Chinese Legacies

I am currently working on a joint project with the Revelstoke Railway Museum entitled "Chinese Legacies." We will each mount an exhibit on this theme. The Railway Museum exhibit will look at the role of Chinese workers in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and it will open on Friday, August 15 around 7 pm (after the Railway Days official opening.) The Revelstoke Museum & Archives exhibit is focused on the Chinese community in Revelstoke and it opens on Saturday, August 16 at 11:00 am. I am the researcher and curator for both exhibits and it has been a fascinating job uncovering this history. It is difficult finding accurate information on the number of Chinese who worked on the railway - I have seen numbers ranging from 7,000 to 15,000, and the number of deaths range from 600 to 2,200. This is a very difficult number to pin down, because their deaths were not registered.

Many Chinese people settled in Revelstoke after railway construction, and until the 1920s, they made up about 1/10th of the local population. In the 1901 census, there were 114 Chinese residents in Revelstoke, and only one of them was female. Half of the men were married, but their wives were still in China. Many of them were never able to bring their wives or children over because of the head tax that was imposed on Chinese immigrants.

Watch this blog for ongoing updates on the exhibits. The exhibits will be in place for two years after the opening date, so plan to attend.