图/施雅芳 多伦多中区唐人街
(编者按)多伦多市第二十选区市议员候选人朱凯莉的政纲是要复兴中区唐人街。在这篇文章中,她讲述了她成长过程中和如今与唐人街的关系,她在国外游览唐人街时的感受,以及她决心复兴中区唐人街、讲述唐人街和华人历史的愿景。此文的原标题是《中华门》(Chinese Gates)。
When I was growing up, my family often came to Chinatown to buy Chinese goods that we couldn’t get back home in London, Ontario. We would come to Spadina and stock up on egg tarts, exotic fruits and vegetables, and my brother and I always stared at the displays of hanging roast pork with equal measures of hunger and curiosity.
Then in the 90s, we didn’t come to Spadina quite as much, and we started doing more and more of our shopping in Markham. With a new wave of immigration, the new Chinese community settled away from the downtown core. Nowadays, getting the family to meet in Chinatown is more a novelty than the norm.
When I visited San Francisco several years ago with my brother, it was the first time it dawned on me that Toronto, despite the storied past of its Chinese immigrant population, lacks the grand landmarks of other Chinese communities. This summer in Havana, I took a walk to the old Chinatown and saw a beautiful gate commemorating the old Chinese community. Though the diaspora had largely moved on, there were still traces of the once proud past.
I walked past rows of old businesses with familiar characters feeling a strange sense of pride that we exported this culture of dumplings, fried noodles, and steamed buns all over the world. For the first time, I understood that we have stories to tell. We weren’t just immigrants trying to make a living, we are also part of the history of the countries we've settled in.
Toronto is Canada’s largest city and has a Chinese population that grew after the completion of the Canadian Pacific railway. We have a steep history in the city, and yet the story is rarely told.
Chinatown would benefit from something that attracted tourists, revitalized the community, and acted as a reminder of the community’s storied past. A gateway to welcome visitors is much needed, and it would serve as a landmark in the city and became the focal point of Toronto’s old Chinatown.
The City and the local business community will benefit from an attraction, and young Chinese Canadians will get to know that they too have a story to tell.
The link to the article: http://www.terrichu.com/chinese_gates |