{"id":33147,"date":"2019-04-08T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=33147"},"modified":"2019-04-07T23:31:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T06:31:47","slug":"chinatown-in-colour-before-condos-and-coffee-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2019\/04\/08\/chinatown-in-colour-before-condos-and-coffee-bars\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinatown in Colour, Before Condos and Coffee Bars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/spacingmedia.com\/spacingvancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/features\/indepth_feature-VAN.gif\" width=\"600\" height=\"72\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"lead-in\">From sausage makers to seamstresses, a set of recently digitized photographs by&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.paulyee.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Yee<\/a>&nbsp;reveal life in Vancouver\u2019s Chinatown before the neighbourhood experienced a classic case of inner-city decline followed by, depending on who you ask, inner-city renewal or gentrification.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside hide-on-narrow-vp\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"presents-box text-block-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/presents-box\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">In 2008, Yee, 62, an author, archivist and historian who now lives in Toronto, donated a massive collection of photographs to the City of Vancouver Archives, where he worked from 1979 to 1987.<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Thanks to funding from the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives society, Yee\u2019s full collection of photographs has now been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vancouverarchives.ca\/2019\/03\/21\/paul-yee-photographs-and-audio-recordings-now-available\/#more-7489\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">digitized<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Among the 3,700-plus photographs in the collection are photographs by Yee himself, photographs from his family\u2019s collection, and photographs given to Yee by other families for his various projects.<\/p>\n<p>In these colour selections from the archives\u2019 latest batch of photographs, Yee shows us Chinatown streets of the 1970s and \u201980s with their eye-popping signs and textures, and also the life inside shops, up staircases and down alleys.<\/p>\n<p>Seniors, family society clubhouses and blue-collar workers are still present in today\u2019s Chinatown, but they now share the neighbourhood with condos, creatives and consumption that often take advantage of the allure of the historic enclave.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the 188 Keefer condos have an entry that mimics a moon gate, real estate marketer Bob Rennie turned Chinatown\u2019s oldest building into his art museum, and a number of restaurants offer Asian-inspired food and beverages.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a look back at the neighbourhood Yee captured, which contain hints of the change to come.<\/p>\n<p>ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder***<\/p>\n<p><i>You can read the City of Vancouver Archives\u2019 summary of what\u2019s available in the Paul Yee fonds&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vancouverarchives.ca\/2019\/03\/21\/paul-yee-photographs-and-audio-recordings-now-available\/#more-7489\">here<\/a>.<\/i>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/\">Christopher Cheung<\/a>&nbsp;is a reporter at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/\">The Tyee<\/a>, where this story originally appeared.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From sausage makers to seamstresses, a set of recently digitized photographs by&nbsp;Paul Yee&nbsp;reveal life in Vancouver\u2019s Chinatown before the neighbourhood experienced a classic case of inner-city decline followed by, depending on who you ask, inner-city renewal or gentrification. In 2008, Yee, 62, an author, archivist and historian who now lives in Toronto, donated a massive<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2019\/04\/08\/chinatown-in-colour-before-condos-and-coffee-bars\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Chinatown in Colour, Before Condos and Coffee Bars&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8385,"featured_media":33148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11230,11232,11233,91,26,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-community","category-features","category-history","category-media","category-neighbourhoods","category-streetscape"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chinatown in Colour, Before Condos and Coffee Bars - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2019\/04\/08\/chinatown-in-colour-before-condos-and-coffee-bars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinatown in Colour, Before Condos and Coffee Bars - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From sausage makers to seamstresses, a set of recently digitized photographs by&nbsp;Paul Yee&nbsp;reveal life in Vancouver\u2019s Chinatown before the neighbourhood experienced a classic case of inner-city decline followed by, depending on who you ask, inner-city renewal or gentrification. 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