Portrait of Chinese men and women, Vancouver

Portrait of Chinese men and women, Vancouver

Labourers on a railroad handcar.

Labourers on a railroad handcar.

Canton alley, Chinatown, Vancouver BC

Canton alley, Chinatown, Vancouver BC

Stacking coal for shipment to Alaska

Stacking coal for shipment to Alaska

Chinese-Canadian communities in British Columbia have a long and rich history, dating back to the 1858 Fraser Valley gold rush. It is a history punctuated with racial tension, struggles for equality, and cultural traditions.

Click on the headings in the left-hand navigation bar to read stories and view photographs of the earliest generations of Chinese-Canadians, from 1850-1950. Illustrated throughout with quotations from the works of Chinese-Canadian author Wayson Choy, this website will also link you to the digitized holdings of the Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection at the UBC Library, and the Yip family and Yip Sang Ltd. fonds at City of Vancouver Archives.

The collections can also be browsed by subjects listed in the “Search the collections” box on the right hand side of each page, or searched using keywords in the search box. Tips for searching the collection are here.


Share Your Knowledge

Do you have knowledge about people, places or events in Chinese-Canadian history? Share it by leaving a comment in our digital collections. Click here for more information.

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