History 485 – Asian Migrant Communities in Vancouver
Spring 2008, Tuesdays and Thursdays
3:30pm – 5:00pm, Buchanan B212 and Buchanan B316
Prof. Henry Yu, email:
henryyu@interchange.ubc.ca
Office Hours: Mondays,
2:00pm-4:00pm, Buchanan
Tower 11th floor, Room 1116
All readings, except books, are
available to be downloaded from this class website
This course examines Vancouver as a "global" city tied to the Asia
Pacific region and embedded in the long history of "Pacific Canada."One
of the central questions is how
history is narrated, and what is erased and what is highlighted by the
ways we understand the relationships between the present and the past.
Grading Breakdown
Class participation - 15%
Class participation and exam - 15%
Assignment #1 - First Interview
– 20%
Assignment #2:
Historical Context Assignment – 25%
Outline Draft of Oral History – 10%
Final Web Version of Oral History – 30%
Alternative Final Project (can replace
the Oral History Final Project):
Proposal and Outline - 25%
Final Project - 40%
Books to be Purchased:
Finding Memories, Tracing Routes,
edited by Brandy Lien Worrall (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of
B.C.)
Eating Stories, edited by
Brandy Lien Worrall (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C.)
"Pacific Canada: Beyond the 49th Parallel," Special Issue of Amerasia Journal, edited by Henry
Yu and Guy Beauregard
Class Schedule
Week 1 - Intro – January 8 and 10
Week 2 - January 15 and 17 - Introduction
Week 3 – January 22 and 24 - The
Politics
of Making History
Henry Yu,
"Writing the Past in the Present"
Donna R.
Gabaccia, "Is Everywhere
Nowhere?
Nomads, Nations, and the
Immigrant Paradigm of United States History," Journal of American
History 86, no. 3
Arrange Pairs for Assignment #1
Week 4 – January 29 and 31 - The Example of Chinese in Canada and
in the Pacific Region
Finding Memories, Tracing Routes,
edited by Brandy Lien Worrall (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of
B.C.)
Henry Yu, "Then and Now: Trans-Pacific Ethnic
Chinese Migrants in Historical Context," Centre for Pacific and Asian
Studies, Annual Papers, 2005, University of Tokyo
Anthony B.
Chan, "Chinese Canada:
Reflections
on Historical Eras and Watersheds," Polyphony:
The Bulletin of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 15
(2000), 1-12 (38k)
Week 5 - February 5 and 7 - The New Global Vancouver? Trans-Pacific
Networks and the Hong Kong
Chinese
David
Ley, "Between Europe and Asia:
The Case of the Missing Sequoias," Ecumene 2(2) 1995: 185-210.
David
Ley, "Seeking Homo
Economicus: The Strange Story of Canada's Business Immigration
Program," RIIM Working Paper #00-02, May 2000.
David
Ley and Audrey Kobayashi, "Back to Hong Kong: Return Migration or
Transnational Sojourn?" unpublished paper (2004)
Shibao
Guo and Don DeVoretz, "The Changing Faces of Chinese Immigrants in
Canada," RIIM Working Paper #05-08, February 2005
Week 6 - February 12 and 14 - Eating and Family Histories
Eating Stories, edited by
Brandy Lien Worrall (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C.)
Film: A Tribe of One
Week 7 – February 19 and 21 - Break
Week 8 - February 26 and 28 - Interviewing
Post Interviews from Assignment #1 online (in website or film clip
format) by Sunday, February 24, 11pm
View each others and be ready to
discuss for Thursday
Begin Arranging Interview Subjects
for Oral History!
Week 9 – March 4 and 6 - Sushi and Chinese Food - Local
Inventions or Global Connections?
Imogene Lim,
Mostly Mississippi:
Chinese Cuisine Made in America in
Mostly Mississippi: Chinese
Restaurants of the South, by Indigo Som, pp.13-15
Imogene
Lim, Chinese Restaurants as
Cultural Lessons, Flavor & Fortune 4(2):13, 22. June 97.
