2021 Cross Cultural Walking Tour

Yucho Chow and the Chinese United Church

The Cross-Cultural Walking Tour is pleased to share some of the private and public lives of the Chinese United Church as seen through the dual lens of photographer, Yucho Chow, and the Archives of The United Church of Canada, Pacific Mountain Regional Council.

This vignette was prepared jointly by Blair Galston and June Chow.

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Yucho Chow

Photographer, Yucho Chow (1876-1949), is best known for his studio portraits of the individuals and families who made Vancouver home in the first half of the twentieth century. Their private lives celebrated through weddings, births and birthdays, anniversaries and other commemorations were captured within Yucho Chow Studio open “Rain or Shine”, day or night, in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown.

“Anything Anywhere Anytime” meant he also documented the rich public lives and communities they built, as settlers in an often hostile society. Chow was a favourite and trusted photographer of the Russian, Croatian and Sikh communities, and was frequently invited into their community spaces to photograph their membership.

Yucho Chow's most iconic self-portrait taken around 1930 when he moved to the 518 Main Street studio space. Image from the Yucho Chow Community Archive.

50th Anniversary of the Chinese United Church, 1938, PMRC Archives, BCCA 2811-51. Photo by Yucho Chow. Image shows the interior of the church at 430 Dunlevy.

Vancouver’s Chinese United Church

The Chinese United Church was among the many Chinese community organizations Chow helped document, of which he himself was a member. Many of the photos he took of the church and its significant presence in Chinatown and Strathcona can be found within the archives of the United Church of Canada Pacific Mountain Regional Council.

Chow photographed the congregation’s annual Canada Day picnics at Stanley Park, annual Sunday School graduating kindergarten class, and 50^th anniversary in 1938. At Yucho Chow Studio, he took group photos of the congregation’s ministers in their roles as church and community leaders, as well as in their roles as husbands and fathers within family portraits.

Kindergarten graduates, 1933, PMRC Archives, BCCA 2810-13. Photo by Yucho Chow. A photo of the Sunday school graduating kindergarten class was taken annually, here, at the entrance of the church’s building at 430 Dunlevy. The kindergarten was led by workers from the United Church Woman’s Missionary Society, and its primary role was teaching English as a second language so that language would not be a barrier in school or later, the workforce.

United Christian Society picnic at Stanley Park, 1912, PMRC Archives, BCCA 2811-43. Photo by Yucho Chow. This photo shows the celebration of Canada Day in the years before the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act on July 1st 1923, commonly known thereafter as “Humiliation Day” among the Chinese community. Photography equipment was heavy and cumbersome in its early days. From the pile of boulders in the foreground, one wonders where Yucho Chow set up his tripod to take this shot in Stanley Park. Can you spot Rev. Fong Dickman?

Rev. Fong Dickman

One of Chow’s earliest photos is of Rev. Fong Dickman and his family, who arrived in Vancouver from Nanaimo in 1906. This was the year that the Methodist mission (previously established in 1888 at the corner of Hastings and Abbott and moving several times) was able to build a new structure of its own at 531 Beatty Street. It was the same year that the young Yucho Chow established Yucho Chow Studio at its first location at 68 West Hastings, just a short walk away. Both gentlemen were community leaders in their own right. Rev. Fong Dickman also became founder and editor of 華英日報 Wa-Ying Yat-Po (Chinese-English Daily Newspaper), Canada’s first Chinese daily newspaper, which ran from 1906-1909.

Rev. Fong Dickman and family, [1910?], PMRC Archives, BCCA 2811-55. Photo by Yucho Chow.

Chinese United Church and Christian Education Centre, 1988, PMRC Archives, BCCA 2811-1. The image depicts a vibrant congregation celebrating its 100th anniversary outside 430 Dunlevy. A special concert including performances from several choirs marked the occasion.

Chinatown shifts eastward

In 1925, when the Methodist Church joined other denominations to form The United Church of Canada, the congregation changed its name to the Chinese United Church. By then, the Chinese community had shifted eastward, and a new church was built at 430 Dunlevy (at Pender) in the Strathcona community to better serve its members. By 1930, Yucho Chow also moved his studio eastward, to 518 Main Street at the height of its business, from where he photographed Vancouverites over the next two decades before his death in 1949 and his sons took over.

The Chinese United Church remained in Chinatown for many decades, celebrating its 100^th anniversary in 1988. In 1992, it amalgamated with Chown United Church in the Cambie Street Village, leaving behind its legacy of a century of service in Chinatown. Sadly, the former church building on Dunlevy was demolished.

Vancouver Chinese United Church 100th Anniversary

In this 1988 episode of Pressure Point, Barbara Anderson interviews the Rev. James Pan, and musical performances celebrate 100 years of Vancouver’s Chinese United Church.

(Click video to view full size on YouTube.)

Pressure Point was a production of Interchurch Television from 1975 to 2001.

It was an ecumenical venture of churches in Greater Vancouver, supported primarily by The United Church of Canada, BC Conference.