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Asian Canadian Studies

A research guide for Asian Canadian Studies

Archives and Collections at UBC

The following list of archival and research collections are available for consultation at UBC's Rare Books & Special Collections library or University Archives.  For background on using archival material in your research, please consult the Research Guide for Archival Material.

Click on the collection title for more information or a finding aid if one exists.

Chinese Canadians

Individuals and Families:

Organizations:

Research Collections:

  • Chinese Canadian Research Collection
    This collection grew out of a number of research projects undertaken by three UBC professors. It is located at University Archives.
  • Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection
    This extensive collection (over 25,000 items) consists of documents, archival records, photographs, ephemera and artifacts related to three broad themes: British Columbia history, immigration and settlement in North America (especially the Chinese-Canadian experience), and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. 
             The collection’s website offers lists of items to browse for the following themes:
                  - The Asian Experience in North America
                  - Working for the CPR
                  - The Yip family and Yip Sang Company
                  - Chinese Freemasons            

Japanese Canadians

Individuals:

Organizations:

Research Collections:

  • Japanese Canadian Research Collection
    Consists of approximately 50 small collections or fonds donated by individuals and organizations, encompassing a wide range of topics including relocation to internment camps during WWII, farming, lumbering, religious activities, and personal reminiscences.
  • Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection
    Collection of over 650 digitized photographs.

Indo Canadians

  • Jermeja Singh Hundel Family fonds
    Jemreja Singh Hundel moved to Vancouver in the early 1920s, lived on the west side of Vancouver, and established a small business. The fonds consists of family documents (passports, U.S. education degrees), some correspondence regarding his initial business and photographs of the family entering Canada, their home in Vancouver, and the universities in the U.S. where family members were educated.

What is a fonds?

The word "fonds" is used to describe most archival collections in Canada and also in many European and Latin American countries.  Fonds simply means the documents in any media or format created or received by a person or an organization in the course of their personal or professional activities.  For example, the "John Smith fonds" would refer to the records created and received by John Smith.
Read the wikipedia article for  the term "fonds."

Rare Books & Special Collections

http://rbsc.library.ubc.ca/

Irving K. Barber Learning Center
(604) 822-2521
rare.books@ubc.ca