Makeover coming to parts of Chinatown

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This article was published 13/08/2023 (278 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A makeover is coming to parts of Chinatown.

This fall, the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre will undergo its biggest renovation in its 40-year history — the creation of a public gallery showcasing Chinatown’s culture.

Area leads are also organizing a Chinatown night market for September, temporarily shutting down portions of James Avenue and King Street and filling the roads with food trucks and performers.

“We want to see this part of the downtown be vibrant again,” said Ben Lee, past-president of the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre. He’s chair of both the centre and the Chinatown Night Market, he said.

Volunteers have been discussing the community centre’s revamp for roughly four years. Finally, after getting the necessary funding, the second floor of 180 King St. is ready for construction.

Ceilings, flooring and finishings will be changed. In the meantime, the community centre’s board is gathering artifact donations from Manitoba’s Chinese community to display in a new gallery.

“We (want to) capture the richness of… the Chinatown culture,” Lee said. “If we don’t capture it now, we’re going to lose it.”

Artifacts are in the process of being collected, Lee said. He didn’t have details on the artifacts to be on display.

The renovation, which is slated to begin in September, has a budget of $850,000. Around 95 per cent of the funding comes from federal, provincial and city government grants, Lee said.

The cultural centre raised the latter funds.

“I really want visitors to say, ‘Wow, how can I spend more time here?’” Lee stated. “We want to create the environment where people want to come back (to Chinatown).”

The area is peppered with vacant buildings. Last year, the Free Press spoke to a long-time Chinatown grocer who, upon retiring, said the area had gone “from good to worse” during his 43 years in business.

A range of changes are required to create a vibrant Chinatown, Lee noted.

“We have to look at Chinatown not as what Chinatowns of the past looked like,” he said. “It’s more like, ‘What can a Chinatown of the future look like?’”

That involves more residents and events, he added.

More than 500 housing units have opened near the area since 2019, Lee said. He believes the creation of Market Lands, a planned 10-storey mixed-use building replacing the former Public Safety Building, will bring more business to Chinatown.

In the short-term, Lee and peers are working on their second Chinatown Night Market to attract people. They expect more than 5,000 attendees.

The event is set for Sept. 9 and 10. It follows the first-ever Chinatown Night Market last October, which drew around 4,000 people.

Chinatown’s population is increasingly diverse. As a reflection, the night market will have Chinese, Indigenous, Japanese and K-pop performers, Lee said.

His team has planned an arm-wrestling competition for Saturday. Also for Sept. 9, the night market has partnered with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Lee said — 30 newcomers will be sworn as Canadian citizens at 1:30 p.m.

Organizers began planning the two-day event last November.

“I think it’s amazing,” Fane Smeall, owner of Sk8 Skates, said of the upcoming market.

Sk8 Skates is a short walk away from the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre. More events in the area are needed, Smeall believed.

Business has been “up and down” since the pandemic — Chinatown is near the Exchange District, but many shoppers don’t walk over, Smeall said, adding the area can be considered “sketchy.”

“I have noticed a lot of people coming in the shop this year saying that they’ve just moved into an apartment nearby,” Smeall said. “It definitely has made a difference.”

Lee hopes to see more residents near Chinatown in the future. Winnipeg’s Downtown Recovery Strategy, released in 2021, set a target of 1,500 new mixed-income downtown housing units over a three-year span.

Lee expects the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre to be closed to the public during the gallery’s construction. Renovation could last into the New Year.

Lee was unsure whether the gallery would be free once open.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com