THE CHANGING FACE OF THE SUBURBS - ISSUES OF ETHNICITY AND RESIDENTIAL CHANGE IN SUBURBAN VANCOUVER

In recent years Richmond, British Columbia, a quintessential middle cl ass suburb of Vancouver, has seen its Chinese immigrant population gro w significantly; a change that has not gone uncontested by a largely ' white' European incumbent population. This long-established suburban n eighbourhood provides an opportunity to examine contested place imager y and a discourse of racism that is shaping spatial relations in ways that depart from earlier discussions of inner-city Chinatowns. The pap er has three principal objectives. The first is to develop a conceptua l framework for interpreting the actual and imagined geographies of et hnic change and the tensions it can generate within local space. The s econd is to evaluate the social and physical changes brought about wit hin Richmond by a relatively recent arrival of Chinese immigrants. Que stions of scale are explored both at the community and neighbourhood l evels, and we seek to determine whether the patterns of Chinese reside ntial settlement represent a break from the past. Finally, we seek to employ the conceptual framework to evaluate local responses to ethnic change in Richmond given the spatial context within which ethnic chang e is being experienced.