Exhibit celebrates 155 years of Chinese-Canadian history(2)

"A lot of people, who live in and are used to multi-cultural societies, don't realize that a lot of, at least the early people, had to deal with a lot of hardships and difficulties that we can never imagine," she said.

"A lot of reasons that they came here was they didn't have a choice if they wanted to survive. They just had to accept those conditions that were very harsh to live and work in and just kind of persevere."

While life was difficult for many Chinese settlers, their thoughts of home were never far away. That was evidenced by the money they raised for Dr. Sun Yat-sen to fund the Xinhai Revolution in his quest to overthrow the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

In a letter on display at the museum written by Sun to Lim Bang, a prominent Victoria banker and businessman, is encouraged to raise as much money as possible for the cause. In the end, the city's Chinese community raised 30,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Chung said there have been disputes as to how many times Sun came to Victoria, but it is believed he was in the city in 1897 and 1911.

"Historians have acknowledged that Victoria Freemasons actually made the largest contribution (among Canadian Chinese communities) to the revolutions that were in 1911," she said.

"Lim Bang was a bank manager. He was a business owner, and he was also a really important financer for Dr. Sun, so important that actually after the establishment of the Republic (of China), after Dr. Sun's revolution was successful, he actually offered Mr. Lim Bang in Victoria a position in his cabinet, which Mr Lim declined."

The exhibit will run through Sept. 29 and Tim Willis, the museum's vice president of engagement and visitor experience, said the exhibit was just gearing up. He said the museum wants to attract more Chinese visitors who may be visiting nearby Vancouver, located 40 kilometers across the water.

"We get literally hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, especially over the summer season," Willis said. "I think they come here fascinated to know the story of British Columbia."