CCNC Looking for Stories of Youth from Head Tax Families

CCNC Call For Submissions from Youth

CCNC is seeking stories from youth from head tax families on their family’s experience with the Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act. We are able to pay a small honoraria – from $300 to $500 to a young person (24 years or under) or a student (30 years or under). We’re looking for writings of 800-1,000 words with a couple family photos.

CCNC has compiled a youth anthology before, please see: http://www.ccnc.ca/cc150/your-anthology/index.php.
You can also check out the Chinese Canadian Veterans’ stories here: http://www.ccmms.ca/veteran-stories/.

Here is an outline that you could use to frame your essay:

1. Describe your family’s background: origins, year of immigration, and immigration pattern. How did the Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act affect your family?

2. Describe the first years in Canada: what was your family occupation, where did they live, how were they treated? What were the challenges and how did they overcome them?

3. How has the Chinese Canadian community changed over the decades? Do you/your peers identify with the community? How do you relate to Chinese newcomers and community/family members who immigrated to Canada?

4. Is there discrimination in Canada today? Explain.

Collecting these stories will help us to connect the generations; it will also help the head tax families to network with each other.

Please send us an email first to indicate your interest .
Contact: Victor Wong national@ccnc.ca

More info about the project below!

About CCNC “Our Stories” Project

CCNC is launching the “Our Stories” Head Tax Education Project to recognize the contributions and to commemorate the experiences of Chinese Canadian communities affected by the Chinese Head Tax, Newfoundland Head Tax, and Chinese Exclusion Act, and to educate Canadians about these experiences.

CCNC will be creating a web-site which will include an online national community portal, archive and library, resources and tools for genealogy research. The special web-features will include stories from the head tax families living on the Prairies and in the North, the Atlantic experience, youth essays and a new video on the paper sons. A traveling photo-exhibit will be created and installed in Vancouver and Montreal. CCNC will produce a commemorative book to illustrate the history of Chinese Canadian communities and the Head Tax redress campaign.

This national project will feature the personal stories from head tax families as they recount the efforts by Chinese Canadians to establish their communities during the Chinese Head Tax, Newfoundland Head Tax, and Chinese Exclusion Act eras.

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/347379135324518/
Contact: Victor Wong national@ccnc.ca; (416) 977-9871

This project was made possible through funding from the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP), part of the Citizenship and Multiculturalism Branch. The CHRP program funds community-based commemorative and educational projects that provide recognition of the experiences of ethno-cultural communities affected by historical wartime measures and/or immigration restrictions applied in Canada, and that promote these communities’ contributions to building Canada.

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