The Remains of a Journey: Individual Memory and Mass Migration

Globalization has not only brought about a dramatic increase in migration, but brought questions about migration to the fore of contemporary political discourse. An understanding of the implications of globalization requires an understanding of migration, and to fully understand the impact of migration, we must hear the stories of migrant people and their communities

The Remains of a Journey: Individual Memory and Mass Migration, examines the way in which our understanding of contemporary migration issues is contingent on memories of historical migrations. Critical to this work is the idea that memory is not simply a record of the past, but also the framework based on which people interpret and respond to today's world. The Remains of a Journey is about activating immigrant histories, first within the communities to which they belong, and then in the larger Canadian community.

The initial focus of the project will be on five sites significant to the history of Chinese immigration to Canada: the D'Arcy Island Leper Colony (established by the government of British Columbia in 1891 for Chinese Leprosy Patients); the Bone House at Harling Point (where the remains of Chinese immigrants were brought to be cleaned and wrapped before being sent back to China, until the practice was forced to end by the Sino-Japanese War in 1937); the Cumberland Chinatown (abandoned in 1935 when a fire destroyed many buildings and the community, many of whom had been barred from their work in the nearby mine by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, were unable to rebuild); the Fraser Mountain View Cemetery- Chinese Cemetery in Vancouver, many Chinese immigrants pioneer buried here including a famous businessmen Yip Sang who chosen to be buried in Vancouver declare they belong here. New Westminster Chinese cemetery (a part of New Westminster Public Cemeteries, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, First Nations and Indo Canadians), It was no longer exist today, they were changed to the Douglas Memorial Park created in the 1930s, and now is a school build up since the 1950s, the provincial Cemeteries Act did not protect it. There is another site back to China, which is called Canada Village in Kaiping, Guandong, China. It is a symbol of Chinese immigrants returns to their home village and build up their ideal society mixed with Western and Chinese culture on their homeland, and how it was unable to exist in the past. Each of these sites tells a story about how Chinese immigrants to Canada felt about their new home and their homeland. These are stories, which resonate strongly with current issues, but are slipping away with time. Although these places are now empty and abandoned, their stories persist in cultural memory, meaning that the history of these sites is not just that of the places themselves, but also a history of memory and memory keeping. It is imperative that Canadians be reminded of this history, and that new immigrants learn the stories of those who came before them.

The issues of globalization, migration, and their connections to memory are of immediate importance. This is especially true for us in Canada, a nation largely formed by immigrants and their memories. Just as Canada's last century was defined by its response to the political and ethical issues of colonialism and international conflict, this century will in large part be defined by our response to the new questions posed by globalization and the rapidly shifting dynamic forces of global migration.

Gu Xiong, 2020