From Slave Girls to Salvation

From Slave Girls to Salvation
Author: Shelly D. Ikebuchi
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2015-11-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 077483059X

From its origins as a project to rescue Chinese prostitutes and slave girls from a life of supposed depravity the Chinese Rescue Home became a feature of the moral and racial landscape of Victoria – a place where the Methodist Women’s Missionary Society attempted to reform Chinese and Japanese girls and women, in part by teaching them domestic skills meant to ease their integration into Western society. Between 1886 and 1923, over four hundred Chinese and Japanese women sheltered in the home. Yet, despite the significance of this iconic institution, little has been written on its history. From Slave Girls to Salvation draws on a rich collection of archival materials to uncover the organizational hierarchies, as well as the religious and racial tropes, which permeated the home. In doing so, it expands our understanding of the complex interplay of gender, race, and class in BC during this time period.

A Nation of Immigrants

A Nation of Immigrants
Author: Franca Iacovetta
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 817
Release: 2017-06-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487516835

This collection brings together a wide array of writings on Canadian immigrant history, including many highly regarded, influential essays. Though most of the chapters have been previously published, the editors have also commissioned original contributions on understudied topics in the field. The readings highlight the social history of immigrants, their pre-migration traditions as well as migration strategies and Canadian experiences, their work and family worlds, and their political, cultural, and community lives. They explore the public display of ethno-religious rituals, race riots, and union protests; the quasi-private worlds of all-male boarding-houses and of female domestics toiling in isolated workplaces; and the intrusive power that government and even well-intentioned social reformers have wielded over immigrants deemed dangerous or otherwise in need of supervision. Organized partly chronologically and largely by theme, the topical sections will offer students a glimpse into Canada's complex immigrant past. In order to facilitate classroom discussion, each section contains an introduction that contextualizes the readings and raises some questions for debate. A Nation of Immigrants will be useful both in specialized courses in Canadian immigration history and in courses on broader themes in Canadian history.

Federal Royal Commissions in Canada 1867-1966

Federal Royal Commissions in Canada 1867-1966
Author: George F. Henderson
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 1967-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487590008

The subjects inquired into by Canadian federal royal commissions have ranged over such a wide field that the reports and special studies prepared by the 400 commissions since Confederation have become an essential part of any research in Canadian studies. In many cases the special studies which are always prepared by the best experts available stand as the most important works ever to appear on a given subject. For example, the studies used by the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (1937-1940) are still used as required reading in both graduate and undergraduate university courses almost thirty years later. In the author's work as Government Documents Librarian, he witnesses the daily use of royal commission material. The importance attached to royal commission documents and the considerable difficulty in locating many of the earlier reports let Henderson to undertake the compilation of this checklist four years ago.

The Last Spike

The Last Spike
Author: Pierre Berton
Publisher: Anchor Canada
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2010-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 038567354X

In the four years between 1881 and 1885, Canada was forged into one nation by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Last Spike reconstructs the incredible story of how some 2,000 miles of steel crossed the continent in just five years — exactly half the time stipulated in the contract. Pierre Berton recreates the adventures that were part of this vast undertaking: the railway on the brink of bankruptcy, with one hour between it and ruin; the extraordinary land boom of Winnipeg in 1881–1882; and the epic tale of how William Van Horne rushed 3,000 soldiers over a half-finished railway to quell the Riel Rebellion. Dominating the whole saga are the men who made it all possible — a host of astonishing characters: Van Horne, the powerhouse behind the vision of a transcontinental railroad; Rogers, the eccentric surveyor; Onderdonk, the cool New Yorker; Stephen, the most emotional of businessmen; Father Lacombe, the black-robed voyageur; Sam Steele, of the North West Mounted Police; Gabriel Dumont, the Prince of the Prairies; more than 7,000 Chinese workers, toiling and dying in the canyons of the Fraser Valley; and many more — land sharks, construction geniuses, politicians, and entrepreneurs — all of whom played a role in the founding of the new Canada west of Ontario.

Hiroshima Immigrants in Canada, 1891-1941

Hiroshima Immigrants in Canada, 1891-1941
Author: Michiko Midge Ayukawa
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0774858125

Hiroshima Immigrants in Canada, 1891-1941 is a fascinating investigation of Japanese migration to Canada prior to the Second World War. It makes Japanese-language scholarship on the subject available for the first time, and also draws on interviews, diaries, community histories, biographies, and the author's own family history. Starting with the history of the feudal fiefs of Aki and Bingo, which were merged into Hiroshima prefecture, Ayukawa describes the political, economic, and social circumstances that precipitated emigration between 1891 and 1941. She then examines the lives and experiences of those migrants who settled in western Canada. Interviews with three generations of community members, as well as with those who never emigrated, supplement research on immigrant labour, the central role of women, and the challenges Canadian-born children faced as they navigated life between two cultures. This book is a must-read for scholars of migrations, diaspora, and transnationalism, and will also be of great interest to general readers who wish to learn more about the lives and experiences of Japanese Canadians.

Transpacific Reform and Revolution

Transpacific Reform and Revolution
Author: Zhongping Chen
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2023-07-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1503636259

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the turbulent end of China's imperial system, violent revolutionary movements, and the fraught establishment of a republican government. During these decades of reform and revolution, millions of far-flung "overseas Chinese" remained connected to Chinese domestic movements. This book uses rich archival sources and a new network approach to examine how reform and revolution in North American Chinatowns influenced political change in China and the transpacific Chinese diaspora from 1898 to 1918. Historian Zhongping Chen focuses on the transnational activities of Kang Youwei, Sun Yat-sen, and other politicians, especially their mobilization of the Chinese in North America to join reformist or revolutionary parties in patriotic fights for a Western-style constitutional monarchy or republic in China. These new reformist and revolutionary parties, including the first Chinese women's political organization, led transpacific movements against American anti-Chinese racism in 1905 and supported constitutional reform and the Republican Revolution in China around 1911, achieving transpacific expansion through innovative use of cross-cultural political ideologies and intertwined institutional and interpersonal networks. Through network analysis of the origins, interrelations, and influences of Chinese reform and revolution in North America, this book makes a significant contribution to modern Chinese history, Asian American and Asian Canadian history, and Chinese diasporic scholarship.