David Bouchard, a renowned Canadian author, released a new children’s book, I Am Not a Ghost: The Canadian Pacific Railway. The work recounts the story of a Chinese man who migrated to Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway. He came in search of a better life. The railway workers treated him harshly, but Amelia Douglas, a Métis woman, who was one of the founding mothers of British Columbia, and wife of the former governor of BC, saved him from death. This fictional but historically accurate story carries an important message and describes the racism and hardship that these newcomers to Canada endured.
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was completed in 1885. The construction of the railway was a massive undertaking that required the labor of thousands of workers. Many of these workers were Chinese immigrants. Despite their significant contributions, the Chinese workers faced racism and discrimination, including lower wages and dangerous working conditions.
A creative process with reciprocity at its heart
Bouchard collaborated with long-time friend, Zhong-Yang Huang and his son, Sean Huang, who illustrated I Am Not a Ghost. When they first came up with the idea, they wanted to highlight the injustices done to the Chinese community.
“Yang’s input to all of this was, can this be real? Were Canadians truly that way?” Bouchard said during an interview with Cold Tea Collective. “It became clear to us this history wasn’t being shared in schools. I Am Not a Ghost is a telling where a racist is a racist, a bigot is a bigot, and a brutally harsh society has to be called out for what it was.”
No one person can represent an issue in its entirety or be the sole voice for history itself. Storytellers must work together to cultivate stories with reciprocity for the community it serves.
Together, Zhong-Yang’s artistic direction guided Sean’s illustrations and Bouchard’s writing. From this…
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