Canada 150: Yip Sang, the unofficial mayor of Chinatown
John Mackie, Vancouver Sun, June 13, 2017
You can’t overstate Yip Sang’s importance to Vancouver’s Chinatown. Working as the superintendent for the Kwong On Wo company in the 1880s, he imported 6,000 to 7,000 Chinese labourers to work on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Yip Sang held several positions: bookkeeper, timekeeper and paymaster. Legend has it he used to pay the Chinese CPR workers by riding his horse to the Chinese campsites carrying a sack of money, and a gun, just in case. Read more…
A 1916 photo of Yip Sang, middle, with some of his 24 children and grandchildren. HANDOUT