Madeline
Hsu, "From
Chop Suey to Mandarin Cuisine"
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/community_profiles/
Film: excerpts from Chinese Restaurants, directed by Cheuk Kwan
Historical Context Exercise Due
or
Rough Proposal and Outline for
Alternative Final Project Assignment Due March 6
Week 10 – March 11 and 13 - What
is a Chinatown? What is a
Community? The Fight for Chinatown/Strathcona/Downtown Eastside and the
New Vancouver
Edgar
Wickberg, "Chinatown,"
unpublished essay (12k)
Hayne
Wai, Vancouver Chinatown 1960-1980: A Community Perspective
Katharyne
Mitchell, "Reworking Democracy: Contemporary Immigration and Community
Politics in Vancouver's Chinatown," Political Geography 17:6, 1998,
pp729-750
Jeff
Sommers and Nick Blomley, "The worst block in Vancouver" in Stan
Douglas: Every Building on 100 West Hastings, ed. Reid Shier,
Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002
See: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/aboriginal/storyscapes/index.htm
and http://murmurvancouver.ca/
Week 11 – March 18 and 20 - The
Lost World of Japanese Canada
Film: Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi
Baseball
Story, directed by Jan Osborne
(Term Projects
must show progress!)
Outline draft of Oral History due March 20!
Week 12 – March 25 and 27 - Pacific Canada? What Might That Be?
Pacific
Canada: Beyond the 49th Parallel, Special Issue of Amerasia, read all
Week 13 – April 3 and 5 - 100th
Anniversary of the 1908 Continuous Journey Act - What to Do?
Week 14 - April 8 and 9 - Concluding Week
Final Projects Due on second Wednesday
of
Finals Period
Assignment #1 - Interview Exercise
Interview a classmate. Create either 1) a website of
approximately 1000-1500 words
of text
with images or other media, or 2)
a short film of no longer than 5 minutes that is your
representation/interpretation of that person.
Assignment #2 - In-Depth Oral
History Project focusing on One or More People
This is an in-depth assignment which involves an initial interview, a
short paper researching the historical contexts necessary to understand
the larger contexts of a life, and a series of interviews with the
person and people who know them which provides the substance of the
interview. The final format of the Oral History can be in the form of a
film (interviews can be filmed using digital cameras supplied by
INSTRCC program) or in the form of a website.
Tips on Doing a Video Oral History
Interview
RELEASE FORM
FOR INTERVIEW SUBJECTS TO SIGN (IF THEY ARE WILLING) (PDF)
(M/S
WORD)
*Both Assignment #1 or #2 - Please consider sending the finished
project to one of the 150th Anniversary of B.C. Celebrations - obtain
permission from the subject before submitting!
CBC - http://www.cbc.ca/bc/features/150/contest.html#enter
Vancouver Sun
The immigrant journey
Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008
"The story of British Columbia is the newcomer's experience.
Immigration has always stoked the fires of our province and the stories
are endless. We want to hear them, read them and see them. To celebrate
B.C.'s 150th anniversary, The Vancouver Sun and the Royal B.C. Museum
will publish your stories, pictures and videos.
A journey has many parts. Tell us how you or your family got here. What
was it like to settle in a new place? What has the journey meant to
your family?"
Every family has a story. Send us yours. e-mail:
bc150@png.canwest.com
Alternative Final Assignment -
Term Project
Rough Plan for Term
Project
This should be a 3-4 page paper discussing what you will be doing as a
term project. It should take the following format: Section 1) What will
you be doing? Why is it interesting? What are the questions that you
are interested in answering? Section 2) What are the parameters of your
project? What kinds of material will you be using? Will you be talking
to people? What will be the process you use to answer the questions you
have? What methods and techniques of research are appropriate? Can it
be done in the time allotted? Section 3) What kinds of studies and
scholarship exist already that might help you? Are they useful for
background knowledge, for possible approaches? Or perhaps they are
useful to illustrate how you will do things differently, and how you
will ask other kinds of questions? In the end, this assignment is your
blueprint for the project. The more thought you put into this, the
easier it will be for you to complete the project, and the more
interesting and better it will be.
Some resource links:
Editing Films and Fixing Audio Tracks in Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack
Pro:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html
Conducting and Filming Oral History Interviews:
http://homepage.mac.com/secretmak/history/popcult/mak/oralhist.htm
Bibliography of Secondary
Literature on Asian Canadians (pdf)
Bibliography of Secondary
Literature on Asian Canadians compiled by Prof. Yuen-fong Woon of UVic
(pdf)
Bibliography
of Secondary Literature on Asian Migrations (M/S Excel)