Gu, Jennifer, and myself are taking a road-trip this week to trace the Fraser River. This is the first trip we are taking for the Waterscapes Project and after driving most of the day, we’re spending the night in Wells, BC. Tomorrow morning, we’re headed to Barkerville, one of the boomtowns of Gold Rush in the nineteenth century and a centre for Chinese migration.
Most of today was spent on the road and we’re really not going to start work until tomorrow, but we had ample time to touch on some themes that will be central to this trip:
(1) Even though the purpose of this trip is to track Chinese migration from a historical perspective, the towns we visited have attracted immigrants from many different places. We were especially surprised by the large number of recent Korean immigrants in towns like Hope and Cache Creek, most operating motels and stores. We plan to spend more time tracking their stories.
(2) The history of the Chinese themselves is well-documented throughout the Gold Rush trail, which suggests that their stories have been absorbed into our prevailing narratives of multiculturalism. Is it easier to recognize their stories when the community is no longer active or even present?
(3) This trip is the first time the three of us (minus our superb research assistant, April Liu who, sadly for us, is buried in dissertation writing) have spent a significant amount of time working together. While we get along well as colleagues and friends, we have very different disciplinary backgrounds – a multi-media artist, a sociologist, and a literary theorist. The exciting aspect about this collaboration is that we notice very different things and complement each other’s approaches. But we are still at the beginning of learning how to collaborate — how to listen and learn from each other while holding onto our unique perspectives.
(4) The landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful. We spent most of the drive in awe of what we were seeing (not all that safe if you happen to be the one driving). Much of this project revolves around the relationship between migrant cultures and land/water-scapes and we’ve been constantly reminded of the aesthetic dimensions of these settings.
A few pictures from our trip today:
Our first stop was in Yale, where we visited a motel owned by Korean immigrants. Jennifer is talking with the guy manning the front desk (he just woke up). He came to Canada for high school, recently graduated, and is about to head back to Korea.
Our next stop was Cache Creek, where we had lunch at a Chinese/Canadian Restaurant called the Wanderer-Inn. The restaurant has been there for 41 years and is currently operated by the son of the original owner. What surprised us was that the cooks and kitchen staff have come here alone, leaving their family in Vancouver. While in Cache Creek, they stay above the restaurant and make it home once every few weeks. This gentleman came to Canada from Hong Kong in 1953. He told us that it was hard to find work in Vancouver.
Around dusk, we got into Quesnel, where signs all over town mark the history of a once-vibrant Chinese community. We tried to see whether there were Korean-owned motels in Quesnel, but met South Asian and Eastern European staff instead.
Finally, a few shots of the gorgeous land/waterscapes we saw today:
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