Victoria’s Chinatown and Chinese New Year with John Adams

Event Description

Join us on Jan 16th, 7:30 at Ross Bay Villa Historic House Museum for our first event of 2024, featuring speaker John Adams.

John Adams, author of the award-winning book “Chinese Victoria”, presents a richly illustrated lecture on the origins of Victoria’s Chinese community. He will discuss how community members calculated the annual date of the festival in order to celebrate the New Year and how they also transplanted other Chinese traditions to Vancouver Island during the 1800s.

Some of these Chinese newcomers made the arduous winter journey back to China to celebrate the New Year with their families. Many more stayed in town, buying a lucky lily, letting off firecrackers, attending plays and entertaining their friends.
The Roscoe family of Ross Bay Villa employed Chinese cooks during their time in Victoria. In this lecture John Adams will explore how these men may have participated in the Lunar New Year festivities and how non-Chinese Victorians such as the Roscoes may have also joined in.

Tickets are $10/person and must be booked in advance at https://tinyurl.com/p8559pja. Book early-this event is likely to sell out!