St. John's cemetery sheds light on early Chinese immigration — and a cold case murder
Nov 21, 2018John's in 1938, the case is still unsolved.Kit's grave sits in the General Protestant Cemetery between Waterford Bridge Road and old Topsail Road in the west end of St. John's, in a section where many of the headstones have Chinese characters and surnames like Lee and Hong.Provincial folklorist Dale Jarvis has researched some of the Chinese headstones in the General Protestant Cemetery and the stories of the men buried there. (Paula Gale/CBC)Provincial folklorist Dale Jarvis said the men all came from the province of Guangdong in southern China — an example of chain immigration, where people from the same families travelled to Newfoundland to find work, often with the relatives who were already here.There are 27 Chinese graves in this section of the General Protestant Cemetery, which is located between Waterford Bridge Road and old Topsail Road in St. John's. (Paula Gale/CBC)According to Jarvis, Kit was a 35-year-old businessman who was found in his restaurant by a dairy farmer from Kilbride."And no one was ever brought to justice for his murder … an unsolved murder case that led to the mass questioning of every Chinese resident of St. John's," he said.Racism and violenceJarvis said life in St. John's was not easy for those early immigrants."There was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment in St. John's at the time." He pointed to the grave of Jim Lee, who ran one of the hand laundries in the city.Bob Hong's late father arrived in Newfoundland in 1931 and went on to become a successful restaurant owner. Hong says his father never talked about the hardships he endured as an early immigrant. (Paula Gale/CBC)"The newspaper accounts are a pretty good record of the early Chinese experience," said Jarvis."Jim Lee was attacked and beaten. He was robbed several times. Young boys in the neighborhood would throw rocks through the windows of the Chinese laundry."Hardships not talked about Bob Hong's father, Ge...
