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Chasing Their Dreams (Caitlin $18.95)
According to Lily Chow, five monks and their disciples first sailed across the Pacific Ocean and reached the B.C. coast around 458 A.D. This expedition's leader, Hui Shen, hoped to teach Buddhism to native tribes. Hui Shen survived his 9700-kilometre voyage and described to court historians a place east of China where red mulberry trees grew profusely. He called the new land Fusang; Fu means help or nurturing and sang refers to the mulberry trees. It's a seldom-heard and rarely taught story, one that unobtrusively pops out of the third chapter of Lily Chow's Chasing Their Dreams (Caitlin $18.95). Just as Christopher Columbus is usually credited with 'discovering' America instead of the Vikings who arrived much earlier, the history of the Chinese in Canada is seldom considered and rarely investigated. [See Hui Shen entry]
Chinese immigrants who arrived much later than Hui Shen faced racism and legislated efforts at exclusion. In 1885, the Chinese Restriction Act was passed and the first head tax of $50 was introduced. This tax was raised to $100 in 1901 and to $500 in 1904. In 1923 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to prohibit Chinese entry to Canada. The Chinese were not granted the right to vote in British Columbia until 1947. What makes Chow's research into the Chinese history of north-western B.C. (the region extending from Smithers to Prince Rupert) so interesting, and so readable, is that it illuminates lives from the inside.
Here, for instance, is a fragment from a diary from 1900, in which a fish-cannery worker writes about the wife he has left behind in China. "I could never forget her silky skin and the fragrance given out by her youthful body. Although I met her only on the night of our wedding, I fell in love with her at the very moment I saw her. I hope she finds life comfortable living with my parents, and that she has carried out her duty as a good and respectful daughter-in-law. I pray that my parents do not enslave her, but treat her like a daughter. So far I have not received any serious complaints from my parents about her except that she daydreams a lot.";
The passage reflects the harshness of the lives of married Chinese men who were denied family rights. The cover photograph of a man smoking a Chinese water pipe is both apt and misleading. Framed as he is by a Union Jack and the Maple Leaf flag, this pipesmoker signals the history of Chinese immigration and ethnicity in central B.C. (also the subject of Chow's first book, Sojourners in the North). But the exoticism of the man's costume and activity prevents us from seeing the central truth that Chow so carefully unfolds--at their heart all stories of immigration are private and personal stories, more than they are cultural and political ones.
There are biographical sketches of brothers Cedric and Albert Mah, pilots known as the Prince Rupert Flying Tigers, as well as Alcan Asia president Hing Mung of Kitimat, but Chow mainly offers brief mentions of individuals such as laundryman Chow Tong, watercarrier Ah Wing, Hazelton alderman Bob Eng, Port Essington labour contractor Fan You, farmer Jack Chow and restaurateur Sam Lee, to name only a few.
Lily Chow's father-in-law Chung Chow, who worked on the railways, collected heart-wrenching stories about early Chinese Canadian workers. Born in Kuala Lumpur, Lily Chow followed her grandfather to Canada in 1967 where she has taught Mandarin Chinese and biology. "Throughout this book,"; says Chow, "the strength of conviction and perseverance of the Chinese immigrants shines through the hardships they had to endure... Chinese people often say, 'If you break open the silver we earn, you can see drops of blood in it.'"; 0-920576-83-4
[George Sipos / BCBW 2001]
Chinese immigrants who arrived much later than Hui Shen faced racism and legislated efforts at exclusion. In 1885, the Chinese Restriction Act was passed and the first head tax of $50 was introduced. This tax was raised to $100 in 1901 and to $500 in 1904. In 1923 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to prohibit Chinese entry to Canada. The Chinese were not granted the right to vote in British Columbia until 1947. What makes Chow's research into the Chinese history of north-western B.C. (the region extending from Smithers to Prince Rupert) so interesting, and so readable, is that it illuminates lives from the inside.
Here, for instance, is a fragment from a diary from 1900, in which a fish-cannery worker writes about the wife he has left behind in China. "I could never forget her silky skin and the fragrance given out by her youthful body. Although I met her only on the night of our wedding, I fell in love with her at the very moment I saw her. I hope she finds life comfortable living with my parents, and that she has carried out her duty as a good and respectful daughter-in-law. I pray that my parents do not enslave her, but treat her like a daughter. So far I have not received any serious complaints from my parents about her except that she daydreams a lot.";
The passage reflects the harshness of the lives of married Chinese men who were denied family rights. The cover photograph of a man smoking a Chinese water pipe is both apt and misleading. Framed as he is by a Union Jack and the Maple Leaf flag, this pipesmoker signals the history of Chinese immigration and ethnicity in central B.C. (also the subject of Chow's first book, Sojourners in the North). But the exoticism of the man's costume and activity prevents us from seeing the central truth that Chow so carefully unfolds--at their heart all stories of immigration are private and personal stories, more than they are cultural and political ones.
There are biographical sketches of brothers Cedric and Albert Mah, pilots known as the Prince Rupert Flying Tigers, as well as Alcan Asia president Hing Mung of Kitimat, but Chow mainly offers brief mentions of individuals such as laundryman Chow Tong, watercarrier Ah Wing, Hazelton alderman Bob Eng, Port Essington labour contractor Fan You, farmer Jack Chow and restaurateur Sam Lee, to name only a few.
Lily Chow's father-in-law Chung Chow, who worked on the railways, collected heart-wrenching stories about early Chinese Canadian workers. Born in Kuala Lumpur, Lily Chow followed her grandfather to Canada in 1967 where she has taught Mandarin Chinese and biology. "Throughout this book,"; says Chow, "the strength of conviction and perseverance of the Chinese immigrants shines through the hardships they had to endure... Chinese people often say, 'If you break open the silver we earn, you can see drops of blood in it.'"; 0-920576-83-4
[George Sipos / BCBW 2001]
Submitted on June 24, 2003 in By David.
