White Jade Tiger

By Julie Lawson

Winner of the 1993 Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, shortlisted for the Silver Birch Award and the CLA Book of the Year Award

Jasmine is not sure she likes the idea of being stuck in Victoria while her father goes to China for a year. But on a field trip to Chinatown, she explores a curious shop in Fan Tan Alley and accidentally passes through a hidden door. She finds herself in Victoria’s Chinatown of the late 1880’s. Mistaken for a Chinese boy, she is soon caught up in a race through the Fraser Canyon to find a tiger amulet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Apr 16, 1993
• ISBN: 9781554886883

Julie Lawson

Julie Lawson is the author of more than twenty children's and young adult titles. Her books have won the Sheila A. Egoff Literature Prize and been nominated for numerous awards, including various Forest of Reading Awards and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Book preview

White Jade Tiger

White Jade Tiger

by Julie lawson

Copyright © 1993 by Julie Lawson

Eighth printing 2006: over 30,000 copies sold

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Guy Chadsey

Cover Art: Judy McLaren

Cover Design: Christine Toller

Production Editor: Rick Behnke

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Lawson, Julie, 1947-

White jade tiger / Julie Lawson.

First published: Victoria, B.C.: Beach Holme Pub., 1993.

ISBN-10: 1-55002-653-4

ISBN-13: 978-1-55002-653-5

1.Chinatown (Victoria, B.C.)-History-Juvenile fiction. 2. Victoria (B.C.)--History-Juvenile fiction. 3. Chinese-British Columbia-History-Juvenile fiction. 4. Canadian Pacific Railway Company--History--Juvenile fiction. I. Title.

PS8573.A94W5 2006        jC813’.54         C2006-901506-6

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credit in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed and bound in Canada

www.dundurn.com

For Patrick

Author’s Note

White Jade Tiger is a work of fiction for young readers, not a scholarly account. However, it is based on actual events which took place in the Fraser Canyon during the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 1880-1885. Every attempt has been made to ensure historical accuracy, and if any errors have been made, they are my fault entirely. To aid the flow of the story, the construction schedule of the railroad and certain events were moved forward in time. For instance, the riot in Lytton took place in May, 1883, not in September 1882, although the events did happen as described. Also, the Yale Sentinel article describing the deaths of Chinese workmen was printed in February 1883, not September 1882 as in the story.

Racist terms such as Chinaman, Celestial and John were commonly—and consistently—used during this time period, by the daily press and politicians as well as by ordinary citizens. These terms are used by some characters in the story, in the context of those times.

Chinese workers subsisted mainly on a diet of rice and ground salmon. Because of a lack of fresh meat and vegetables, they were constantly suffering from vitamin deficiency. Scurvy was widespread, particularly during the winter of 1882-83, and deaths from scurvy continued well into 1883.

The William Irving was the largest sternwheeler ever to travel on the Fraser. The descriptions are accurate, although for the purposes of the story I allowed the William Irving to provide through-passage from Victoria to Yale.

The long, narrow alley that connects Fisgard Street and Pandora Avenue in Victoria was known to the Chinese as Fan Tan Xiang (Fan Tan Alley). Several fan-tan gambling clubs operated there during the 1910s. The gambling den that Jasmine enters in 1881 is my invention, although it is possible that such a place did exist in that location. In the 1880s, several opium factories operated in Chinatown. The opium business was legal until 1908.

The class field trip is written from the point of view of young people discovering Victoria’s Chinatown for the first time, and responding to certain aspects of Chinese culture. It is not meant to be a definitive description of Chinese culture.

In 1990, Via Rail discontinued its regular passenger run on the Canadian, which followed the CPR tracks through the Fraser Canyon. Although there has been some track realignment and most of the bridges have been replaced, much of the original grade is still used by trains carrying freight through the canyon.

