Cheuk Kwan

“From 1881 to 1884, more than 17,000 Chinese were recruited from Guangdong to build the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. Valued for their agility and hard work, they often performed the dangerous task of dynamiting the mountains. Many died. It’s said that a Chinese worker sacrificed his life for every mile of rail. The completion of the railway in 1885—when the western and central sections were linked in the mountains of British Columbia—was documented in a photograph of the ceremonial “last spike.” All the people looking at the camera are white. Not one Chinese man is present. Their labour, sacrifice and struggles were erased from this historical record. With the railway’s completion, Chinese labourers, who received only a third of the pay of other workers, were no longer welcome. With no means to go home, they were forced to seek employment in the few jobs Chinese were permitted to hold: washing, cooking and cleaning. Women’s work, as it was called at the time.”
― Cheuk Kwan, Have You Eaten Yet: Stories from Chinese Restaurants Around the World