The year was 1889 and in the city of Victoria, Canada there was a busy and overcrowded area known as Chinatown. In this area, there lived a young Chinese man named Chan Ohan. He was 17 years old and he earned a meagre living cleaning rooms and making beds in the American Hotel.
Nearby, in a narrow little street called Fan Tan Alley, there lived a beautiful young Chinese girl by the name of Yao. She was very poor and had to support herself by working in a house of ill repute. The first time Chan laid eyes on her, he immediately fell in love with her. The young man came by many times to talk to her as she sat at her window in the evening.
One day, he worked up the courage to propose to her. She thought he was joking and laughed at him. When she realized he really did want to marry her, she told him she couldn’t leave her employer. She said her boss was a mean and violent man. If she left, he would hunt her down and kill her.
Chan was determined and came back the next day with a vial of poison. He passed it to her through the window and told her to use it to kill her boss.
“Pour it on his food,” said Chan. “Kill him and his wife. Then, we can be together.”
The girl was shocked at this and when she realized he was serious, she didn’t want anything to do with him. After all, he was penniless. What kind of husband would he make? What kind of life could they have together? Also, she knew what the penalty for murder was. She told him to go away and never come back.
She turned him down so brutally that the young man was humiliated. As he walked through the streets, he felt like everyone was laughing at him. For a while, he did stay away, but a few days later, he came back and he had a friend with him.
Chan and his friend crept around the building, keeping to the shadows, so that Yao couldn’t see them. The friend reached in the window and grabbed Yao by hair. He pulled the poor girl half-way out and held her there. She was shouting and struggling. She didn’t know what was going on.
That’s when she saw Chan come walking up. She watched in horror as he reached into his jacket and took out huge meat cleaver. Yao let out a high-pitched scream as he raised the meat cleaver in the air and brought it crashing down with all his might.
In one fell swoop, it sliced straight through her neck and her head rolled along the cobblestones!
It was pandemonium. There was blood everywhere. Chan fled, running for all he was worth through the maze of backstreets and narrow alleys. People saw him come rushing towards them. He was covered in blood and holding the meat cleaver over his head. They dodged out of his way, convinced he was an escaped lunatic.
The police offered a reward for his capture and put up posters all over Chinatown: “Reward $150 for information leading to the arrest of a young man wanted for murder in Chinatown.”
Acting on a tipoff, the police searched the American Hotel and found Chan in the basement, hiding in the coal bin. He was arrested and thrown in jail. Just two days later, the young man took his shirt, wrapped it around his neck and hanged himself in his cell.
They say his ghost still runs down the backstreets and alleyways of Chinatown at night. People hear footsteps approaching. Then, suddenly, a young Chinese man emerges from the shadows. He comes right at them, covered in blood and wielding a butcher’s meat cleaver. He pushes them out of the way and then disappears into the night.
Many people in Victoria claim they have encountered this terrifying ghostly apparition and he is most frequently seen in Fan Tan Alley.
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