Vancouver's Chinatown: Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875-1980 (Volume 110) (McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History) - Softcover

Anderson, Kay J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773513299 ISBN 13: 9780773513297

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Anderson charts the construction of Chinatown in the minds and streets of the white community of Vancouver over a hundred year period. She shows that Chinatown -- from the negative stereotyping of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to its current status as an "ethnic neighbourhood" -- has been stamped by changing European ideologies of race and the hegemonic policies those ideas have shaped. The very existence of the district is the result of a regime of cultural domination that continues to exist today. Anderson clearly rejects the concept of "race" as a means of distinguishing between groups of human beings. She points out that because the implicit acceptance of public beliefs about race affects the types of questions asked by researchers, the issue of the ontological status of race is as critical for commentators on society as it is for scientists studying human variation. Anderson applies this fresh approach toward the concept of race to a critical examination of popular, media, and academic treatments of the Chinatown in Vancouver.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In this insightful study of race and racism, Kay Anderson examines Vancover's Chinatown as a creation of the white community over a hundred-year period. She shows that the very existence of the district--from the negative stereotyping of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to its current status as an 'ethnic neighbourhood'--is the result of cultural domination that continues to exist today.

About the Author

CA

About this edition

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0773513299
• ISBN 13: 9780773513297
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336