UBC plans bilingual website to tell story of Chinese-Canadians
Jes Abeita
Vancouver Sun
August 10, 2010
A bilingual website to tell the story of Chinese-Canadians is in the planning stages at the University of B.C.
The site, Chinese-Canadian Stories: Uncommon Stories from a Common Past History, is scheduled to launch in 2012 and will feature resources in Chinese and English.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada will provide $900,000 under its Canada's Community Historical Recognition Program. In addition to the Web portal, the funds will help build a searchable archive of digital materials, learning materials for students and three “mobile museum” kiosks to be deployed in cities across the country.
“Chinese migrants came to what is now British Columbia over two centuries ago, engaging with first nations peoples at the same moment that the first migrants from Europe arrived,” said Henry Yu, project lead and associate professor in the department of history.
“In other words, long before Confederation, the Chinese were part of the founding peoples of what would become Canada. This project will reshape the way all of us understand Canada, and reclaim the forgotten histories of peoples who have long been ignored in Canadian history.”
