Chinese Cemetery, Townsite Rd.

[Flugel Horn]

As I found out today, the "Chinese Cemetery" is so named because it was donated by the local Chinese Society. The use of the cemetery is not exclusively Chinese.
===============

Quote from City of Nanaimo website:

Are only persons of Asian descent buried in the Chinese Cemetery?
No, anyone can purchase a burial plot in time of need. The Chinese Cemetery was donated to the City of Nanaimo by the Chinese Society so we have kept that name.

Location is on Townsite Rd, just up the hill from Quarterway School.


Quote from this website: http://graveyardrabbitbc.blogspot.co...bc-canada.html

In the 1970s, the Cemetery was refurbished by Nanaimo's Chinese Canadian community and donated to the City of Nanaimo which now operates it. This is no longer exclusively a Chinese cemetery, but the name has been kept.

And a quote from a Govt of Canada heritage web-page:
http://www.historicplaces.ca/visit-v...id=3742&page=1

The Chinese Cemetery is a rare, tangible link with Nanaimo's Chinese heritage. The Chinese, almost wholly single men, came to Nanaimo as early as the 1860s to work in the mines or to open businesses.

Perceived as unfair competition because of their willingness to work for lower wages than white employees, the Chinese were the source of much labour conflict during the 19th century. Initially, the Chinese settled in what is now downtown Nanaimo but in the 1880s they were removed, by the coal company, to the outskirts of town in an effort to reduce tensions.

By 1908, a new Chinatown, one of the largest in North America at that time, was established near the western edge of the city. This last Chinatown was destroyed by fire in 1960, although much of its population had already dispersed.

Because there is so little other tangible evidence of the Nanaimo's Chinese heritage, the Chinese Cemetery is especially significant.

Built in 1924, the Chinese Cemetery is a very good example of an ethnic cultural landscape. In addition to grave markers with Chinese inscriptions, the cemetery features traditional Chinese elements including ornate, brightly painted entry gates, a pagoda structure, an altar and a shrine. Although the cemetery is no longer exclusively Chinese, it retains, through the presence of these elements, a distinct Chinese character.

The Chinese Cemetery's striking entrance gates and its location on a main thoroughfare make it a highly visible neighbourhood landmark.

====================
Location orientation, from a photo that I took in February:



Here are my photos from a rainy March 14, 2010:

At the cemetery parking area, view towards College Heights.



Under the pagoda shelter, view towards College Heights.



The entrance, off of Townsite Rd.



The narrow, steep roadway from the entrance, up to the parking area and pagoda.



Pano-stitch from the parking area. Looking West, to the pagoda area and the hilltop part of the cemetery.


--------------

[Flugel Horn]

Some more photos of the Chinese Cemetery, taken March 14, 2010:

Setting the scene, with shots from different corners / areas of the site:


From the pagoda, looking West. These graves are mainly non-Chinese, and many are for people who passed-away in the last 5 years, and as recent as last month.



Looking North, with NRGH in the background.



Looking North-East.



Looking down the hill of the cemetery, South-East towards Townsite Rd and the entrance.



Looking East, with the apartment building in the background.
- When I first arrived, I wondered why there were so many flowers/paraphernalia laid at these graves. I thought it might have been because of Chinese new years. Then when I actually looked at the graves, I realized that these were very recent graves of people of all ethnicities, and that the flowers were so plentiful because the family-grief was likely still fresh.

-------------

[Flugel Horn]

The pagoda and gate are the obvious architectural charms of this cemetery.

Here's some shots of the pagoda and area. (enjoy the tree blossoms, from this last week of Winter).

View from the middle of the cemetery.


View up to the pagoda, from the parking area


View to the pagoda and other item (statue, marker, shrine, altar, ??)


-------------

Inside the pagoda. Here's an explanation of the oven-looking item.

Explanation from this website:
http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/special-...rs/burners.htm

The most common singular feature of overseas Chinese cemeteries and of the Chinese section of host community cemeteries is the "burner" (sometimes erroneously called "oven"). These brick or masonry structures, often over seven feet tall (approx. 2.1 m), serve as a safe place for the ritualized burning of spiritual tributes.

These paper and cardboard facsimiles of money, clothing, possessions, and houses, for example, are to serve the deceased in the afterlife. Burning these simulacra passes them to the spirit realm.

=========

[Flugel Horn]

There are no upright-markers at this cemetery. They are all flat markers, of different sizes and styles.

Here are some of the older Chinese markers:

There are many with just the Chinese characters, on a small white block.





Here's one that I'm assuming is very old.


------------

Some have combination of English and Chinese characters:







Here's a marker for remains that we re-interred.


=========

[Flugel Horn]

Someone who passed-away in 1924



What a long life.









A nice looking marker.



I really like this marker and paraphernalia


================

[Flugel Horn]

Side by side, different ethnicities:





=====================

Here's the marker for Mr. Kin Jung. He was once awarded a "best fan" trophy from the Nanaimo Clippers hockey club.
Here's a story that I found in a Google search:

Kin Jung, who emigrated from China in 1918, died Saturday at the age of 95, due to pneumonia complications from a hernia operation, said Mike Mah, president of the Chinese Cultural Society.
...
"It's hard to believe," Mah said.
...
"I believe he used to attend every single Clippers game," said Mah.

--------------

Side-by-side in opposite directions. That's a cemetery oddity.



-------------------

Some more non-Chinese markers:






=============

[Flugel Horn]

I suppose this man was a postal-worker.





===========

- this is really recent. I remember being touched by this man's story when reading his obituary in the newspaper.





======================

And here are the markers for the Wongs. Chuck Wong is one of Nanaimo's best known (and probably one of the best loved) citizens in the history of this city.

He was awarded the "Freedom of the City", which is quite an exclusive honour. And of course his family's Diner's Rendezvous restaurant was a local fixture for years. The Queen of England even dined there.

Chuck was extremely involved in the community.






================

[Nostradama]

It's possible that the markers were very simple because traditionally after a period of time the bones were disinterred and returned to the person's home village or "family hall" in China. So for many this was a temporary resting place, not their permanent one. This was definitely still happening in the early 1980s when I attended an elaborate feast (which is the only way I can describe it) marking the disinterment of the bones of a friend's mother, to be returned to China.

People attending funerals, at least the ones I've attended, are given a small envelope containing a candy and some coins. The candy is to take away the bitterness of the grief, and the money is to be spent on something you enjoy, in memory of the person who has died.

The ashes of a friend's parents are buried there. Since the mother was the descendant of one of the "Princess Royal" families and a descendant of one of Nanaimo's first city councillors, the family thought it was appropriate.

Her grandmother was born in the Holly Tree dental office building at the corner of Comox and Prideaux, which was the family home, and her grandfather (or great-grandfather) planted the holly tree that's still there. Whenever the family visits, they always swing by there.

[Harewoodian]

Thanks for the photos,my father is buried there.

[CaraNanaimo]

I grew up on Townsite and went to Quarterway, somewhere around 1982 they 'refurbished' the graveyard and removed the above ground *crypts* .. (cement encasements around the graves.) As kids we used to walk around and read the names, a lot of the markers you have posted were once on more elaborite settings. The refinishing of the graveyard took a lot of the charm out of the place.