Henry Yu – Chinese Canadian historian

Henry Yu interview segment
Produced by Trevor Marc Hughes

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“I was born in 1967,” Henry Yu tells me from park bench in Kerrisdale. “I was born in Canada, but…if you were Chinese here, in what is now British Columbia, you weren’t welcome.”

With this past exclusion in mind, which not only applied to him, but his parents and grandparents, Henry tells me about how he developed a career as an historian. Today, Henry Yu is a history professor at The University of British Columbia.

As a person of Chinese ancestry, Henry tells me, “you were one of the excluded or there were lots of attempts to exclude you or to create a sense of non-belonging.”

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Trevor Marc Hughes was a freelance arts reporter at CBC Radio from 1997 to 2007. In and around that time he worked as a researcher and associate producer on documentary and current affairs programs that aired on Knowledge Network, The Discovery Channel, and Discovery Health, and were produced by Transatlantic Films, the UK’s oldest independent film production company. His own documentary projects include The Young Hustler, a film he produced and directed, about his grandfather’s days operating a Fraser River tugboat during The Great Depression. He has recently uploaded interviews with Yasuko Thanh, Rodger Touchie, Vanessa Winn, and Robert Amos.

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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