WRITER – CULTURAL CRITIC – ACTIVIST
Author Susan Crean was at the Asian Heritage Month Book Fair event at the Splendid China Shopping Mall in Scarborough for a Q & A session on her book Finding Mr. Wong. Writer Lien Chao hosted the Q & A.
A summary of this event can be found at New Canadian Media in this article, written by photojournalist Shan Qiao: Historic Head Tax Unites Canadians at Book Fair.
In New Canadian Media, June 1, 2019
The story of Chinese immigration to Canada is best known for two things. First, the arrival of Chinese labourers in large numbers in the late 1800s to build the crucial last link of the Canadian Pacific Railway—the most difficult and dangerous section which required crossing the Rocky Mountains. And second, for the institution of a head tax meant to dissuade those very men from remaining in the country once the work was completed…
Read the full article Finding Mr. Wong: A Tale From Canada’s Exclusion Era here.
In This Magazine, Nov-Dec, 2012.
This is the backstory to Finding Mr. Wong, the book on the life of Mr. Wong and why it has been possible for me to write it. In the first instance, this is because of the help and openness of Chinese Canadians who made the search not just doable but successful beyond any expectation. The changes in Canadian society since Mr. Wong’s death in 1970 has meant that the close, familial association across race we had is no longer so unusual; it’s become a commonplace experience. Canadians have taken to practicing diversity at home and work, and slowly it’s become part of our identity. We’ve pride in our multicultural cities, and see multiculturalism as an ideal, a standard of tolerance and non-discrimination.
Read the article "Writing Mr. Wong" online here.