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Page M14 September 19. 1990. This Week

FOCUS

Oldest Chinese public
school in Canada
continues to teach
Victorians Cantonese

t 4 p.m., when most children have finished school,

90 students at the Chinese Public School on Fis-

gard Street are just starting classes. The

hildren, of Chinese, Vietnamese and Canadian

descent, attend the oldest Chinese public school in Canada.

After their regular day at Victoria’s schools, they attend
class for two hours, learning Cantonese, traditional callig-
raphy and water-color painting. Children at the school
range in age from 5-13 years old.

The students’ work hangs on classroom walls and in the
school’s main hallway, along with photographs of early
graduating classes. Two of the photographs show 200 stu-
dents attending the school in 1920 but the 1940 graduating
class had only five members.

Initially, the school taught Chinese children English.
This came about after a 1907 Victoria School Board ruling
that no Chinese would be admitted to public schools unless
they spoke English. That year, 40 Chinese students were
banned from attending Victoria schools. As a result, the
existing Chinese school, Le Qun Yi Shu, was filled past its
capacity, so Chinese businessmen purchased the land on
Fisgard Street to accommodate the new school.

The new building, with its distinct red-brick facade,
combined traditional Chinese architecture with European.
The Italian architect incorporated Gothic arches ‘and
stained glass with a roof designed to ward off evil spirits.

Inside, the students still occupy four schoolrooms. A fifth
room serves as an administrative office for principal and
head teacher Daniel Chan.

Chan, who has taught at the school 17 years, and five
others teach a curriculum, concentrating on spoken and
written Cantonese. The majority of early Chinese settlers
in Victoria came from Canton, bringing with them their
language and culture.

Much of their history is preserved in the school building.
Hand-carved wooden panels adorn the main-hallway
entrance. On the second floor, an ornate wooden altar,
decorated with red and gold paints dominates the assemb-
ly hall shared by the school and Chinese Consolidated
Benevolent Society. The altar, brought from Canton in
1844, remains locked behind an iron gate at the hall’s
entrance.

The school doors also are locked until students start
arriving for class. Each weekday, a few minutes before 4
p.m. the sounds of laughter fill the air outside the school.
A group of young girls jump a large elastic, as young boys
with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle T-shirts chase each
other around the building. Affirming its role during eighty-
one years, the Chinese school continues to serve Victoria -
combining Western and Chinese cultures.

GRADE ONES in teacher Mona Tao’s class (centen respond
eagerly to her questions during a Cantonese lesson. School
principal Daniel Chan (leff) stands in front of school photos student, Janice Wong.
and a portrait of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, father of the Republic of board during principal

Hie See ee tee oN be ot Ae oe i ob en |

CHINESE PUBLIC SCHOOL students play in the school grounds on Fisgard Street before
classes. The distinct building is the oldest Chinese public school in Canada.

Photos and Story by CHUCK RUSSELL

justice. Grade one student, Angela Chang, 6 Gop right). |
participates during Cantonese lessons. McKenzie Elementary

10 (bottom right), looks at the black
Chan’‘s calligraphy instruction.

Suny