Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver

James D. Cameron is an associate professor of history at St. Francis
Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

Yee’s updated edition of Saltwater City (originally a product of the
1986 Vancouver centennial exhibition) opens a window on the origins and
evolution of Vancouver’s Chinese community. Recounted in simple prose
with 200 illustrations, the book charts their arduous journey from
rejection and white hostility toward acceptance and full participation.
As a Chinese Canadian, professional archivist, and author who grew up in
Vancouver’s Chinatown, Yee is well equipped to tell the story. His
seven-chapter narrative, which includes valuable inserts on important
dimensions of the Chinese experience, is built on scholarly studies,
oral sources, government documents, and newspapers.

Chapter 1 discusses the first migrants’ southern Chinese origins, the
push-pull factors that explain their immigration to British Columbia
beginning in 1858, their diverse occupations, and the anti-Asian
hostility they encountered (the head tax being one notorious example).
Chapter 2 presents the varied Chinese experience in early Chinatown, and
the relentless white efforts to circumscribe and marginalize the Chinese
immigrants. The Chinese frequently fought back, founding formal and
informal associations in the process. Other chapters chart the growth of
the Chinese community, the racist exclusionary act of 1923, the
unionization of Chinese labourers, and persisting links with the
homeland. Chapter 4 surveys the Chinese experience during the Great
Depression and World War II.

Yee demonstrates how the Chinese-Canadian wartime contribution brought
them repeal of exclusionary legislation and the franchise. Canadian-born
Chinese began to enter the professions and move out of the Chinatown
ghetto. The final chapters describe the growing size and sophistication
of the Chinese communities, and their increasingly diverse backgrounds
in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Internal divisions arose
between the generations and over homeland events, among other things.
The 1990s witnessed new tensions between Vancouver’s Chinese and white
residents, as well as ongoing challenges to integration and
co-existence.

While some of the longer inserts interrupt the narrative flow, and
persistent illegal entry generated by the reviled head tax is
underplayed, Yee’s excellent book does not whitewash the Vancouver
Chinese. It acknowledges their flaws and conflicts while at the same
time appropriately stressing their hard work, astounding resiliency, and
central contributions to a city that now displays “a strong Asian
character.”