Chinese Canadian History

[wongroots]

I registered here less than a week ago and was able to locate the village of Nam Lung with crucial help from the "sifus" of this website. I saw it on google earth and could not stop looking at it from every angle even though you cannot see it at ground level.

I'm happy to say that Henry's nephew has talked to the village chief already and a villager knows my grandfather. The process has begun and I will update this as information is sent back from Henry's nephew.

I'm not an open person and blogging is not my thing. In fact, I've never been part of any forum in my life. However, this is important to me even though I do not know the exact reason why I'm interested now and not before. My advice to anyone mildly curious about famly history is to be aware that time is against you. That's all I can really say. I can't light a fire under anyone nor is it my business to do so.

I want to submit this link:

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk4/etd/NQ81636.PDF

This was written by Ying-ying Chen and is her PHD thesis called "In the Colonies of Tang: Historical Archeology of Chinese Communities in the North Cariboo District, British Columbia(1860's - 1940s)"

It is 590 pages(30MB) but has something for everybody. I met Ying-ying randomly last year in Barkerville. She's an archeologist and does the Barkerville Chinatown historic tour on the side. That trip to Barkerville last year is my ground zero.

BTW, Barkerville is about 9 hours(450 Miles) north of Vancouver. Back in the day the fastest time to get to Barkerville from Vancouver would be about 9-10 days fast walking. Took my great grandfather 45 days as he probably stopped here and there to work for food and shelter.

[Henry]

Wongroots,

Collectively, Forum members constitute a fairly awesome force in helping overseas Chinese in their quest to research their roots. There are many reasons why people seek to know about their origins and heritage. I believe that people that stumble on to the SiYi Forum see that overseas Chinese, without the ability to read, write, or speak Chinese can still find their Chinese roots and are greatly encouraged to do so. The availability and access to the Internet enables people to perform such research. Prior to year 2000, it seems that only overseas Chinese were interested in Chinese genealogy, but, since then, even Chinese in mainland China are also very interested. This is why many villages are updating their genealogy books and extending the tracing of their lineages all to way back to HuangDi - this is most fortunate for overseas Chinese because they do not have to adjudicate clan historical information or resolve discrepancies in the lineages. All they have to do is buy a copy and have somebody help them extract their lineage or translate some of textual information.

It is absolutely true that time is against Chinese genealogy research - because it all starts from the ancestral village. But, urban sprawl is now destroying all the villages that were near the market towns and larger cities. These ancestral villages will probably not be there in 5 or 10 years - maybe even sooner. It is really imperative that anybody that really wants to recover their Chinese roots from the SiYi region - needs to start researching - now.

Henry

[chumley]

Wongroots,

I became a member on this forum last week too after years of lurking. This is also the first and only forum that I joined. In past years, I've read posts from several sports & travel forums and got tired of the egos, opinionated, and bickering.

The Siyi forum is the friendliest forum I've ever seen. I joined after years of seeing friendly strangers offering their assistance and suggestions to others.

Blogging isn't my thing either and I value my privacy. After changing ISPs several years ago, I refused to give out my new e-mail address to friends because I got tired of the jokes and chain e-mails that were forwarded.

[jing]

Hi All,
Adding to the Chinese Canadian History topic here is the book "Salthingyer City:An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver" by Paul Yee. Vancouver/Toronto:Douglas & McIntyre, copyright 1988. 174 p. It's Index list individuals and businesses.

The book covers the period from 1858 to 1987 with period photos and "grew out of the Salthingyer City exhibition mounted by the Chinese Cultural Centre to celebrate Vancouver's Centennial in 1986. "... "To read the history of Vancouver's Chinese Canadians is to better understand the broader history of Vancouver and of Canada itself."

Jing

[Henry]

Hi Jing,

Thank you for all your valuable information that you have generously contributed.

When I was doing my master's thesis on the formation of Chinatown, New York City 1850 -1890 - I used some good sources of information: city/business directories. Also, besides the decennial census manuscripts, many cities and states did their own censuses for years ending in 5. There were also special city censuses taken on odd years.

Also, I would like to direct your attention to:

New Chinese-Canadian Website to Launch in 2012

Filed in Canada, China, Internet Genealogical Research on Aug.11, 2010

VANCOUVER, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — The Canadian government announced Monday 900,000 U.S. dollars for the creation of a new website documenting the experiences of Chinese settlers, past and present.

The bilingual portal, “Chinese Canadian stories: Uncommon stories from a common past history,” will be created by the University of British Columbia with funding from the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP). It will focus on the collection, documentation and preservation of the legacies of Chinese Canadians and their role in building Canada.

The portal will launch in March 2012, with an online virtual experience featuring portable interactive kiosks and a searchable database of digital materials created by the CHRP-funded partner organizations.

“This digital archive will help all Canadians understand and appreciate Chinese culture, as well as the importance of educating future generations about the hardships experienced by the early Chinese Canadians,” said Alice Wong, the federal Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism who made the grant announcement.

Read the full article at news.xinhuanet.com.


Henry

[jing]

Hi All,
Sorry, after re-reading my book post today, I mispelled the book title on the Chinese Canadians above... must be my fingers were on the keys...it is Salthingyer City. Sorry folks.

"Salthingyer City:An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver" by Paul Yee. Vancouver/Toronto:Douglas & McIntyre, copyright 1988. 174 p. It's Index list individuals and businesses.

The book covers the period from 1858 to 1987 with period photos and "grew out of the Salthingyer City exhibition mounted by the Chinese Cultural Centre to celebrate Vancouver's Centennial in 1986. "... "To read the history of Vancouver's Chinese Canadians is to better understand the broader history of Vancouver and of Canada itself."

Jing

[wongroots]

Hello Jing,

Just wanted to adjust the title of that book. It's "Salthingyer City" which the older generations would refer Vancouver as......"Hom sui fahw"......which is toisan dialect.

I don't hear that term much anymore. I hear a lot of mandarin in Vancouver now. I was in Chinatown over the past weekend as there was a 125 year celebration of Chinatown. A lot of the volunteers were speaking in mandarin and I observed the disconnect between older and newer generations.

Just life. 100 years from now all new people.

[jing]

Hi All,

Once again, the book by Paul Yee I refer in my to has been posted as a mispelling and not my mistake as a typing error. I've already reported it to the Moderator. I think that is a dis-service to Paul Yee the author and should be corrected by this Forum.

Jing

[ziqing]

If you are familiar searching the library databases, may I suggest this power online Catalogue: < www.worldcat.org >.

It's user friendly and will display the closest library (public or academic) for the item once you provide your current location.

Enter "Paul Yee" in the search box and click on his name on the left side bar of the results screen to narrow the search. He has 40 items.

I found these two records that seem to match your entry:

Review of Salthingyer City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver
Author: Peter Leung; Paul Yee
Journal of American Ethnic History, Fall, 1991, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 100-102

Salthingyer City : an illustrated history of the Chinese in Vancouver
Author: Paul Yee
Vancouver : Douglas & McIntyre ; Seattle : University of Washington Press, ©1988.

[ziqing]

I agree, it's strange that "Salt water City" would become "Salthingyer City".