Research Diaries 華工書信

The Chinese letters are part of the Yip Sang family papers in the City of Vancouver Archives.  Addressed to different individuals, the letters were sent to the Wing Sang Company in Vancouver’s Chinatown.  Some letters were shipped from China via the company’s transpacific business network.  Others were mailed from cities in Canada and the United States.

The featured letters here were written between 1902 and 1903 when the Chinese Head Tax was raised from $100 to $500 per person.  The letters serve as a window to study the lives of Chinese pioneers in Gold Mountain at the turn of the century. In Research Diaries, follow the work of Joanne Poon as she translates Toishanese* letters and uncovers stories about Gold Mountain with the gracious help of community members.

* Toishanese people are from the Toishan district of Four Counties in Guangdong, China and made up much of the Chinese population in Canada’s early years.

• Revisiting "the journey"
  April 10, 2012 - As the reserach progresses, I have come to realize that 點 (dim or dian) means number of hours.  It is a reference to duration in the old Toishanese and Cantonese expressions. So in Feng Ye Wo's letter, he boarded the ship for Vancouver on the 18t...
• Chemainus 尖尾利埠
  April 10, 2012 - In one of my previous posts, I could not identify the English name for jim may fou 尖尾埠.  I took this question to the June Community Workshop, but still could not find the answer.  I continued to look this up in the Chinese Times for this nam...
• 地方名稱社區工作坊
  June 21, 2011 - 卑詩大學「加華紀事」於六月十一日假溫哥華伍胥山公所再次舉行社區工作坊，與多位熱心的社區人士一起探討早期華裔先僑在加拿大的歷史。 承接著今年一月份的活動，是次工作坊�...
• 加華紀事 Toishan Letters Workshop #2
  June 17, 2011 - 加華紀事 Toishan Letters Workshop #2 Sometimes expert skills in language and history come not from the university, but from the community. On the weekend of the June Dragon Boat races, Chinese Canadian Stories researcher  Joanne Poon  orga...
• Archival conundrum: unopened mail
  June 17, 2011 - Archival conundrum: unopened mail by Sarah Romkey https://blogs.ubc.ca/rbscnew/2011/05/25/archival-conundrum-unopened-mail/ Opening the letter from the Wah Shun Company fonds We recently had our friends from Chinese Canadian Stories (CCS) j...