The Writing on the Wall : : Chinese and Japanese Immigration to BC, 1920 / / Hilda Glynn-Ward.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Archive (pre 2000) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Glynn-Ward, Hilda,
• TeilnehmendeR: Roy, Patricia.
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2017]; ©1974
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (150 p.)

With tales of a gruesome murder, a typhoid epidemic, corrupt politicians, and a Japanese invasion, The Writing on the Wall was intended to shock its readers when it was published in 1921. Thinly disguised as a novel, it is a propaganda tract exhorting white British Columbians to greater vigilance to prevent greedy politicians from selling out to the Chinese and Japanese. It was also designed to convince eastern Canada of British Columbia's need for protections against an onslaught of the 'yellow peril.'This novel is not exceptional in its extreme racism; it reiterates almost every anti-oriental cliché circulating in British Columbia at the time of its publication. While modern readers will find the story horrifying and unbelievable, it is in fact based on real incidents. Many of the views expressed were only exaggerated versions of ideas held throughout the country about non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants. The Writing on the Wall is a vivid illustration of the fear and prejudice with which immigrants were regarded in the early twentieth century.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Introduction -- Part I. The past -- Chapter 1. Introducing one Chung Lee and another man of parts -- Chapter 2. In which Gordon Morley tells no secrets -- Chapter 3. Which introduces Lizzie Laidlaw -- Chapter 4. In which the 'Empress' unships a valuable cargo -- Chapter 5. In which a famous lawyer finds himself in a hurry -- Chapter 6. Describing a yacht and a career -- Chapter 7. In which the fish inspector sees something that makes him sit up -- Chapter 8. In which Harding comes upon a 'pleasant joke' -- Chapter 9. In which Harding finds that two and two make four -- Chapter 10. In which Mrs Morley attends a reception -- Chapter 11. In which one Chinaman escapes justice and another gets a government job -- Part 2. The present (ten years after) -- Chapter 12. In which we hear of a wedding and a death -- Chapter 13. Which tells of an elopement -- Chapter 14. Showing the perspicacity of Peter McReady -- Chapter 16. In which there are many rumors and a few facts -- Chapter 17. In which Rose's nose is put out of joint and a man reaches the last stages -- Chapter 18. In which we meet Chung Lee again as a winner -- Chapter 19. In which the lieutenant-governor is confronted by a choice -- Part 3. The future -- Chapter 20. In which positions are reversed -- Chapter 21. In which yellow wins -- Chapter 22. In which many things are made clear -- Finis