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Grade 10-12
Subject Social Studies, Labour History
Resource type Activity, Lesson plan/Unit plan
Duration Over 60 minutes

About This Resource

Lesson activities to accompany the vignette 'Won Alexander Cumyow' from the acclaimed Knowledge Network series; Working People: A History of Labour in British Columbia produced by Landrock Entertainment. The vignette explores the prejudices and racism experienced by Chinese Canadians in the late 19th-early 20th century. Trained as a lawyer but unable to practice law, Won Alexander Cumyow becomes an advocate for the rights of Chinese immigrants in British Columbia. This material can also be used as a background resource for the topic of the Head Tax and the Asiatic Exclusion laws in early 20th Century Canada found in the Social Studies 11 course. This is a unit created by the Labour History Project, a group of retired and current British Columbia teachers collaborating to develop a series of lesson plans, activities, and workshops focused on labour studies and labour history.

*Revised 12/5/24

Won Alexander Cumyow