Historic Chinese garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown greeted by anti-Asian slurs first thing in the morning
By Carl Samson
A historic Chinese garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown reportedly fell victim to an early morning anti-Asian tirade on Saturday, with staff members claiming that the perpetrator said one racial slur “like an angry mantra.”
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, regarded as the first full-sized classical Chinese garden built outside China, is no stranger to similar attacks, having dealt with incidents of vandalism throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Custodian Douglas Ferguson said he and an Asian coworker were about to go to work when they came across two people who were blocking the garden’s entrance with several bags of bottles. The abuse reportedly started after Ferguson and his colleague asked them to move.
“He’s Asian [coworker] and the one guy just started saying f*ck’n and then he would say this racial slur repeatedly like an angry mantra,” Ferguson told Global News.
The alleged abuser eventually moved his objects across the street. However, the racist tirade went on.
“He kept saying it over and over again f*ck’n the word over and over and over again,” Ferguson was quoted as saying.
The word was “ch*nk,” according to Lorraine Lowe, the garden’s executive director, who confirmed the incident in a tweet.
“My staff did experience racial slurs hurled at them. [They were told] ‘F you, CH^NK CH^NK!’ when asked to make some room to open [the] gate this morning to access,” Lowe wrote.
The garden has reportedly suffered vandalism for months. Back in January, staff members were shocked to see large nuisance graffiti scrawled across its outer walls. At the time, Lowe revealed that they had already been dealing with disorder and harassment around the property, including people urinating and defecating in its entrance.
“When our staff arrives at 9 a.m. in the morning, and we have to open our doors at 10 a.m., the waft of smell and the urine – it’s just, I don’t know if it’s targeted, it’s starting to feel like it is over a course of repeated incidents,” Lowe told CTV News.
“There’s other places to defecate – whatever – but it just seems to happen all the time where our entrance gate is right on Carrall Street,” she added.
In June, a mural commissioned by the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Association (BIA) in partnership with the garden and the Vancouver Mural Festival was defaced. “It was nice while it lasted,” Lowe tweeted at the time.
Featured Image via U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada
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