Chinese Farmers of Celery City, Armstrong, Plaque
This bronze plaque is located inside the Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum, 3415 Pleasant Valley Rd., Armstrong, BC. It was developed with the support of the City of Armstrong.
The plaque was cast at Ornamental Bronze, a unionized foundry in Richmond which has operated since 1928. It was unveiled in 2016.
This is one of many Plaques around the Province, a project of the BC Labour Heritage Centre which aims to recognize events, actions, episodes, movements, or experiences that played a significant role in the history of the labour movement and working people in all regions of British Columbia.
The Chinese Farmers of “Celery City”
The plaque reads: Armstrong’s early agricultural success owes much to the hard working Chinese immigrants who cultivated the city’s fertile bottomlands. As many as 500 Chinese labourers lived in huts in the fields and bunkhouses in Chinatown in the winter. They grew crops that included celery, cabbage, lettuce and potatoes which were shipped across Canada. Life for Chinese farmers was challenging. They faced restrictive immigration laws, a prohibitive head tax and were later barred from entering the country. They could not own land and endured much racial animosity. Despite these obstacles, Chinese workers were an integral part of Armstrong’s history and helped it become what was once the “Celery Capital of Canada”. BC Labour Heritage Centre 2016 Union Made City of Armstrong