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Common Threads
In the fall of 1998, Doris Ray received a phone call relaying some previously unknown and intriguing information concerning her mother's history. Her book Common Threads (Libros Libertad, 2010) is based upon bits and pieces of archival data and personal reminiscences, combined with conjecture on the part of the author.
According to promotional material: In the fall of 1911 twenty-year-old Nell Baines, her sister Madeline, and brothers Bert and George Junior board a passenger liner leaving Southhampton, England, for the far-off colony of the British Empire that was Canada. Madeline's Canadian fiancé, Hugh Maclean, had recently obtained employment as "Assistant to the Superintendent of Chinese Immigration" - a government bureaucracy set up in the city of Vancouver to curtail the number of Chinese immigrants. A 500-dollar Head Tax had been imposed on every applicant from China. But in the minds of many Canadian citizens, including politicians, there should be nothing less than a total ban on all Chinese immigration.
Nell soon learns that the "Land of Opportunity" is not as gainfully promising as had been acclaimed. The lonely, unemployed Englishwoman becomes acquainted with a handsome, charismatic man, originally from Hoi Ping, China. Unforeseen circumstances evolve, causing the budding friendship to develop into a romance - with Stanley Park being the wilderness backdrop. Nell is five months pregnant when she marries the father of her baby. But her husband becomes mentally unstable and the marriage breaks up after the birth of their third daughter. During the war years (WW1) Nell suffers from espousal abuse, racial bigotry, a younger brother's death on the battlefield and her own near fatal battle with influenza. Her mother in England refuses to receive her and her children back into the family. Nell eventually finds it necessary to erase from her past, all connections to her biracial marriage.
According to promotional material: In the fall of 1911 twenty-year-old Nell Baines, her sister Madeline, and brothers Bert and George Junior board a passenger liner leaving Southhampton, England, for the far-off colony of the British Empire that was Canada. Madeline's Canadian fiancé, Hugh Maclean, had recently obtained employment as "Assistant to the Superintendent of Chinese Immigration" - a government bureaucracy set up in the city of Vancouver to curtail the number of Chinese immigrants. A 500-dollar Head Tax had been imposed on every applicant from China. But in the minds of many Canadian citizens, including politicians, there should be nothing less than a total ban on all Chinese immigration.
Nell soon learns that the "Land of Opportunity" is not as gainfully promising as had been acclaimed. The lonely, unemployed Englishwoman becomes acquainted with a handsome, charismatic man, originally from Hoi Ping, China. Unforeseen circumstances evolve, causing the budding friendship to develop into a romance - with Stanley Park being the wilderness backdrop. Nell is five months pregnant when she marries the father of her baby. But her husband becomes mentally unstable and the marriage breaks up after the birth of their third daughter. During the war years (WW1) Nell suffers from espousal abuse, racial bigotry, a younger brother's death on the battlefield and her own near fatal battle with influenza. Her mother in England refuses to receive her and her children back into the family. Nell eventually finds it necessary to erase from her past, all connections to her biracial marriage.
Submitted on August 7, 2010 in By David.
