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Alberta Online Encyclopedia

Chinese Places
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In Alberta, Chinese people tended to settle in smaller communities such as Taber and Raymond where they found work as cooks or agricultural labourers, and in some of the larger urban areas, such as Lethbridge and Edmonton. In the larger urban areas, many Chinese immigrants settled near one another, thus building a cohesive community up around them that eventually became a district of predominately Chinese people.

There are several possible reasons for a group of people to choose to stay within a culturally defined district, such as a Chinatown or Little China. In some cases economic factors determined where many Chinese lived. For many reasons, such as cultural barriers and discrimination, the Chinese people struggled economically in the early years and therefore did not have the financial means to live in some of the more affluent areas of the larger urban centres. Economics aside, Chinese people also gravitated towards the inner-cities in response to the racism they faced upon arrival in Canada. Many of the earlier Chinese immigrants did not expect to stay in Alberta, as they had plans to live in Alberta only for a short period of time, make some money for their families and return to their homeland. In such cases, it made sense for these people to only adapt to the new Canadian culture as much as was necessary, therefore, if they could organize a subculture that allowed them to maintain their diet, or foodways, religion, language, and perhaps even their style of dress. As a result, Chinatowns or little China provided the Chinese immigrants with a valuable service. Not only did these areas serve as social gathering places, they were also areas that served as shelters within strange cities that allowed the Chinese people to maintain a strong sense of their cultural identity -- and such shelters were very important during times when discrimination, and racism were rampant.

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