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.
“This name reflects inclusiveness and the recognition (of) the Chinese people’s contributions to Calgary. It represents overcoming racism and what the Chinese community is all about,” Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong told reporters on Friday.
“We are an inclusive community. We are also a community that recognizes these diversities… It’s a name that allows people to come together in harmony and recognize that we are all citizens.”
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.
“The Chinese word 和 expresses the concept of peace, togetherness or the absence of conflict. For social interactions in a peaceful and orderly society, the concept of 和 is very much one of the key elements,” said Malcolm Chow, chairman of the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre, in a statement.
“Philosophers throughout the centuries have identified mutual respect, tolerance and the right to be different as the fundamental principles that guide a civilized society. Without any one of these three principles, a civilized society, especially a liberal democracy, cannot be sustained, as it will lead to conflicts and hostilities among individuals.”
But Short’s racist legacy will not be forgotten. The city said it is trying to find a way to educate Calgarians about who Short was as a person but did not provide details.
“It’s important that history is not erased. It’s important that we tell the story of James Short and how his involvement was (harmful),” said Michelle Reid, cultural landscape lead with Calgary Parks.
“We recognize that the city’s role in (naming the park after him) was probably very insensitive and this is a step towards us becoming an anti-racist organization.”
Wong said there is still a lot of work to be done to address racism in the city.
“There are definitely still people experiencing racism here,” Wong said.
“There is still racism in Calgary, whether it’s from the SARS epidemic or the COVID-19 pandemic or other issues. I and other people are still feeling the effects of it.”
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