The Paper Trail
The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act explores a dark yet largely forgotten chapter in Canadian history. The unprecedented law, which targeted only the Chinese community, was in place for a quarter century and remains among the most tragic episodes in the countryâs history. Yet this story, that left such profound effects on the individuals and families it touched, has been steeped in silence. Almost nothing about this period was shared by those who lived through it. Consequently, within a single generation, the trauma of exclusion was forgotten.
This is the first book to explore the human experience of exclusion as revealed through the stories of the lives it touched.
The stories in this book reveal haunting tales of tragedy, loss and despair as well as powerful examples of courage, perseverance, and resilience. They chronicle the lives of ordinary people caught in extraordinary times. Many stories are being shared publicly for the first time.
An act of collective remembrance and historical reckoning, this book presents an unflinching look at a monumental and shameful chapter in Canadaâs origin story. The pages offer a reminder of how the wreckage wrought by discrimination and exclusion, can be ignored and yet still ripple through the generations.
Canadian and US orders accepted here.
International orders please contact [email protected]
$59.95
Additional information
| Weight | 1300 kg |
|---|---|
| Specs | 11.25in x 9.3, 256 pages |
The Honorable Randall Wong, B.C. Supreme Court Judge (retired) –
“Catherine Clementâs book, the result of extensive crowdsourcing and laborious research, for the first time brings to life the dark years of Chinese exclusion like never before. The many individual stories that were shared or excavated give us an honest and moving glimpse into a period of Canadian history that has been steeped in silence.”
Dr. Henry Yu, Professor of History, University of British Columbia –
“This book captures the best of what made the award-winning 2023 museum exhibition âThe Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Actâ so moving and powerful. The painstaking historical research and the extensive community crowdsourcing of family and individual stories creates a searing, honest history about a horrific and haunting period of Canadian history that has been ignored for too long.”
– DG, The BC Review –
Combining photos with a narrative drawn from a rich trove of archival sources to include the recollections of victims and their descendants, Clement’s Paper Trail brings to life a dark and forgotten chapter in Canadian history.
The Vancouver Book Award-winning author, who spent some of her childhood in Vancouver’s Chinatown and now lives on the Sunshine Coast, has produced a deeply affecting record of legislative racism and its human consequences.
– Daniel Gawthrop, Author –
No one who has lived in Vancouver for any length of time would be unaware of the Chinese Canadian contributions to the city, the province, and the country. But after seeing The Paper Trail exhibition or reading the bookâafter seeing once invisible lives becoming visible, giving us a fuller understanding of what Chinese Canadians endured under the Exclusion Actâitâs impossible to come away without new respect for the communityâs resilience.
And that is the greatest gift Catherine Clement could have given that communityâand the rest of us as readers.