
quiet. The Chinese, on the other hand,
would have a big party! There is a
picture of [a funeral] where there is lots
of music involved in it. You go on a
parade then go on to the cemetery.
There is another picture I’ve seen, that it
is almost like what I see would be a
Chinese festival with a dragon. In the
stuff I’ve seen and read they talked about
fireworks. They talked about big
banners, and noise makers, and all kinds
of things. So you know there was
ceremony going on. Particularly if they
marched right up through the centre of
the town and headed up to the cemetery
up on the hill. I had one man tell me
that he watched this group go. He said
he was a teenager, and he didn’t know it
was a funeral, And all of a sudden he
could hear all this music, and drums,
and thought it was kind of strange.
Someone told him it was a Chinese
funeral. So he followed them all the way
up to the cemetery, and then they all

. started coming back down again. They

went down to Chinatown near the
corner of Tenth and Columbia. There
was a great big party! And he said he was
sitting there, he is White like I am, and
he said no one cared. Everybody was
having fun, and there was food and
drink. There was a big party to the
dearly departed! Everybody was
included. Lots of other people went in
there who were Whites. They went
down into there and were welcomed.

FOOD FOR THE DEAD (AND

THE ALIVE)
“Lots of people from both the [high

school site] and the Fraser cemetery
recall food being placed on the graves.
When I get to talking to people about it,
with old people who were young back
then, I got a number of stories from
people who would say they would watch
the funeral and then go over and eat the
food. And he said lots of people would
do it. It’s not supposed to happen, I
know.” I probed cautiously, ‘would that
be after everyone was gone?’ “Yes, yes,”
says Miller. “Everyone would go and a
bunch of things were left there and
[youngsters] go over to eat the fruits, eat
what was there. People do those things.

One of the great little lines you hear...is
that a person goes up to a Chinese grave.
Like a person of my colour. A good,
White, Scot. And [he] goes up and says,
‘who do you think is going to eat that?
The person’s dead. He’s not going to eat
that.’ Then, the Chinese person turns
and says, well, you put flowers on the
grave. Do you think they are going to
smell [the flowers]?’”

I JUST WANTED AN ORANGE

“T think the main thing that comes up *
when we talk about the way a lot of the
stories have come to me from people
who went to play in the holes or to
watch [the funerals], there was nothing
that any of these people were being
malicious about. I remember this one
person said to me, ‘they were really nice
oranges!’ She said she hasn’t had any

oranges for a long time so she had an
orange. But she said that it was never
done with ‘ha! ha! I took an orange from
the Chinese grave.”

For anyone who is interested in learning
more about the Chinese in New Westmin-
ster, the New Westminster Museum
Archives (521-7656) has a sizable display

section on the topic. @

 

 

Chinese Family in BC, late 1800s
Photo Credit: Victoria : A History in Photographs

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Other Press January 28 1998 3