About the romanization of the Chinese language. For place names in the present I have used pinyin (e.g. Beijing and Guangdong) since that is the system used today. The early Chinese in North America spoke southern Chinese dialects such as Cantonese or Toisanese. I have therefore used Cantonese for names and common expressions such as gung hey fat choy, Gim Shan, lai see rather than convert these to pinyin. This choice was made largely for convenience—both my own and that of my readers.

The idea for White Jade Tiger originally came from a picture I found of a white jade plaque carved in the form of the White Tiger, a mythical animal identified with the West. This amulet is actually from the Han Period (206 BC-AD 221), although in the story I date it somewhat earlier to the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). From the earliest times, jade was recognized in the Far East as a precious stone endowed with symbolic and magical powers. The magic associated with the white jade tiger in the story, however, is of my own making.

Historical Note

The first Chinese came to British Columbia from California in 1858, drawn by the gold of the Fraser and Cariboo. As early as 1860, taxes against them were being proposed and debated. Anti-Chinese feeling grew steadily throughout the 1860s and 70s, and in 1878 the Legislature passed a Bill to exclude Chinese from all public works. For politicians seeking election, an anti-Chinese stand was imperative.

However, all British Columbians wanted the railway—the Canadian Pacific Railway that would unite Canada from sea to sea. And if it couldn’t be built without the Chinese, then they would grudgingly accept the Chinese.

Thousands of Chinese came to work for the CPR between 1880 and 1885. At the peak of railway construction in the Fraser Canyon, some 8000 Chinese were employed. During the five year period, an estimated 1500 died.

Throughout those years and well into the next century, Legislation against the Chinese persisted, as did anti-Chinese feeling on the part of many citizens. In spite of such discrimination, the Chinese presence continued to grow, becoming an integral and enriching thread in the fabric of Canadian society.

Chapter 1

Jasmine, run! Cords of panic tightened around her chest. Her heart raced with fear.

Run! Don’t look back! The warning came too late. Piercing yellow lights sprang out of the blackness. A white shape leaped towards her. She tried to scream but the sound strangled in her throat. Then, total darkness. Pressure. Rising terror. As if she were buried alive.

Run! She struggled to break the paralyzing hold gripping her body. If only she could move, if...

Aieee! The scream jolted her awake. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was or even who she was. And who had screamed? Surely that hadn’t been her voice.

For a long time she lay awake, trying to make sense of the recurring nightmare. The voice was becoming clearer. Someone was reaching out to her, and getting closer all the time.

Two for me, one for the bowl. Jasmine Steele knelt on the damp ground, happily picking her first crop of strawberries.

The strawberries had been her project right from the start. You won’t have to do anything, she promised, knowing how her parents hated gardening. I’ll do everything myself. And she had, from buying the plants to keeping out the deer. All her digging, planting, weeding and watering had resulted in perfect strawberries, plump, juicy and sweet. Perfect tens, she thought, treating herself to another one. Just like today.

So what if she’d had the nightmare again. By morning there was never anything left of it, nothing she could remember. And so what if it was raining. The rain brought out the smells of summer—wild roses, freshly-cut grass, and the best-ever strawberries. She popped another one into her mouth. Only three weeks until summer holidays, her last summer as a regular kid. In seven months she’d be a teenager. And today, this perfect ten day, was Thursday. She brushed off her jeans, picked up the bowl and hummed her way into the house.

"Ta da!" She placed the strawberries on the table, bowed, and with a Hold the applause! raced off to the phone.

Who are you phoning? her mother asked. Can’t it wait till after breakfast?

Krista and Becky. I’ve got to remind them about something.

You’ll be seeing them in ten minutes. With an exasperated sigh, Heather Steele poured herself another cup of coffee. Just wait, she said to her husband. As soon as she gets off the phone she’ll remind me about tai chi and tell me she’ll be late for supper. Every Tuesday and Thursday, for the last six months, she’s said the same thing.

Martin Steele laughed. I’m not going to bet against that one. He bit into a strawberry. Mmmm. These ripened beautifully.

