Dr. Weiyan (Vivian) Yan works as an Office, Copying & Shelving Assistant at the Rare Books and Special Collections Library at the University of British Columbia. She has recently been translating descriptions of the Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection from English into Chinese. During this work, she highlighted a few interesting materials for the RBSC Blog. Thank you, Vivian!
This image shows how to switch between English and Chinese language descriptions in the archival database
Chinese Miners in 19th Century British Columbia
Item Title: Report of the Minister of Mines
Description: A report of the Minister of Mines on the mining accident of 1883.
Item Number: RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-TX-100-43-5
Chinese description: https://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/report-of-the-minister-of-mines?sf_culture=zh
English description: https://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/report-of-the-minister-of-mines?sf_culture=en
View digital item online: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/chung/chungtext/items/1.0356535?o=0
The report states that in the year of 1883 alone, there were 28 mining accidents. Of these, 12 accidents involved Chinese people, accounting for 42.9% of the total number accidents. One of the miners died, and another 11 were injured.
The report also indicates that in 1883, Nanaimo Collieries employed a total of 398 miners. Among them are 97 Chinese people, accounting for 24.4% of the total number of miners. We can also see that the salary of white people is $2-4 per day, the salary of Chinese people is $1-1.5 per day, and the salary of Indigenous People is $1.25-2.5 per day.
In Wellington Collieries, a total of 559 miners were employed in 1883. Among them are 276 Chinese, accounting for 49.4% of the total number of miners. Here, the wages of white people were $2-3.75 per day, and the salary of Chinese people were $1-1.25 per day.
A close up of the Report of the Minister of Mines showing the wages of white and racialized miners.
The report starkly demonstrates the living conditions of the Chinese people at that time. In an environment of discrimination, they did the most dangerous jobs, and were rewarded with the lowest pay.
This blog post is also available in Chinese here.