On November 11th, I had the honour of reading the poem, “For the Fallen” by poet Laurence Binyon for the Remembrance Day ceremony at Chinatown Memorial Square at the corner of Keefer and Columbia. Binyon, who was too old to enlist as a soldier, wrote “For the Fallen” in 1914 while he was working as a medical orderly in a French military hospital during World War I. The fourth stanza of Binyon’s poem is well-known and often quoted:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
It was moving to hear the veterans and soldiers echo the phrase, “We will remember them,” as it perfectly distilled the emotional essence of the gathering. The ceremony which started at 12:30 pm following the morning ceremony at Victory Square, was organized by ANAVETS, Pacific Unit # 280, the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, HMCS Discovery and 39 Service Battalion. Thank you to King Wan, Randall (Bud) Wong, and Harry Fong for including me.
The Chinatown Remembrance Day ceremony is extremely meaningful to the Chinese Canadian community. Over 600 Chinese Canadian soldiers, as well as other Chinese Canadians both male and female, volunteered in Canada’s war effort during World War II while being denied Canadian citizenship and while experiencing ongoing informal and formal segregation policies in housing and employment, at public amenities like swimming pools and cinemas, and more. Their patriotic efforts paved the way for the repeal of The Chinese Exclusion Act which had barred Chinese immigration from 1923-1947. Chinese Canadians were finally granted the right to vote as well.
The Chinese Canadian Museum in collaboration with the Chinatown Military Museum Society will be launching a new exhibit in the spring of 2025, “A Soldier for All Seasons,” about the role of Chinese Canadian soldiers.
Earlier in the day at the Vancouver’s Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Victory Square, 11-year-old Kari Wang, a Grade 6 student from H.T. Thrift Elementary, recited her poem, “The Colour of Remembrance.” (Each year, student winners of the Cam Cathcart Youth Poem of Remembrance Award recite their original poems. Cam Cathcart, who served as Vancouver’s director of ceremonies for 18 years before his death in 2021, created the award to engage local youth.) The full poem was printed in the program for the ceremony:
THE COLOUR OF REMEMBRANCE by Kari Wang
If remembrance was a colour,
It would be red and white.
The colour of the Canadian flag.
If remembrance was a sound,
It would be people’s heartbeats,
The worried heartbeats of the soldiers
and the families that are waiting
for them to come home.
If remembrance was a smell,
It would be a comforting smell from home.
The cozy place that was always
welcoming to you.
If remembrance was a feeling,
It would be hopeful.
The hope of warm hugs and good friends
when you return.
If remembrance was a taste,
It would be bitter,
The bitterness of coffee without cream,
Like a family that has been split apart.
If remembrance was a place,
It would be a cenotaph.
Where names of long-ago heroes are written
on the stone for people to remember.
If remembrance has a purpose,
It is to recognize and remember all
the people that have participated in wars.
So that we could have peace and freedom.
In 2023, Jacqueline Murray, a Grade 12 student at Little Flower Academy, won the award. reading her poem, “They Do Not Chill Us So.” In 2022, Sapphire Peng read her poem, “Red of the Poppy.” In 2021, student Mikah Nanson read his poem, “The Forgotten Algonquin” to honour the First Nations soldiers who fought for Canada.