In the 1900s, about 90 per cent of the Chinese in Montréal were surnamed Tam (sometimes romanised as Tom, Thom, Hom, Ham or Hum in Toisanese), Wong and Lee. They had established clan associations and inter-clan conflicts were frequent. If a laundryman surnamed Wong felt that he was cheated by another laundryman surnamed Lee, he would take his complaint to the Wong Association. Naturally, the Lee Association would feel obliged to defend its clan member. Thus interpersonal conflicts would often escalate to involve associations.

Soon after the Republic of China was established in 1912, a Chinese consul in Ottawa visited Montréal’s Chinatown and helped the Chinese form a Chinese Benevolent Association. Six directors, two from each clan (Wong, Lee and Tam) ran the association. When a dispute between two clans happened, it would be taken to CBA where the two directors from the third clan would resolve the conflict. Many Chinese of other surnames in Montréal were not pleased that only three large clans elected CBA directors. External political pressures acted as a catalyst for addressing this internal tension: In February 1912 the provincial government passed an Act whereby Chinese laundrymen in Montréal had to pay a $50 tax on top of a $50 license fee. Laundries run by white people did not have to pay the $50 tax. The CBA director immediately appealed to Consul General Yang Shuwen for help. In response, in February 1915, Consul General Yang suggested that the directorate of the CBA should include Chinese of other surnames to strengthen the CBA in its fight against the laundry license fee and other discriminatory acts against the Chinese in Montréal. Based on the Chinese consul general’s advice, the directorate of the CBA then came to be constituted by one member from each of the five clans (Tam, Wong, Lee, Chan, Woo and Ng), one member of an association such as the Chee Kung Tong and Constitution Party, and any Chinese who made an annual donation of $2 to the association.

During the 1910s, Montréal Chinatown, comprised of about twenty Chinese businesses, had expanded from the intersection of de la Gauchetiere Street West and St-Urbain Street to other nearby streets. In October 1918, an epidemic of Spanish influenza occurred among the Chinese. Since there was no hospital in Chinatown, Catholic nuns set up a ten-bed hospital near Chinatown for Chinese patients. After the epidemic was over, Chinese community leaders pooled their resources to purchase a building at 112 de la Gauchetiere Street West in 1920 for the Montréal Chinese Hospital. It was administered by Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and attended by part-time francophone doctors.

Montréal Chinatown thrived through the late 1910s. By 1921, Montréal had a Chinese population of 1,734, and had become the fourth largest Chinatown after Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto. It was bounded by Dorchester, Elain, de la Gauchetiere, and Chenneville streets. A large number of Chinese businesses and institutions such as the Chee Kung Tong, the Chinese Hospital and the Chinese Methodist Church were concentrated on de la Gauchetiere Street West, the commercial spine of Montréal Chinatown.

Similar to other Chinatowns, there was also conflict between the Chee Kung Tong and the Kuomintang. Fights between members of the two associations often broke out in Chinatown. There was also competition between the Catholics and Protestants in Chinatown. The Catholic Church was more powerful and played a big role in the Montréal Chinese Hospital. The Church also organized English and French language classes for the Chinese. The Catholic School Commission assisted a sisterhood of nuns to operate an elementary school for Chinese children. Like the Catholics, the Protestants also organized language classes and translation services for the Chinese. For example, both the Emmanuel Congregation Church and Chinese Presbyterian Mission organized a Sunday school for Chinese.

After the Canadian government passed the Chinese Immigration Act in 1923 effectively excluding the entry of Chinese to Canada, the slow and small Chinese population increase was due only to births. Thus, the 1941 census, for example, indicated that the Chinese population in Canada amounted to only 34,627 of which 18,619 resided in British Columbia, 6,143 in Ontario, 3,122 in Alberta, 2,545 in Saskatchewan, 2,378 in Quebec, 1,248 in Manitoba, 372 in Nova Scotia and 200 in other provinces and territories. Montréal Chinatown had a Chinese population of 1,703. Québec’s second Chinatown was in Québec City with only 130 Chinese residents.

After the Second World War, many old Chinatowns declined and eventually disappeared. Montréal Chinatown was declining because of depopulation, land speculation and disunity in the Chinese community. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, properties around Montréal Chinatown were increasing in value as it was sandwiched between Old Montréal and the city’s downtown business district. Speculators purchased old buildings in Chinatown, demolished them, used vacant sites as parking lots and then sold them when attractive prices were offered. In 1962, for example, the Chinese Hospital was condemned by the fire department and closed. A new Chinese Hospital was built outside Chinatown because there was no suitable land available in Chinatown. The Chinese United Church was demolished to provide the site for new Hydro Québec offices. The Complexe Desjardins project was developed in the northwest part of Chinatown. Many houses were demolished due to the widening of Dorchester Street (now known as René Lévesque Boulevard). As a result a large number of old buildings were demolished without being replaced; low-rent housing in Chinatown became difficult to find. During the 1960s, Montréal had 8,000 Chinese residents though only about eight percent still lived in Chinatown. A plan for Chinatown redevelopment was proposed, but it was soon shelved, not because there was lack of money and official support but because the Chinese Benevolent Association of Montréal “could not arouse the necessary interest within Chinatown and could not unite the various factions.” Like some other Chinese communities, the Chinese community in Montréal was so politically and religiously divided that it was difficult to carry out any community project. The only significant community project was the establishment of Pagoda Park on St-Urbain Street to celebrate Canada’s hundredth anniversary in 1967. The Chinese pagoda became a significant landmark in Chinatown, and was “dedicated to the cause of peace and harmony among all Canadians.”

