Radio and TV Interviews

1. CBC Radio, B.C. Almanac, November, 2004, Interview with Mark Forsythe, "Recovering Chinese Canadian History," Prof. Yu and UBC Emeritus Prof. Edgar Wickberg discuss the founding of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C. and a pair of Family History workshops that the CCHS is holding to help recover the lost histories of the Chinese in Canada. They talk about the often ignored or erased history of Chinese Canadians, and the important need to revise our European-centred version of Canadian history.


2. CBC Radio, Early Edition, 2005, Interview with Stephen Quinn, "Chinese Canadian Head Tax," Prof. Yu appears on CBC Radio's Early Edition to explain the Head Tax on the morning of the debut of the documentary "In the Shadow of Gold Mountain" on CBC Newsworld later that day. Educational efforts such as this interview were part of a three decade long campaign aimed at raising public awareness of the Head Tax and to argue for the need for redress.

3. CBC Radio, On the Coast, May 2006, Interview with Priya Ramu, "Do We Need Asian Heritage Month/Explorasian?" Prof. Yu takes part in a conversation about whether we still need a special month set aside to celebrate and acknowledge the place of Asian Canadian arts and culture. Yu makes the argument that we live in such a unique city, with almost half the population of Asian heritage, that we need new models for understanding who we are and the engagements that have shaped our history and future. One month out of the year is a token and marginalizing symbol rather than a serious effort to rethink what we are.

4. CBC Radio, Early Edition, May, 2006,Interview with Rick Cluff, "Digitization of Chinese Head Tax Registers," Prof. Yu appears on CBC Radio's Early Edition to talk about the project that he and Prof. Peter Ward are undertaking at UBC to create a digital database of the complete records of the 96,000 Chinese migrants to Canada between 1885 and 1923 who registered for the Head Tax. Yu explains how the completed database will make it easier for descendants and researchers to search for individuals in the register.

5. CBC Television News, May 2006, "Searching for Chinese Head Tax Payers," On the CBC Vancouver local evening news, Prof. Yu explains how the apology and redress program for the Head Tax has sparked a rush to search for ancestors who had paid the Head Tax. Yu shows on the Vancouver Public Library's microfilm collection how he found his own grandfather's records, and the difficulties of using the chronologically-ordered microfilm records.


6. BBC Radio International, June 2006, "Apology for Chinese Canadian Head Tax," Prof. Yu explains to an audience on BBC International what the Head Tax was, its effects on family life, and why an apology at this time is an important symbol of recognition and acknowledgment.

7. CBC Radio Early Edition, February 2007, "Year of the Pig," Prof. Yu talks to Rick Cluff over dim sum at Floata Restaurant in Chinatown about the significance of 2007 for understanding the long history of Chinese in the history of British Columbia. Tying Chinese migrants to other Asians and to First Nation peoples, he counters the idea that British Columbia's history is primarily about European settlement.

8. CBC Radio Early Edition, March 2007, "The 100th Anniversary of the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots," Prof. Yu explains the significance of 2007 as the anniversary of riots that changed the history of B.C., shifting the society from a world where Chinese, Japanese, and South Asian migrants were no longer welcome. Yu also discusses the year-long series of events in 2007 that will mark important anniversaries of change that celebrate those who have fought to change Canadian society for the better.

9. Fairchild TV Nighly News, July 1, 2007, "10th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Handover," Prof. Yu and other panelists at a forum held at UBC explain the significance for Vancouver of the 1997 reversion of Hong Kong from British to Chinese control. Other panelists include Baldwin Wong, City Planner; Charlie Smith, editor of The Georgia Straight: Winnie Cheung, of UBC International Community Engagement; Jan Walls of SFU; Victor Ho, editor of Sing Tao Daily; Andrew Yang of CBC Radio; and Diana Lary of the Center for Chinese Research.


10. Global National TV News, July 1, 2007, "The Impact of the 1997 Hong Kong Reversion on Vancouver and Canada," Prof. Yu talks to Sophia Lui about the impact that the Hong Kong Handover had on making Vancouver a truly global city and changing its face. The report also features former UBC INSTRCC student Joyce Tang talking about her own family's history and how her presence in Vancouver is the result of 1997.


11. CTV Evening News, and 12. Global National TV News, October 2007,, "Does Bruce Allen Represent Vancouver?" Prof. Yu speaks as Co-Chair of the Anniversaries of Change Steering Committee, a broad-based coalition of educational institutions, community organizations, arts and cultural organizations, and labour unions that came together to mark the 100th Anniversary of the 1907 Riots and the historical changes that were necessary to overcome the racial divisions created a century ago. The coalition used the example of a Bruce Allen scree on CKNW against South Asian immigrants to make the point that his opinion was antiquated and no longer represented the global Vancouver that the 2010 Olympic Committee purported to represent.



13. CBC Radio, Sounds Like Canada, "Tim Horton Commercial and Chinese Canadian Hockey," Prof. Yu speaks with Stephen Quinn and actor Russell Jung, who played a hockey dad in a famous Tim Horton's commercial about the place of hockey in the lives of a three generations of a Chinese Canadian family. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Larry Kwong's debut in the NHL, Yu talks about the role of sports in integrating immigrants into Canadian society, and the curious and continuing absence of Chinese Canadian players in the NHL.


14. Channel M, Cantonese language Nightly News, August, 2008, "The Chinese in the History of B.C.," Prof. Yu is interviewed about the role of Chinese Canadians in B.C. history as part of an in-depth program examining the engagements between Chinese and First Nations peoples throughout the Fraser Valley. Providing a counterpoint to celebrations of the 150th Anniversary of B.C. that leave out Native and other non-white voices, the story provides an alternate approach to histories erased by colonialism. Detailing a long ignored history, the archeological evidence for extensive contact remains, as well as within the oral history memories of First Nations peoples. An estimated 30% of Sto:lo peoples, for instance, trace some Chinese ancestry dating from the early engagements between Chinese and aboriginal communities.


Missing:

1. Fairchild TV, Mandarin Evening News, October, 2006, "The Head Tax Apology," Prof. Yu explains the significance of the Head Tax and the Federal Government's apology, using the example of his own family to illustrate the long term legacies of the discriminatory legislation on Chinese Canadian families. He also explains why understanding this history is important even for recently arrived Chinese immigrants who believe they no longer face racial discrimination.

2. CBC Canada French TV, Sept. 8, 2007, "The 1907 Riots and Vancouver Today," Prof. Yu is interviewed for a French language broadcast on the history of Pacific Canada and the present day status of Asians in Canada.

3. CBC Radio International, Sept. 8, 2007, "The State of Race in Canada," Prof. Yu talks to Carmen Rodgriguez about the state of race and racism in Canada, pointing out that although Canada's multiculturalism policy is touted as the most progressive in the world, issues of economic racism, and continuing legacies of colonialism haunt Canada. In particular, the treatment of First Nations peoples and an overwhelmingly Asian migrant economic underclass performing services at bare survival wages remain largely invisible to most Canadians.