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Enlarge Cover
list price: $18.95
edition:Paperback
category: History
published: Jan 2001
ISBN:9780920576830
publisher:
Caitlin Press
Description
Chasing Their Dreams recreates the hardships early Chinese settlers faced in Northwestern British Columbia: harsh land and climate, little or no financial resources, deep-set prejudice and sometimes racial violence.
Panning for gold, making ties for the railroad, canning fish, running laundries and restaurants, these people persevered despite persecution by the local populace and the provincial and federal governments. The documentation of Chinese relations with northern First Nations, going all the way back to 458 BC, make this book one of the most thoroughly researched histories of Chinese settlement in British Columbia.
"... The Chinese came to Canada for reasons not too dissimilar to other settlers, yet they have often been suspected on other unfounded grounds. The description of the Klondike saga is indeed incredible. It exposes the injustice of an elected municipal government, or a democracy without justice is worse than benevolent authoritarianism."
--from the foreword by Dr. W. C. Tan, Canadian College for Chinese Studies
About the Author
Lily Chow
Contributor Notes
Lily Chow, a researcher and writer, immigrated to Canada in 1967. She possesses a master’s degree of Education and has taught high school in Prince George and Mandarin at the University of Northern British Columbia for three years. Her book publications include Blossoms in the Gold Mountains (2018), Blood and Sweat over the Railway Tracks (2014), Chasing Their Dreams (2000), Sojourners in the North (1996). She also has written articles for Ricepaper Magazine and the Prince George Citizen. In her twenty-five years of writing, she has won the Jeanne Clarke Memorial Local History Award (1996), received grants from the Canadian Heritage Branch, Federal Government (1993 & 1998), and certificates of merit from the BC Historical Federation in 2014 and 2019. Her volunteer services have been awarded with two Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee Medals (2002 & 2012). Currently, she resides in Victoria, BC.
