As May begins, the Regional Archives will be helping us celebrate and promote Asian Heritage Month by featuring a vignette from our history. For this first feature, we visit Vancouver’s Chinatown.
In Vancouver, Yucho Chow is celebrated as Chinatown’s first and most prolific photographer. He operated a studio from 1906 to 1949. His photographs document a greater diversity than one might expect. At a time when many white businesses refused service to non-white customers, Chow opened his doors to many other marginalized communities, including Sikh and Hindu immigrants, Black residents, Indigenous peoples, and mixed-race families.
The Pacific Mountain Regional Council (PMRC) Archives holds several Yucho Chow photos within its collections, because the Chinese Methodist/United Church was one of Chow’s customers.