Downtown Calgary park renamed to honour Chinese Canadian community
Global News
和園 Harmony Park and Parkade, formerly known as James Short Park, was chosen by the Chinatown community through an engagement process throughout the past year.
A downtown Calgary park was renamed on Thursday after years of calls to remove its racist namesake from public spaces.
和園 Harmony Park and Parkade, formerly known as James Short Park and Parkade, was chosen by the Chinatown community through an engagement process throughout the past year. The city said an ad-hoc group consisting of Chinatown community members and the city’s project team was created to review the “many names” suggested by the community.
According to a city release on Wednesday morning, the renaming of the park is part of the city’s efforts to strengthen the cultural vibrancy of Chinatown and address the historic harm caused by racial discrimination against Chinese Calgarians.
James Short was a lawyer in the late 1800s and early 1900s who actively petitioned against the construction of the first Chinese-owned commercial building in 1910.
“I applaud The City of Calgary’s commitment and efforts in becoming an anti-racist organization and setting the city on a course to be an anti-racist city that treats all citizens with dignity and respect,” said Teresa Woo-Paw, president of the Asian Heritage Foundation, in a statement on Friday.
The park’s renaming also honours the culture and virtues that many Chinese Calgarians share.
和, or harmony in English, is a term that carries enormous weight in Chinese culture. It is one of the most cherished ethical and social ideals in Chinese culture and can be linked to Confucianism, an ancient Chinese belief system that values ethics and morality.
Harmony is a dynamic process that seeks to balance and resolve conflicts and differences into a mutually beneficial relationship for the good of the larger society, according to Confucian thought.
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