Lytton Chinese History Museum — Attraction in Lytton

Update: I am extremely devastated to find out this museum burned down in the 2021 fire. The owner had expressed how much effort she had put into collecting the artefacts and ensuring she was displaying them accurately. IMHO, this was the best Chinese museum in BC. I hope it can be restored, whether anything was salvageable or a new collection is made. Sorry for your loss. I believe it's a loss to all.

Original: The owners are not Chinese, but this is an amazing and accurate museum about Chinese history in BC. A retired woman personally manages and operates it and she showed us around and told us about the background of the museum. She felt compelled to preserve the history of Chinese workers in the area and started this museum about 4 years ago. You can tell she is very passionate about this.

It is a small museum, but packed with a wealth of history and information. As a Chinese person born and raise in Canada, I'm deeply impressed by and grateful for a place like this that celebrates Chinese contribution to Canada, showcases Chinese history, and reminds people of how the treatment of Chinese immigrants in Canada have been and transformed over the last century. I came with my parents and it was a fun throwback for them. They recognized a lot of the items and taught me about them. I didn't know about most of them and learned a lot!

Some of the artifacts are sourced from Lytton, but most are collected from all around the region. The museum has a research centre downstairs (not open to public) where they dedicate time to learning more about artifacts they find and restore them. I think it's really amazing.

10/10 ⭐ I want to bring my future kids here when I make them so they can learn about...

Definitely unfortunate that this museum burned down, considering all the time and effort that went into building up the collection of artifacts (the museum claimed they have some 1,600 artifacts stored there). For those wondering if at least some of the collection survived, sadly, the vast majority of the artifacts (probably at least 95% of them) were lost as there was no time to move any of them out of the building due to how quickly the wildfire engulfed the town. In doing some research, it appears some vases and such were recovered from the site, but not much else. In other words, they essentially have to rebuilt much of the collection from scratch. I'm hoping they can rebuild and restore this museum as best as they can, but it will definitely be a long and excruciating process.

In the future, I will hope to be able to visit the new museum myself whenever I am able to. Take care!

(Review written on December 30, 2023, just to...

Dear curator and staff in Lytton Chinese History Museum, We are residents of Vancouver, BC, and we are here with our 94-year-old grandpa to express our respect to you all! My grandpa is very touched and inspired by your long-term preservation and presentation of Chinese history, especially the fact that you have the opportunity to reopen the museum to the community after the severe wildfires in 2021 and continue to provide a place for deep reflection and resonance for the community and future generations! To the extent that my grandfather is obsessed with it, he has to take an 8-hour round trip to pay his respects ! Since the reopening in May 9th, he is been asking many many times ! So we plan to leave next Monday morning to fulfill his wish, and hope to have the opportunity to see your museum before 4...