Studies on Night Markets

This paper considers the suburban night through the recent cultural phenomenon of the Summer Night Market in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Night markets have existed in China since the
8th century, and have followed Chinese migration, first to Southeast Asia, and more recently, to Canada. Richmond, because of significant Asian settlement in the 1990s is known as the “new
Chinatown” ethnoburb of Metro Vancouver. Its night market is a weekend evening event where predominantly Asian vendors sell clothing, food, and a range of other products to the Chinese
community and others attracted by the spectacle or seeking a bargain. The Richmond nighttime landscape contrasts sharply with the 24/7 cultures of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. But
the Richmond market makes possible a cultural use of nighttime space – for strolling and meeting at night – in a suburban landscape that is quiet after 6pm. In the last three years, the market has been
re-branded as a multicultural, rather than Chinese, space. We explore the role of this market in the nighttime leisure culture of Metro Vancouver, through themes of the changing nature of the
suburbs, suburban night places, and the (messy) question of authenticity in an age (and place) of ongoing migration and super-diversity.