[00:00.00]On his return to Canada
[00:02.50]he undertook a new enterprise.
[00:04.47]He became a merchant,
[00:07.31]opening an importexport business
[00:09.94]in the heart of
[00:11.03]Vancouver’s Chinatown.
[00:14.32]Wing Sang Company specialized in
[00:16.72]goods imported from China.
[00:18.91]The company provided Chinese Canadians
[00:21.97] with merchandise not readily available
[00:24.92] in Vancouver and exported
[00:27.99]Canadian foodstuffs to China.
[00:29.52]His formula of pouring as much money
[00:33.57]as he could afford into building
[00:36.30]and expansion couldn’t help
[00:39.69]but succeed. In 1889,
[00:41.67]Yip Sang bought land on Pender Street
[00:45.17]in Chinatown and began
[00:46.81]construction of a complex,
[00:48.01]which still stands today.
[00:51.08]Initiall being a two story building
[00:56.55] with a ground floor storefront
[00:58.51] and a second floor residence,
[01:00.59]it was probably the first
[01:02.45]in Chinatown to be
[01:04.10]built of durable brick.
[01:05.51]Customers of the store walked
[01:08.25]on wooden platforms covering the unpaved
[01:10.98]dirt streets to avoid tracking
[01:13.72]the dust and mud into the building.
[01:16.46]With the tone of success,
[01:19.08]Yip Sang added to his building.
[01:21.71]In 1901, he widened the street to
[01:23.46]accommodate three more shops,
[01:28.05]each with a second story above.
[01:30.24]He also added a third floor
[01:34.29]to the original building in the same year.
[01:37.46] In 1912, to house both his growing family
[01:42.16] and his business, he built
[01:44.90]a new sixstory brick building
[01:47.31]behind the old one and
[01:49.27]connected to it by
[01:50.81]a narrow corridor at ground level,
[01:52.56]and by an enclosed stairway extension
[01:55.63]on the third floor that
[01:57.59] stretched above the alley
[01:59.34]between the two buildings.
[02:01.09]Most of the new building was
[02:03.61]used to warehouse goods
[02:05.91]for the import/export business.
[02:07.98]Yip Sang’s involvement with
[02:13.02]shipping companies and his own business
[02:14.99]demonstrated his understanding of
[02:16.63]the freight industry and his ability
[02:19.36]to work fluently in
[02:20.89]both Chinese and English languages.
[02:23.63]In 1889, the CPR rehired Yip Sang
[02:29.98]to act as their Chinese Passenger Agent
[02:32.38] for their Canadian Steamship Line,
[02:34.79]a position he held until
[02:37.64]his death in 1927 at the age of 82.
[02:41.02]The demand for salted herring
[02:45.95]in China, in conjunction with
[02:48.46] huge catches being brought in
[02:50.55]by the fishing fleet,
[02:51.85]spurred Yip Sang to build
[02:54.15]a fish packing plant in Nanaimo.
[02:57.54]The success of this plant
[02:59.63]led to the opening of
[03:01.49] a second plant on
[03:02.79]Vancouver Island soon afterward.
[03:04.77]Both plants were staffed
[03:07.94]by large numbers of Chinese workers
[03:10.24]and helped establish a
[03:12.43]sizeable Chinese community
[03:14.50]in Nanaimo’s downtown core |