UBC Library collaborates with The Paper Trail project to launch new digital archive
6 July, 2023
UBC Library Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), in partnership with The Paper Trail project team, has launched a digital archival collection of identity papers known as Chinese Immigration (C.I.) certificates created through Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act.
The Act was in force from 1885 to 1947. It introduced and tightened immigration restrictions through the Chinese head tax and its increasing sum, and culminated in the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 that banned all further immigration. Passed into law on July 1st Dominion Day that year, the amendment is commonly called the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was effective in stemming Chinese immigration. It also resulted in cutting off the tens of thousands of Chinese residents already living in Canada from their families back in China. The law was finally repealed in 1947 after almost a quarter century.
Led by Catherine Clement, a community historian and curator based in Vancouver’s Chinatown, The Paper Trail project seeks to commemorate this era of exclusion that was “the darkest and most despairing period in Chinese Canadian history.” Families have been invited to share scans of their C.I. certificates and details about the individuals who once owned them, which make up the new digital archive.
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