Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/112497
landmarks Tong Forgotten text by Tyee Bridge >> photograph by Thomas Drasdauskis As with similar lodges in Chinatowns from Burma to Australia, B.C.���s Chee Kung building in the former gold-rush town of Barkerville was once the ���tong��� ��� or meeting place ��� for members of a secret fraternal society. More than 40 tongs were built in B.C. alone by the turn of the 20th century. But as the oldest remaining example of Chee Kung architecture in Canada, this twostorey version built in 1868 is the only one designated a National Historic Site. >> Roughly translated as ���universal justice,��� the Chee Kung movement descended from the 17th-century efforts of Chinese revolutionaries to overthrow China���s Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1912). Member- 46 W E S T W O R L D p46-47_Landmarks.indd 46 >> ship involved pledges, ceremonies and altars honouring the organization���s ancestral founders. But Canada���s tongs were as much social clubs for Chinese immigrants as hotbeds of political action. >> More recently: Simon Fraser university students have unearthed 25,000 archaeological ���nds from beneath the building, including liquor, opium-related paraphernalia and gambling pips for games of fan-tan and dominos. These relics can be viewed when the tong ��� restored in the decade prior to Barkerville���s 150th anniversary this year ��� is open, May to September. ��� barkerville.ca/ WINTER 2012 12-10-26 7:50 AM