Chinese immigrants worked in coalmines and fish canneries, served as cooks and houseboys, and supplied vegetables to many people in Victoria and Vancouver. Benevolent associations were established, shops built, and thriving but separate communities were created in Victoria and Vancouver. In the 1890s Victoria's Chinatown was known for its maze of alleyways and courtyards, containing everything from theatres and restaurants to gambling dens. By the 1920s Vancouver's Chinese community had its own hospital, six schools and two Chinese theatres.

These newcomers were often unwelcome. They faced racism, were discriminated against at work, made to pay head taxes, and sometimes were abused and reviled.

In 1907 an anti-Chinese riot in Vancouver caused much damage to Vancouver's Chinatown. The provincial government on several occasions tried to prohibit persons of Chinese origin from entering the province, but the federal government disallowed this legislation. But in 1923 the federal government passed legislation that prohibited most Chinese people from entering Canada, a law not repealed until 1947.