PRE-ORDER - The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act - Limited Edition Hardcover

Consider this book as a future family heirloom: a gift to ensure that generations of Chinese Canadians will deeply understand and appreciate the history and experiences of their ancestors.

Secure your copy of this limited-edition, hardcover publication. Pre-order now through the Chinese Canadian Museum. Pick up orders only. For shipping options see below. Book expected to be available June 24, 2025.

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 country’s 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 broad range of human experiences of exclusion as revealed through the many 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 Canada’s 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.

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