ARCHIVED - The Early Chinese Canadians
1858-1947

Source
New Westminster, B.C. in the late 19th century.

Introduction

Come and explore the social and political history of Canada's early Chinese communities. Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has assembled many resources to offer an overview of the topic:

• Read the history of Canada's early Chinese immigrants. Find out why they came to Canada and how they contributed to Canada's developing economy, the community ties they formed, and how immigration policies and attitudes restricted their lives in Canada.
• Examine unique historical photographs, government documents and letters about early Chinese immigrants in Canada. These materials have been selected from the LAC collection. Watch a 1918 film clip of a funeral procession and listen to a 1905 recording of a Cantonese folksong.
• Learn about the head tax records, which are officially called the General Registers of Chinese Immigration. These records were gathered by the Canadian government from 1885 to 1949 in order to track head tax payments of Chinese immigrants. You can search the General Registers online, or read a personal essay and brief family histories from present-day Canadians whose relatives paid this tax.
• Check out suggested titles from LAC's collection of Chinese Canadian literature and historical research, and connect to related websites.
• Secondary-school teachers can make use of educational resources for classroom study, based on provincial curriculum themes.