Saltwater City: Story of Vancouver's Chinese Community

by Paul Yee

Saltwater City pays tribute to those who went through the hard times, to those who swallowed their pride, to those who were powerless and humiliated, but who still carried on. They all had faith that things would be better for future generations. They have been proven correct.

Canada’s first Chinese arrived in British Columbia in 1858 from California. Almost all mee—merchants, peasants, and laborers — and almost all from eight rural counties in the Pearl River delta in what is now Guangdong province — they came in search of gold and better fortune, escaping the rebellions, flood and drought of their homeland.

By 1863 over 4,000 Chinese lived in B.C., filling jobs shunned by miners, road builders, teamsters, laundry men, restaurateurs, domestic servants and cannery workers. Between 1881 and 1885, thousands more arrived, most imported to build the transcontinental railway. They were to create, in Vancouver, Canada’s largest and most dynamic Chinese Community, known to its original inhabitants as Saltwater City.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Paul Yee never planned to be an author but got published in 1983 and followed up with over twenty books in his area of obsession: Chinese immigrants to North America. He wrote mostly for young readers, from picture books to Young Adult fiction, as well as histories for everyone. His university degrees in history, plus working as an archivist, plunged him into researching the past. His work has been translated into French and Chinese, and used in animated films as well as stage plays. Born in small-town prairie Canada, he grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, but Toronto tempted him away from that west coast paradise in 1988.

Reviews

[Léa Taranto · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative introductory text on the history of Chinese Canadians in Vancouver, specifically Chinatown. While I learnt a good deal, I did find the text dry, even for nonfiction. The subject matter is important to me so I couldn’t help but wonder about people with less stakes reading this book wanting it the writing to be more engaging.

[Sunni | vanreads]

This book is a good reference for the history of Chinese in Vancouver. It’s not the most exciting read, but the information is thorough and it gives you a detailed overview of the different experiences of what the Chinese in Vancouver went through over the years. The later part is quite sad because I feel like a lot of the more overt racist sentiments of the past (ie. News targeting the Chinese for upsetting the local culture) still exist today but more subliminally, which makes it harder to address.

On a side note, the formatting of this book was quite awkward. The excerpts were always awkwardly stuck in between sentences of the main text.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of this book, the truly historical part, was quite fascinating. But by the end it was almost like a tourist guide.