founding member
Wongs' Benevolent Association
黃氏宗親總會
121 E. Pender Street
YEAR BUILT 1921
HERITAGE CATEGORY A
DEFINING ELEMENTS
recessed balconies
decorative stained glass
cornice & columns
BUILDING COMPOSITION
FLOORS 2–3: SOCIETY HALL
FLOOR 1: RETAIL
In 1970 the Wong’s Benevolent Association was officially formed through the merging of the Wong Kung Har Tong and the Wong Wun Sun Society.
Brief History
The building was originally built in 1910 with a first, mezzanine, and upper floors. Wongs’ Benevolent Association demolished the upper floor of the original building and added two new floors for a school and an association assembly hall.
The renovations, some of which were designed by the Chinese Canadian architect W. H. Chow, reflected the growth of Chinatown in the 1920s. The decorative details of the altered building and the location of the assembly hall high above the street were used to signify the status of the Wong clan in China and in the Chinese Canadian community.
Of the alterations, the recessed balconies is a key feature of the Chinatown architectural style and demonstrates the continuing importance of the feature in asserting the Chinese Canadian cultural identity.
The building is also referred to as the Mon Keang School. Since 1925, until recently, Chinese children have attended Chinese language classes here. In 1947, after the repeal of the Exclusion Act and the unification and growth of many families, the school was the first in Canada to offer high school level Chinese classes. The heritage value of the Wongs’ Benevolent Association’s Mon Keang School Building was formally recognized and listed in the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Resources
Parks Canada. Canada’s Historic Places, Wongs’ Benevolent Association Chinese School. Parks Canada Website.
Hon Hsing
黃氏宗親總會
The Club was named after a brave general from China’s fabled ‘Three Kingdoms period’ named General Hon Hsing who is remembered for caring for his soldiers despite their different surnames and backgrounds. Hong Hsing Athletic Club was the first school to offer Chinese martial arts classes in Canada.
Constructed in 1910, the Hon Hsing Building is an early example of a distinct Chinatown architectural style: vertical proportions; four storeys high (some have only three), with one or more of the upper floors featuring recessed balconies and building-wide glazing facing the street.
The Hon Hsing Building was built to the designs by a European-Canadian architect, R.J. MacDonald, one year after the construction of the prototype — Chinese Benevolent Association Building (1909). This building design presents a significant shift away from the architectural styles of Vancouver’s commercial buildings toward a more distinctly ‘Chinese’ form. This form would later come to be identified with Chinatown. The later addition of a metal cornice in 1914 was a distinguishing character of the building’s appearance.
The Hon Hsing Athletic Club of Vancouver was founded in 1939 by the Wongs Benevolent Association (formerly the Wong Wun Sun Society and the Wong Kung Har Tong Society). It was open to all Chinese Canadians regardless of surname to raising funds through Chinese lion dancing to help with the war efforts in China.
The club was named after a brave general from China’s fabled ‘Three Kingdoms period’ named General Hon Hsing who is remembered for caring for his soldiers despite their different surnames and backgrounds.
Hon Hsing Athletic Club was the first school to offer Chinese martial arts classes in Canada. It is an important example of a clan-based organization offering and directing activities for young people. Today, the club is a volunteer organization committed to passing Chinese culture and traditions on to the next generation of Canadian youth.
