Half-completed tunnels tell of Chinese hardship
Aug 22, 2008 2:08:04 GMT -5
Post by David Wong on Aug 22, 2008 2:08:04 GMT -5
www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=1ad0b560-4e46-4cb3-b1d1-40a95e0c52f3
Mary Frances Hill
Vancouver Sun
Friday, August 15, 2008
HOPE (BC, Canada) -- For many years, the elders of the Sto:lo Nation have whispered about the ghosts that linger around the half-completed mountain railway tunnels west of Hope.
The legend says unmarked graves nearby contain the remains of Chinese men, Canadian Pacific Railway labourers forced in the 1880s to enter the makeshift tunnels to light the dynamite that would blast through the rock.
"When a tragic death happens, the elders talk about the spirit staying behind," said Sonny McHalsie, cultural adviser at the Sto:lo Nation office. "They would say the ghosts of Chinese workers were still there."
McHalsie and Chinese-Canadian activist Bill Chu led a tour of the half-completed tunnels on Thursday, hoping to raise public awareness of Chinese history during Chinese Heritage Week.
"It's incumbent on the Chinese community to do something," said Chu, an organizer with Canadians for Reconciliation, a group devoted to fostering peaceful relationships with B.C.'s first nations people.
Chu has been organizing events and tours to help educate B.C.'s Chinese-Canadian people about aboriginal people and their communities.
The tunnels, half-completed but abandoned after too many workers were killed during blasting, stand six km west of Hope, on the north side of the Fraser River.
In the 1880s, when more than 10,000 Chinese workers came to B.C. to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Chinese were used for their work ethic, but were often perceived by Caucasian labourers as less than worthy colleagues.
If the thousands of Chinese labourers who died didn't perish in the tunnels, they fell victim to malnutrition, scurvy, and from lack of access to medical treatment when they were injured or sick, Chu said.
"We're not talking about avoidable accidents," he said. "We're talking about discrimination, and the attitude that the Chinese were not human beings."
Chinese CPR labourers were not only ill-prepared for Fraser Valley winters, their wages were far below those of Caucasian workers - a point that placed them in direct conflict with their colleagues and exacerbated the discrimination against them.
A month's salary of $25 would have to cover a Chinese worker's debt to the steamboat company, clothes, a room rental, tools and fares.
It was in that era that the racist phrase, a "Chinaman's chance" was coined.
It referred to the possibility that a Chinese member of a railway crew blasting tunnels for the CPR line would come out of it alive.
"'A Chinaman's chance' was a derogatory phrase meaning 'no luck,'" said Chu.
The area surrounding the tunnels is a physical testament to the rugged environment the Sto:lo Nation shared with the labourers, said McHalsie, who has worked with researchers on local first nations history from the University of B.C., Simon Fraser University, and the University of California at Los Angeles.
Just last week, a UCLA researcher found an antique Chinese coin sitting on the edge of a Sto:lo subterranean dwelling. No dig was needed: the piece was found in plain sight.
Much like first nations history, the history of Chinese labourers in B.C. must be re-appropriated and rewritten, Chu said.
"A history that is written by somebody else would not reflect what really transpired. It's up to us to write our own history. It would help British Columbia to move forward."
Mary Frances Hill
Vancouver Sun
Friday, August 15, 2008
HOPE (BC, Canada) -- For many years, the elders of the Sto:lo Nation have whispered about the ghosts that linger around the half-completed mountain railway tunnels west of Hope.
The legend says unmarked graves nearby contain the remains of Chinese men, Canadian Pacific Railway labourers forced in the 1880s to enter the makeshift tunnels to light the dynamite that would blast through the rock.
"When a tragic death happens, the elders talk about the spirit staying behind," said Sonny McHalsie, cultural adviser at the Sto:lo Nation office. "They would say the ghosts of Chinese workers were still there."
McHalsie and Chinese-Canadian activist Bill Chu led a tour of the half-completed tunnels on Thursday, hoping to raise public awareness of Chinese history during Chinese Heritage Week.
"It's incumbent on the Chinese community to do something," said Chu, an organizer with Canadians for Reconciliation, a group devoted to fostering peaceful relationships with B.C.'s first nations people.
Chu has been organizing events and tours to help educate B.C.'s Chinese-Canadian people about aboriginal people and their communities.
The tunnels, half-completed but abandoned after too many workers were killed during blasting, stand six km west of Hope, on the north side of the Fraser River.
In the 1880s, when more than 10,000 Chinese workers came to B.C. to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Chinese were used for their work ethic, but were often perceived by Caucasian labourers as less than worthy colleagues.
If the thousands of Chinese labourers who died didn't perish in the tunnels, they fell victim to malnutrition, scurvy, and from lack of access to medical treatment when they were injured or sick, Chu said.
"We're not talking about avoidable accidents," he said. "We're talking about discrimination, and the attitude that the Chinese were not human beings."
Chinese CPR labourers were not only ill-prepared for Fraser Valley winters, their wages were far below those of Caucasian workers - a point that placed them in direct conflict with their colleagues and exacerbated the discrimination against them.
A month's salary of $25 would have to cover a Chinese worker's debt to the steamboat company, clothes, a room rental, tools and fares.
It was in that era that the racist phrase, a "Chinaman's chance" was coined.
It referred to the possibility that a Chinese member of a railway crew blasting tunnels for the CPR line would come out of it alive.
"'A Chinaman's chance' was a derogatory phrase meaning 'no luck,'" said Chu.
The area surrounding the tunnels is a physical testament to the rugged environment the Sto:lo Nation shared with the labourers, said McHalsie, who has worked with researchers on local first nations history from the University of B.C., Simon Fraser University, and the University of California at Los Angeles.
Just last week, a UCLA researcher found an antique Chinese coin sitting on the edge of a Sto:lo subterranean dwelling. No dig was needed: the piece was found in plain sight.
Much like first nations history, the history of Chinese labourers in B.C. must be re-appropriated and rewritten, Chu said.
"A history that is written by somebody else would not reflect what really transpired. It's up to us to write our own history. It would help British Columbia to move forward."