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Montréal Chinatown was reduced by expropriation and redevelopment. In 1975, the federal government announced the construction of Place Guy Favreau, a massive complex of high-rise offices and apartment buildings. The expropriation resulted in the demolition of the Chinese Presbyterian Church, Chinese Pentecostal Church, the Wong Wing Food Products factory, a few Chinese grocery stores and other non-Chinese structures on the block. The Chinese Catholic Church was the only structure that escaped demolition because it was designated a historic monument in 1977. City officials regarded the massive projects of Complexe Desjardins, Complexe Guy Favreau, and Place du Quarter as the catalyst and incentive for the revitalization of Chinatown, although they were only marginally related to the lives and society of Chinese in the area.

While these overbearing projects threatened the survival of Chinatown, the Chinese community in Montréal was still torn between pro-China and pro-Taiwan factions, and could not form a united front to fight against these projects. Furthermore, after the Parti Québecois took power in November 1976, it passed Bill 101 on 26 August 1977, which restricted attendance at English-language schools and banned the use of any language other than French on commercial signs. Children of anglophone and allophone immigrants were forced to attend French-language schools. (Allophones are people whose mother tongue is neither English nor French). The English-French language dispute further alienated the divided Chinese community. Many Chinese did not care about the survival of Chinatown and moved out of Québec. Between 1975 and 1977, for example, about a thousand Chinese families left Montréal. Chinatown continued to decrease in size as the city continued to develop projects around Chinatown.

In spite of the general apathy towards the future of Chinatown, several concerned Chinese community leaders formed the Montréal Chinese Community United Centre (MCCUC) in September 1980 which represented about forty-eight Chinese groups and tried to unite the community to save Chinatown. In May 1981, the city planned to expropriate and demolish the Lee’s Association Building to widen St-Urbain Street. The MCCUC succeeded in mobilizing over 2,000 people to sign a petition to preserve the building and to save Chinatown. Eventually the building was saved but Pagoda Park was removed for the expansion of St-Urbain Street.

The revival of Montréal Chinatown began in 1982 with installation of street signs throughout Chinatown and construction of the Catholic Community Centre and Bo Ai Lou, residential building for senior citizens. The Montréal Chinatown Development Association (MCDA) worked closely with the city on the 3.5 million dollar Chinatown facelift plan which called for the conversion of de la Gauchetiere Street between St-Laurent and Jeanne-Mance Street into a tree-lined, brick-paved pedestrian mall and the construction of two Chinese arches spanning the mall. Several old limestone buildings with steep Mansard-like roofs were cleaned and repainted.

In 1983, the Palais des congrès de Montréal (the Montréal Convention Centre) was built on the southern boundary of Chinatown and blocked its expansion to the south. In the same year, three other significant projects were the construction of the Chinese United Building (Wah Yen Tai Lau) by the MCCUC. It was a nine-storey low-rent housing complex with eighty-two units for senior citizens and low-income families. The Complexe Guy Favreau and the Place du Quartier were completed and attracted the families of many middle-class professionals and businessmen to live near Chinatown. In 1984, the City opened the western side of St-Laurent Street for commercial uses, and zoned most of de la Gauchetiere Street east of St-Laurent Street as residential. This zoning would prevent Chinatown businesses from expanding eastward. After Chinese protests, the City amended the by-law and zoned the blocks between St-Laurent and St-Dominique for commercial use.

In 1986 the City of Montréal built the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park in Chinatown. In 1988, the Chinese Catholic Community Centre built Ren Ai Lou, a twenty-two unit senior citizens’ home, at the corner of de la Gauchetiere and St-Elizabeth streets. The Holiday Inn hotel, completed in 1991 with Chinese style roof design, became a new Chinatown landmark. Another significant landmark is the two Chinese arches across St-Laurent Street. It was built with the help of the Government of Shanghai, which was twinned with Montréal as a sister city in 1985. The Chinese Hospital was removed from St-Denis Street and rebuilt in Chinatown in 2001 by the Montréal Chinese Hospital Foundation.

In 1986, the Canadian government added a new “investor” immigration category, under which an investor and their family would be admitted as immigrants if they invested $250,000 in Canada. As a result, many wealthy Hong Kong entrepreneurs and investors came to Canada as they did not have confidence in the future of Hong Kong. In the next ten years, about 15,000 business immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China invested about $870 million and created 9,000 jobs in Québec. Many of the Chinese immigrants came to Montréal and settled in Brossard on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence. In the 1990s, Hong Kong investors established three Asian-themed malls on Taschereau Boulevard in Brossard.

Many Chinese businesses have also been established in the area west of Concordia University and La Salle College, particularly along Sainte Catherine Street between Guy Street and Atwater Avenue. Most of its residents were immigrants and students from China and Southeast Asian countries. The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Montréal is located at 2100, St-Catherine Street West. Another group of Chinese businesses is developing at the intersection of St-Denis Street and Jean-Talon Street. A building on St-Denis Stret houses a Chinese temple and Association Chinoise Des Aînés (Chinese Seniors Association).

The 2011 census revealed that the population of Canadians with Chinese ethnic origins totals 1,487,580. Nearly 84% or 1,248,685 live in eight cities: Toronto (531,635), Vancouver (411,470), Montréal (91,785), Calgary (75,470), Edmonton (60,715), Ottawa (42,740), Winnipeg (20,410) and Victoria (14,460).