In 1909, a few Chinese stores were set up at the intersection of King Street and Alexander Avenue, forming the centre of an embryonic Chinatown in Winnipeg. There were only 109 Chinese residents in 1901 but the Chinese population increased five times by 1911. Chinatown was still small, consisting of three or four stores on King Street, while the Chinese laundries were spread out over a wider area.

During the 1910s, organizations such as the Chee Kung Tong, the Kuomintang, the Chinese Empire Reform Association, the Chinese Benevolent Association, and various clan associations, such as Gee How Oak Tin Association, were founded in Chinatown. The Chinese Christian Association, established on Logan Avenue, organized services and English classes for Chinese residents and played an important role in assimilating them into Western society. In 1921, Chinatown covered six city blocks bounded by Princess and Main streets, and Logan and Rupert avenues, with King Street as its main business street. About one-third of the 800 Chinese in Winnipeg worked in the city’s 300 laundries. The remaining two-thirds worked as cooks, domestic servants, or labourers.

The number of Chinese laundries in Winnipeg dropped from 300 in the 1920s to 124 in 1938, largely due to mechanization of the laundry business. During the economic depression of the 1930s, many Chinese restaurants and grocery stores went out of business because of the lack of Chinese patrons. Some Chinese landowners could not afford to pay taxes, lost their properties, and had to move into rented premises. It was difficult to rent a place outside Chinatown. For example, rental agents for the James Street properties on the southern border of Chinatown warned their white tenants that their leases would be endangered should they sublet to Chinese. Hence, many Chinese left Winnipeg for Vancouver and other cities.

After the Second World War, Winnipeg’s Chinatown, like other old Chinatowns in Canada, had been physically deteriorating. This happened even though some Chinese families from other parts of Canada, particularly the Prairie Provinces, moved to Winnipeg because they saw it as a place of relative opportunity where children could attend University and attain professional degrees. By the late 1960s, Winnipeg’s City Counil started to look at ways to revitalize the stagnant downtown area, which included Chinatown. In 1968, the City’s Urban Renewal Plan for Area No. 2 proposed that Chinatown be demolished and developed as a moderately priced shopping precinct with a strong ethnic flavour. Not only would the present Chinese community remain in the area with its restaurants, specialty food stores, and other shops, but an effort would be made to attract similar activities from a variety of ethnic groups.

In 1971, a few Chinatown property owners and businessmen formed the Winnipeg Chinese Development Corporation. Its Chinatown Redevelopment Plan, completed in 1974, called for a closed mall with shopping, living and recreational areas connected by a sidewalk. The total cost of redevelopment was estimated at $10 million, of which 20% had to be raised by the Chinese community. Some Chinese merchants felt that the proposal was too ambitious and impractical; they could not afford to close their businesses, tear down their buildings, and wait for new ones to be finished. The Plan also placed too little emphasis on the commercial aspect of Chinatown. Some Chinese people complained that the proposal had little or no input from them, particularly from the Chinese elderly people whose daily living would be directly affected by any development in Chinatown. As a result, the Plan was not presented to Council and was abandoned in 1975. Meanwhile, two new projects were underway in Chinatown. The Sek On Toi Senior Citizens’ Home was built by the Chinese United Church and completed in 1978, and the Imperial Plaza was developed at the northeast corner of King Street and Alexander Avenue.

The Chinese population in Winnipeg had been increasing rapidly since the early 1970s, particularly between 1978 and 1981, when a large number of Indochinese refugees arrived. The Chinese population in the city jumped from 2,535 in 1971 to 6,000 in 1981. This sudden expansion induced many local Chinese businessmen and investors to buy more properties in Chinatown. They expected that Chinatown would be redeveloped sooner or later. Their expectation came true in 1980 when City Council announced the $96 million Core Area Initiative. One of its ten projects was known as the Neighbourhood Main Streets Programme which encouraged new investment and the strengthening of focal points of commercial activity in the following neighbourhoods: Chinatown (King Street), Provencher Boulevard, Selkirk Avenue, Osborne Street and Main Street. The program marks the beginning of the revival of Winnipeg’s old Chinatown.

The Winnipeg Chinatown Development Corporation (WCDC), incorporated in 1981, carried out an Attitude and Need Study, a Housing Study, and a Cultural and Community Facility Study. At a nominal price of one dollar, the WCDC leased a city block in Chinatown from the provincial and city governments. The western half of the block was used for the construction of Harmony Mansion, a 111-unit, low-cost family housing complex. The eastern half was used for the construction of a Chinese garden and Dynasty Building, which would house the Chinese Cultural and Community Centre.

The WCDC was responsible for the overall Chinatown Redevelopment, bearing the cost of King Street beautification and construction of a Chinese arch, a Chinese garden and one-half of an underground parkade. The Chinese arch was topped by a pedestrian overpass across King Street, linking the Dynasty Building with the Mandarin Building. The Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre (WCCCC) was responsible for the construction of the Dynasty Building, a six-storey commercial complex with commercial and office space, a multi purpose auditorium, a library and other services. The Winnipeg Chinatown Non-Profit Housing Corporation (CNHC) was set up for the construction of the Harmony Mansion, which was officially opened on 13 September 1986. The Chinese Heritage Garden, Chinatown Arch, and King Street Beautification were officially dedicated on 15 October. The Chinese Cultural and Community Centre was completed and officially opened on 1 August 1987. It is the centre of the social and cultural activities of about 20,000 Chinese (including over 5,000 Indochinese) in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Chinatown continues to develop, with initiatives led by WCCCC and WCDC. These groups are committed to non-profit undertakings within Chinatown that serve the long-term goals of sustainability and vitality of a broadly conceived Chinese community, and of the area historically associated with Chinese settlement in Winnipeg. Peace Tower Housing is the most recent addition to Winnipeg’s Chinatown. It is a new housing project, under the direction of the Peace Tower Housing Corporation, built on the southwest corner of Logan and Princess streets. Using geothermal energy, it is a seven storey complex with 48 units (ranging from 1 bedroom to 3 bedrooms per unit), 2000 sq.ft. multipurpose room, and adjoining patio for recreational use. Financially supported by the three levels of government, the project cost about $15 million. The first tenants moved into the building in spring 2013. In addition, a senior care home project is being planned on the former site of Shanghai Restaurant on King Street. The Shanghai Restaurant closed in 2011, after being run for over 70 years by three generations of the Lee family.

The new buildings in Chinatown are part of an ongoing evolution of Chinatown, an evolution evident in the layered architecture. There are historic buildings such as the one at 211 Pacific Avenue, which has been home to the Chinese Nationalist League (or Kuomintang) since 1932. In the early years, this was where men like Charlie Foo, Frank Chan, Happy Young, Charles Yee, and Charlie Wong met and built the foundations of Chinatown and an active Chinese community. These historic buildings now are nestled among the distinctive buildings constructed in the 1980s including the unique pedestrian Chinatown gate. The latest phase of development in the 2010s adds another layer to Chinatown. During the past decade, developments in the city centre have taken place adjacent to many new businesses, established in south Winnipeg, where many new Chinese immigrants have settled.