Chinese Canadian Stories

==Vision Statement==
The “Chinese Canadian Stories: Uncommon Histories from a Common Past” web portal is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary project led by the University of British Columbia Library and Simon Fraser University Library. Funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP), the project will serve as a valuable mechanism of communication and collaboration between UBC, SFU, community partners and students. This project will reshape the way all of us understand Canada, and reclaim the forgotten histories of peoples who have long been ignored in Canadian history.
For more than 200 years, migrants of Chinese heritage have traveled to Canada to live, to work, and to raise their families. They have come at different times and from different places in China and throughout the world. Many have called a variety of places home before coming to Canada, but once here, they formed vibrant communities that have significantly shaped Canadian society.
Until now, there has never been a one-stop web portal dedicated to collecting, digital archiving, accessing and distributing information about Chinese Canadian history.
==About the CCS Project==
The project involves the coordination of an array of academic units within UBC that are each at the forefront of their fields. It brings together the outstanding expertise and resources of a wide range of UBC campus units and off-campus partners, including local civic institutions and community non-profit organizations. The initiative aims to create:
1) A portal website that will be the first stop for Chinese Canadian history that is multilingual with English and Chinese resources
2) A digital archive that deposits and preserves digital material created from partner organizations funded by the CHRP and saves it in a searchable database
3) Workshops in the summer of 2010 and 2011 that will be attended by participants from local community organizations and from targeted community organizations across Canada that are receiving CHRP funding. These workshops, along with select community engagement events across the nation, will also help promote the process of digital preservation and collection and share what occurred at the summer workshops.
4) Promotion of Grade 5-12 classroom use of both the portal website and the digital materials through the creation of learning resources and teaching materials that will use CHRP created materials, embedding the material within a rethinking of the role of Chinese and First Nations peoples in the building of the CPR and in building Canada. The project aims to print 500 copies of teaching guides for the use of the downloadable web resources that can be accessed for free at the UBC website.
5) Virtual experiences that will appear in different forms on the portal website and within portable interactive kiosks, to be launched in early 2012.
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.