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A Brief History of Harling Point Cemetery
Harling Point Chinese Cemetery is a unique landscape in Victoria which represents a history of discrimination, tradition, and reform. In 1903, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association created an entirely new, exclusively Chinese, cemetery at Harling Point as an alternative to the nameless graves being washed away from within the highly segregated Ross Bay Cemetery1.
The cemetery included a large open-air altar, which may still be seen today, as well as a bone house which was demolished in 19501. As the only Chinese cemetery in Canada at the time, Chinese Canadians from across the country shipped the remains of loved ones to be stored, and exhumed for seven years until their bones could be retrieved, cleaned, and shipped back to China to be with their ancestors1.
In 1937 – upon the break out of the Sino-Japanese war – all shipments to China were halted, and in 1961 thirteen mass graves were dug to accommodate the 900 individuals who would not be returning to China2. More recently, funding from the Chinese community of Victoria and its corresponding benevolent association has been put into the upkeep of the Harling Point cemetery, and in 1996 the cemetery was designated as a national historic site2.
Relating back to my group’s question over why five out of six grave markers in our data set date back to 1961, while the sixth – grave number two on our map – says 2004, it appears that during ongoing refurbishment of the cemetery in the late 1990s and 2000s grave marker #2 may have been replaced2. It seems that the significance of “1961” being written on graves is the date in which the grave was sealed, and given the less worn, polished appearance of grave marker #2 it is very likely that the older marker was replaced in 2004.
Sources:
Grave Marker #4
Grave marker #4, represents one of thirteen mass graves dug in 1961 and contains the remains of citizens of Heshan county in China. The marker is similar to 1-6 in that it is made from red granite, faces upwards, and has identical inscriptions to markers 1,3,5,6 with its lettering facing the ocean. This grave stone measures 30 inches wide, 24 inches long, and 3 inches deep, matching the red granite markers of graves 1,3,5,6. There is what appears to be black paint behind the lettering on the marker which is less weathered than seen on the other markers.
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