the jim wong-chu fonds

The Jim Wong-Chu Fonds at UBC Library

Photo-Poetics / Photo-Politics: Visualizing Social Transformation Centre A (Centre A – 229 E. Georgia St., Vancouver, BC) Allan Cho Community Engagement Librarian UBC Library

History and Migration

• Personal records belonging to Jim Wong-Chu, a "paper son"

• an expired passport from childhood

• certificate of change of name

• elementary school records, personal photographs of friends and family

• immigration records for Jim Wong-Chu's mother, and business contracts

Community Activism

• Protests in Vancouver's Chinatown

• Records of the Chinese Cultural Centre (CCC), publicity & events

• The Saltwater City exhibition in Vancouver

• Protests for tenants of the International Hotel in San Francisco (a low-cost hotel where many Asian immigrants lived)

• Protests of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American who was wrongly convicted for murder in 1973

Literary Community

• Notebooks with writings and sketches

• the Pender Guy Radio program,

• manuscripts of Jim Wong-Chu's own literary works as well as books and anthologies he edited and contributed to

• grant applications, meeting agendas and minutes, financial reports, correspondence

• manuscripts submitted for writing contests held by the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop, including Madeleine Thien

• Correspondence including Wayson Choy, Fred Wah, Rick Shiomi, Helen Koyama, Joy Kogawa, Andy Quan, Kam Sein, Paul Yee, Phil Hayashi, and Linda Uyehara Hoffman.

Arts and Cultural Community 1. Asian Canadian Writers Workshop (ACWW)

• manuscripts submitted for writing contests held by the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop & literASIAN Writers Festival

2. Go for Broke featured Asian cultural performances including performing arts, music, and literary art

• precursor to Vancouver Asian Heritage Month

3. Chinese Cultural Centre (CCC) in Vancouver, British Columbia

• Materials include a guide to Chinatown-Strathcona, publicity materials related to events sponsored by the CCC

4. Meeting minutes of the Vancouver Cultural Alliance (now the Alliance for Arts and Culture), and material from the Vancouver Folk Music society

Physical Description

• Includes 349 photographs : b&w and col. ; 28 x 35 cm or smaller, 14 filmstrips : b&w negatives ; 35 mm, 3 computer disks ; 9x9 cm, 2 computer discs, 1 optical disc (27 min., 38 sec), and 1 audio disc (8 min.) : analog, 45 rpm

Step #1: http://www.library.ubc.ca

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