Pre-order The Paper Trail book, stay tuned for book launch event
Want to learn more about the Chinese Canadian Museum’s inaugural exhibition “The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act”? We’re thrilled to announce that pre-orders are now open for the exhibition’s new book written by curator Catherine Clement.
This limited-edition hardcover publication is more than just a book — it is a gift for present and future generations of Chinese Canadians to connect with a critical and often silenced part of their history, as well as understand and appreciate the experiences of their ancestors. This book also features the winning entries from the museum’s poetry contest.
Pre-order now through the Chinese Canadian Museum with this link. Pick-up orders only.
Shipping options are available through external retailers (links below).
Book release date: June 24, 2025.
Book Description:
The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act explores a dark yet largely forgotten chapter in Canadian history. The unprecedented law, which targeted only the Chinese community, was in place for a quarter century and remains among the most tragic episodes in the country’s history.
Yet this story, that left such profound effects on the individuals and families it touched, has been steeped in silence. Almost nothing about this period was shared by those who lived through it. Consequently, within a single generation, the trauma of exclusion was forgotten.
This is the first book to explore the broad range of human experiences of exclusion as revealed through the many stories of the lives it touched. The stories in this book reveal haunting tales of tragedy, loss and despair as well as powerful examples of courage, perseverance, and resilience. They chronicle the lives of ordinary people caught in extraordinary times. Many stories are being shared publicly for the first time.
An act of collective remembrance and historical reckoning, this book presents an unflinching look at a monumental and shameful chapter in Canada’s origin story. The pages offer a reminder of how the wreckage wrought by discrimination and exclusion, can be ignored and yet still ripple through the generations.
Regular price: $60.00 CAD
Annual pass member price: $54.00 CAD [Enter code: CCMPASS10%]
Format: English, hardcover, 256 pages
Shipping Options for Pre-orders: