The Way of the Bachelor

The lives of early Japanese and Chinese settlers in British Columbia have come to define the Asian experience in Canada. Yet many Chinese men did not seek their destiny in British Columbia, but followed the railway east and settled in small Prairie towns and cities.

The Way of the Bachelor documents the religious beliefs, political networks, and cultural practices that sustained and leant meaning to bachelors in Manitoba. In the absence of women and family, these men opened the region’s first laundries and developed a new kind of restaurant – the Chinese cafe. They maintained ties to the Old World and negotiated a place for themselves in the new by fostering a vibrant homosocial culture based on friendship, everyday religious practices, the example of Sun Yat-sen, and the sharing of food.

This fascinating exploration of the intersection of gender, migration, and religion in rural Canada broadens our understanding of the Chinese quest for identity in North America.