They wouldn’t dare not to, Heather said. Not with Jasmine growing them.

What else can we get her to plant this summer? Corn? Peas? His mouth watered at the thought. She’d grow a terrific garden.

Heather agreed. She’ll do anything, once she sets her mind to it.

Jasmine bounded back and slid into her chair. Don’t forget, Mom, I’ve got tai chi after school so I’ll be late for supper. She poured herself a heaping bowl of corn flakes and buried them in strawberries.

How’s Krista? And Becky? Have you got their day organized?

Uh-huh. We’re practicing our play at recess and lunch. And I reminded them about the hot dog notice. Have you filled mine out?

It’s in your pack.

If you’re going shopping we’re out of chocolate chip cookies and there’s only two apples left. She spread peanut butter on a piece of toast, covered it with slices of apple, then added a layer of strawberries. Yurn! Do you want a bite, Dad?

Heavens no, he said. It looks disgusting.

You have no taste, she teased. And don’t turn up your nose at something till you’ve tried it. Ever heard that before?

Isn’t it time you left for school?

Don’t worry. Everything’s under control. She bolted down the rest of her toast and shoved her lunch and homework inside her pack. Then she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, gave her mother and father a peck on the cheek and raced to the door. Bye! And don’t eat all the strawberries.

Be careful, her mother called after her. The roads are slippery.

No problem, Jasmine thought as she tore down the road. Nothing can go wrong today, not on tai chi Thursday. But what about next month, when the classes were finished?

Well, she’d just have to practice on her own. And there were so many other things she planned to do: swim in the river, camp on the beach, have sleep-overs at least once a week, help her mom work on the quilt so it would be finished for her birthday. And this summer, since she was almost thirteen, she was allowed to take the bus into Victoria. She and her friends could go to movies and malls and do all the city things they couldn’t do in Sooke. And maybe she’d plant a vegetable garden, since the strawberries were such a success.

Hey, Krista! Becky! She spun around the corner where her friends were waiting. Is it too late to plant seeds for corn and stuff like that?

I don’t think so, Krista said. Why?

I’ve got this great idea for a garden. Do you want to help? We could grow pumpkins too and make a scarecrow....

All the way to school they tossed out ideas, too excited to mind the drizzly rain. By the time they wheeled into the bike-racks they had a garden of huge

Reviews for White Jade Tiger

[lostinalibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thirteen-year-old Jasmine is deeply hurt and angry when she learns that her father is leaving for work in China almost immediately and she must stay behind with her aunt in Victoria BC. While at her aunt’s house, she discovers a coolie outfit and decides to wear it to a school outing in Chinatown. Somehow, she is transported back to the 19th c. as the railway is being built. There she meets Keung, a young Chinese boy who is looking for his father who had come to Canada seeking work. He had brought with him a white jade tiger amulet hoping to sell it but, instead, it has placed a curse on Keung’s family. Now he has disappeared with the amulet and Keung must find him and return the amulet if the curse is to be lifted. Unfortunately, he isn’t the only one after the amulet and Keung and Jasmine must race against time and danger if they are to make things right.White Jade Tiger by author Julie Lawson is a Middle Grade historical novel. It offers a too often overlooked part of Canadian history wrapped in a story full of time travel and adventure. With its strong young female protagonist and its compelling storyline, this seems like a good read for any tween or early teen. Thanks to Netgalley and Dundurn for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

[lisavanness · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This action-packed historical fantasy tells the story of a girl named Jasmine who accidentally travels back in time via a special door in Chinatown. Set in Victoria, BC, Jasmine discovers not only the working conditions of Chinese labourers on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Fraser Canyon, but also her own ancestry. I found this novel a little slow to get going, but compelling near the end due to the pacing of the plot. I am not sure why the author chose for Jasmine's mother to be killed in a car crash in the first chapter as this event had little bearing on the storyline.Winner of the Sheila Egoff BC Book Prize, 1993.