RON BULL/TORONTO STAR

AUSPICIOUS GATEWAY: Dragon sculptures decorate Spadina Ave. at Dundas St. This is the year of the dragon in Chinese astrology, a sign linked to high achievement.

Chinatown continues to thrive despite suburban exodus

Chinatown is set to expand in Toronto's core, carrying its Far East flavours all the way to the waterfront and stamping its character more firmly on the city.

Sapped by an exodus of businesses and residents heading to the suburbs in the early '90s, Canada's biggest Chinatown - in the Spadina Ave.-Dundas St. W. area - is gaining fresh momentum from new immigrants and new development, say community members and observers.

``People feel that they belong to the old Chinatown,'' says Fidelia Lam, who has lived in the area for nine years. ``The rundown buildings, old Chinese signages and sidewalk shopping remind them of their home (in Asia).

``Many of us are still drawn to the Spadina Ave.-Dundas St. W. strips, because this is the heart and soul of the Chinese community.''

Despite years of speculation that the downtown Chinatown would be phased out by the booming new suburban counterparts, the area is prospering, says York University geographer Lucia Lo.

``As long as there are people coming in, downtown Chinatown is to stay on,'' says Lo, who along with Ryerson University professor Shuguang Wang, has studied the settlement patterns of the Chinese community.

In their study published last year, Lo and Wang concluded that new immigrants from China are filling in the vacuum left by people headed to the suburbs and that ``the old ethnic enclaves in the core are still thriving.''

The real estate market has certainly noticed the rebirth: Two pieces of commercial real estate, both low-rise buildings, closed at $2.94 million and $2.38 million, sales that real estate broker Hung-Kwan Sit calls ``remarkable'' because the market has been sluggish in recent years. At least two new condominium projects have sprouted up in the area in the past two years.

``The Spadina corridor is the gateway to the city core. A revitalized Chinatown means a healthy downtown Toronto,'' says Sit, 61, who has worked in the area for 30 years. He says it is much more difficult to find vacancies now and predicts the area will only grow.

According to Statistics Canada, ethnic Chinese make up 3 per cent of the Canadian population and are the country's fastest growing ethnic group in recent years, due mainly to accelerated immigration.

They are the largest minority group in Greater Toronto - making up 380,000 or 5 per cent of the region's over-all population. Chinese is the third most common language spoken in Canada, just after English and French.

The growing population has helped Chinatown flourish, moving from a handful of tiny Chinese grocery stores and chop-suey restaurants on Elizabeth St. about 50 years ago, spilling into the Spadina-Dundas area and, in the past 10 years, into the 905 areas.

Two others are emerging at Willowdale in North York and Burnhamthorpe Rd.-Central Parkway in Mississauga.

The two Chinatowns in central Toronto were hard hit during the recession of the early '90s, losing out to new subdivisions that lured many businesses and residents to the suburbs with lower property taxes.

Coupled with agonizing traffic gridlock and parking problems, downtown growth was stagnant. For-sale signs were up at retail stores, Sit says, and many landowners scrambled to reduce rents to keep their occupants.

Between 1991 and 1996, the former city of Toronto's Chinese population increased by only 20 per cent and its role as an immigrant reception corridor was superseded by its suburban counterparts where the community there exploded in enormous rates - Scarborough (47 per cent), Markham (109 per cent), Richmond Hill (165 per cent) and Mississauga (86 per cent).

The draw of the suburbs was stronger for another reason as well.

The first Chinese migrants more than a century ago were poor rural peasants. They used downtown Chinatown as a settlement centre where they could make their transition into Canadian society.

``New immigrants are often intimidated by the change of environment and prefer to stick to something they are familiar with. It gives them a sense of security,'' says Benson Wong, who settled in Toronto from Guangzhou, China, in 1950.

But the first substantial wave of postwar arrivals were the middle-class from Hong Kong who left in fear of Communist China during the Cultural Revolution, which started in 1966 and lasted for a decade.

That was followed by the second influx of Hong Kong immigrants in the '80s and early '90s before the island's handover to China in 1997. At that time, Hong Kong was the primary source of Chinese immigrants to Canada.

Instead of settling in Chinatown, most Hong Kong immigrants chose the suburbs, where they found new, spacious houses at much lower prices than downtown, says Tonny Louie, vice-chair of the 400-member Toronto Chinatown Community Development Association.

``Toronto Chinatown was very vibrant until these immigrants settled down and moved on to other parts of the city,'' says Louie, 45, whose family arrived in 1965 and has run all kinds of businesses, from noodle manufacturing to taverns and real estate, along Spadina Ave.

But recent immigrant demographic changes have breathed new life into the downtown area. In February, 1999, 66 per cent of Chinese immigrants were from mainland China, up from only 1 in 4 in 1995. And with those changes came renewed growth in downtown Chinatown, Lo's study found.

The most concentrated settlement of mainland-born Chinese is in the Dundas-Spadina area, the study found, while most Vietnam-born Chinese choose to settle in East Chinatown at Gerrard St. and Broadview Ave. Those from Hong Kong and Taiwan mostly pick Scarborough, North York, Markham and Richmond Hill as home, it found.

The communities are diverse in terms of spoken languages - mainly Mandarin and Cantonese - cultures and history, Lo says.

``They all live differently; some of them don't even talk to each other.''

Tu Ji-Sheng, who moved into downtown Chinatown from the city's east end two years ago, says the mega Chinese-theme malls are too spread out in the suburbs and cater primarily to Cantonese-speaking customers from Hong Kong or Southern China.

``They are very much westernized and don't really give you the flavour of the Chinese culture,'' the 50-year-old man from Hubei, China, says in Mandarin. ``Everything is so concentrated in downtown Chinatown and you can shop, eat and go to work all within walking distance.''

Lo's study found distinct differences in socio-economic characteristics between Chinese downtown and in the suburbs.

The Chinese in the core were relatively less educated and skilled and made less money.

Without the financial resources, education and skills of their Hong Kong counterparts, migrants from China are willing to take low-paying manual work and live nearby to save on transportation.

But ``these people are motivated to work hard and succeed,'' notes William Wen, owner of the 43-year-old Sai Woo Restaurant on Dundas St. W.

``Tough times make people strong and that's what makes Chinatown able to carry on over the years.''

Dong Zhao, his daughter, son and wife have all been working in Chinatown's restaurants and grocery stores since they came as refugees from Shanghai in 1995.

``We are trying to save enough money to run a little business of our own soon. We don't know much of English or Cantonese, and downtown Chinatown will be a good location for us,'' says Zhao, 60.

Earlier this year, the City of Toronto approved a rezoning bylaw to convert the industrial area on Spadina south of Dundas into a mix of commercial and residential uses, allowing development heights to a maximum five times the area of the building lot - up from 2.5 before.

That will open the door for more high-density residential development along the Spadina corridor, says Sit.

Councillor Olivia Chow (Downtown) predicts continuing growth in the area. ``I am confident that Chinatown will remain as prosperous as it has ever been.''

Wong, who until 1995 ran a photo developing store on Dundas St. W., agrees.

``To me, there is only one Chinatown across the entire Greater Toronto. It's right here at Dundas St. and Spadina Ave.,'' he says.

``It's the crowd, the cyclists, the smell of the air and the sidewalk shopping experience that make it the Chinatown.''