How fear, racism and smallpox fuelled an attack on Calgary's first Chinatown
The narrative that the outbreak of smallpox was the fault of Chinese migrants from Vancouver and Victoria was reported in the Calgary Herald in the weeks before the event.
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'If the Chinese now at the quarantine are sent back into town there will be trouble,' said a July 19 editorial.
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Though initial coverage of the riot in an article titled Hunting Chinamen condemned the violence — commending the town of Calgary's 'orderly, law-respecting spirit' — later comments in the Herald would suggest methods to root out the 'obnoxious element' while respecting their right to personal liberty and safety.
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'We may decide among ourselves that these may become nests of disease, and we may abstain from sending washing to them,' an Aug. 5 article said of the Chinese laundries on Stephen Avenue.
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Tony Wong, the former president of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Calgary, says the riot still exists in the cultural memory of Calgary's Chinese population, though only among historically minded members of the community.
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'When the culture centre first opened in 1992, every year we received over 400 school groups, and I often would conduct tours,' he says.
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But as the education system moved away from Chinese history and culture, he notes that the knowledge of the Calgary Chinese community's history declined.
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He says that although the outright prejudice against Chinese people has waned, the otherness — or quality of being different — experienced by the Chinese population is alive and well.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, subtle discrimination emerged in new ways. Angie Wong says fears about the virus's origin echoed historical stereotypes of Chinese people as disease-carrying — the same narratives that fuelled the smallpox riot in 1892.
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The Calgary Police Service publicly noted an increase in hate‑motivated incidents during the pandemic directed at Asian Canadians in the city. Unlike in 1892, where city officials largely dismissed violence, local authorities in 2020 and 2021 explicitly monitored and investigated COVID‑related anti‑Asian incidents, including vandalism and verbal harassment.
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For many in the community, it was a painful reminder: Even a century later, prejudice can resurface, especially in times of fear.
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Tony Wong says it will take effort to connect Calgarians with the Chinese community, but it can be done.
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'I worked in Sun Life Plaza, right across the street from Chinatown, for 20 years, and some of my colleagues have never set foot in Chinatown,' he says. 'It's something they don't understand. So, I'm not saying that these colleagues of mine, they have prejudice, but they have some mental block.'
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