Growing Up + Rapid Growth
Carianne Leung Former Agincourt Resident and Author
I grew up in the 70s and 80s in Agincourt and left in 86 to start university in Ottawa. The rink was a very exciting addition. The only other rink was The Terrace downtown, so this was great for us! I remember going there a lot to hang out. We also had friends that were “downtown” Chinese kids and they sometimes came too. There was a lot of back and forth dating between the uptown and the downtown. haha.
I think Glen Watford was already there. My family and I went to eat regularly – at least once a week – at East Court Restaurant.
When Dragon Mall opened, it was another place to hang out. There were two retail stores there that sold clothes from Hong Kong and Japan, I think. The clothes were expensive but were such different styles that really appealed. Remember, this is a bunch of diaspora kids who were hungry for some kind of identity signifiers.
We went to the restaurant there too and all along the Glen Watford plaza. It was when we realized that the density of Chinese communities surrounding Agincourt was really substantial. I also remember the protests and the white flight in the area
It was no surprise that there was such a backlash. That was Scarborough at that time, and I always sensed that we were tolerated as long as we didn’t grow in numbers.
Anyway, the mall being built and the surrounding growth of Chinese businesses in the immediate area was significant. Every time I came home to visit my parents after I moved to Ottawa in 86, I noticed its rapid growth.
A very strange and exciting thing to see for our family who moved to Scarborough in 1974 and were one of a handful of Chinese folks in the whole block.