Chasing Their Dreams recreates the hardships early Chinese settlers faced in Northwestern British Columbia: harsh land and climate, little or no financial resources, deep-set prejudice and sometimes racial violence.

Panning for gold, making ties for the railroad, canning fish, running laundries and restaurants, these people persevered despite persecution by the local populace and the provincial and federal governments. The documentation of Chinese relations with northern First Nations, going all the way back to 458 BC, make this book one of the most thoroughly researched histories of Chinese settlement in British Columbia.

"... The Chinese came to Canada for reasons not too dissimilar to other settlers, yet they have often been suspected on other unfounded grounds. The description of the Klondike saga is indeed incredible. It exposes the injustice of an elected municipal government, or a democracy without justice is worse than benevolent authoritarianism."

--from the foreword by Dr. W. C. Tan, Canadian College for Chinese Studies

Lily Chow was born in Malaysia, but has lived in Canada since the mid-sixties. She has taught in the Prince George School District and at the University of British Columbia. She now devotes her time to research and writing. Her first book, Sojourners in the North, won the Jeanne Clark Local History Award and is used as a textbook in many colleges and universities. Chasing Their Dreams is her second book.

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