The Diary of Dukesang WongFront Cover
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    ISBN: 9781772012583 | Paperback

    144 pages | Pub. Date: 20200827
    5.5 W × 8.5 H × 0.362 D inches
    Backlist | Non-Fiction | Bisac: BIO006000
    Rights: WORLD

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The Diary of Dukesang Wong
A Voice from Gold Mountain
By Dukesang Wong
Edited by David McIlwraith
Translated by Wanda Joy Hoe

The Diary of Dukesang Wong restores a lost central voice to a foundational episode in Canadian history – one that changes our understanding of the history it recounts. Dukesang Wong’s remarkable diary tells of the appalling conditions, the punishing work, the camaraderie, the sickness and starvation, the encounters with Indigenous Peoples, and the shameful history of racism and exploitation he and his fellow Chinese workers endured while constructing the treacherous British Columbia section of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The Diary of Dukesang Wong also places this segment of Canadian history into context, as one part of Wong’s gradual, painful establishment of a new life in a new land. His diary traces the unfolding of that remarkable life, from his early years in an unstable China, to his decision to emigrate to “the Land of the Gold Mountains,” to becoming a tailor in New Westminster, and finally to the joys of family life. As Judy Fong Bates writes in her introduction, “His diaries give him back his humanity and his individuality … It is a heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful, voice that reaches out beyond the century.”

Finalist 2021 The BC and Yukon Book Prizes' Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize

"Its appearance is a welcome and signal event ... We discover insights and intimations of an experience too long ignored by mainstream histories."
— Literary Review of Canada

"[The Diary of Dukesang Wong] puts a human face on the thousands of Chinese who came to Canada in the 19th century and gradually managed, by dint of sheer determination and hard work, to make themselves good lives."
—Asian Review of Books

"An obvious labour of love, presenting carefully researched background material in a colourful way."
—Winnipeg Free Press

By Dukesang Wong

Born in a village north of Beijing, China, in 1845, Dukesang Wong travelled to North America in 1880 and worked for several years on the construction of the CPR in British Columbia. He eventually settled in New Westminster, BC, where he worked as a tailor and started a family. He died in 1931.

Read more about Dukesang Wong

Edited by David McIlwraith

David McIlwraith has been a writer, teacher, actor, and director. During a career in theatre, film, and television, he wrote and directed award-nominated documentaries and television programs, including Celesta Found, The Lynching of Louie Sam, In Chinatown, and Harrowsmith Country Life.

Read more about David McIlwraith

Translated by Wanda Joy Hoe

Born in 1947, Wanda Joy Hoe translated selections from the diary of her grandfather, Dukesang Wong, for an undergraduate sociology course at Simon Fraser University in the mid-1960s. After serving for many years with Canada’s delegation to UNESCO, she retired and now lives in Ottawa.

Read more about Wanda Joy Hoe

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news | 2021-04-08
BC and Yukon Book Prize Finalists

…eat salt | gaze at the ocean . In addition, The Diary of Dukesang Wong , by Dukesang Wong, edited by David McIlwraith, …

news | 2020-09-23
The Diary of Dukesang Wong has arrived!

…We are so pleased to welcome The Diary of Dukesang Wong , by Dukesang Wong, translated by Wanda Joy Hoe, … edited and with commentary by David McIlwraith! The Diary of Dukesang Wong restores a lost central voice to a foundational … Columbia section of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Diary of Dukesang Wong also places this segment of Canadian history into … out beyond the century.” Pick up your copy of The Diary of Dukesang Wong today! …