【Life in Canada】Metro Vancouver's Libraries: A Glimpse into Immigrants' Inner Worlds
Starting this summer, our family began living in Vancouver, Canada. Stepping onto a new continent, everything feels fresh, and I can't help but pay special attention to the reading atmosphere I care about: for example, reading habits in public places, the operation and book selection of public libraries, and the appearance of bookstores.
Vancouver is a garden city, with beautiful grassy mountains and lakes in and around the city. You can often see readers with books in their hands in the suburban green spaces. Some bring books to read while sunbathing on the grass, others read leisurely in hammocks at campsites, and there are elegant ladies who paddle their boats to the middle of a lake and stop to read. These scenes are all as beautiful as paintings, leaving an unforgettable impression on me. I don't know the overall trend of paper-based reading habits in this city in recent years, but seeing these people reading in nature still fills me with awe. It's a reading scene I've envisioned many times in my mind. Books should be like old friends by your side, always ready to offer companionship whenever you need it.
Reserved books are picked up by patrons themselves, sorted by name.
As newcomers, unfamiliar with the place, let's start with the libraries in Metro Vancouver! Metro Vancouver is a metropolitan area in British Columbia, Canada, encompassing cities like Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, and Coquitlam. To draw a comparison, it's like our Greater Bay Area concept. Libraries across Metro Vancouver offer inter-library loans, cross-location returns, and book reservations—services also available in Macau. However, the method for picking up reserved books is unique: they are arranged by the patron's name for self-collection, showing a significant trust in people's conscientiousness. The overall environment, like Macau's public libraries, is bright, comfortable, and inviting. The book selection, however, reveals differences between the two regions. Taking the picture book section, which I'm more familiar with, as an example, popular picture books by Japanese and Taiwanese authors commonly found in Macau are rare here. Instead, there are more works by European, American, or rather North American authors, which is geographically understandable. Browsing the display of picture book covers for readers, I saw many immigrant stories from various countries. After observing for a while, it can generally be said that the majority are origin stories exploring cultural roots, closely tied to the city's immigrant history. For instance, these few books I've flipped through:
《Dim Sum, Here we Come!》
By Maple Lam
The author, Maple Lam, is from Hong Kong. The content of the picture book is very simple, and the scene is particularly familiar to people from Hong Kong and Macau: it's about a family gathering for dim sum at a teahouse on a Sunday. The book illustrates each dim sum dish so enticingly, which is my daughters' favorite part. The English names for some of the dim sum are truly interesting, for example, siu mai is "Steamed pork dumplings," which clearly describes the essence of the food, but it's hard to associate it with the Chinese characters "燒賣." These subtle linguistic differences truly represent a cultural chasm! Besides the food, the book also depicts details that every child going for dim sum cares about, such as being taken by adults to see the fish tank while waiting, or the dim sum auntie stamping the order sheet. Reading it feels warm and full of hometown memories, as if I had also enjoyed a meal of dim sum.
《Mira and Baku》 Text: Sara Truuvert Illustration: Michelle Theodore
Author Sara Truuvert is a descendant of Japanese immigrants; this is her first book, about a little girl looking for her missing father. The story takes place during World War II, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when Canada declared war on Japan. For security reasons, large-scale internment of Japanese Canadians began, their property was confiscated, and their civil rights, especially for men, were revoked. So, in the story, the little girl Mira's father goes missing, and he hasn't returned days before Mira's birthday. The girl feels disappointed and sad, so she and her imaginary friend Baku search for her father. Of course, her father doesn't actually reappear, but her mother, who has always been with her, helps her find a way to cope with the longing.
The story is warm and moving, despite being set against the cruel backdrop of war. After reading the afterword, I discovered that this was the author's ancestors' story. Through a picture book, she records her family's trauma and gives a voice to the children of war, gently protecting their wounded hearts.
《The Library Bus》 Text: Bahram Rahman Illustration: Gabrielle Grimard
Author Bahram from Afghanistan wrote in the afterword:
If I tell you that my childhood was “okay,” you might think I am joking.
He is absolutely right; thinking of this country filled with war and suffering, we easily feel pity, especially for the children there. However, the author continues:
What I am saying is that when you are born in war, you are truly unaware of the alternative, peace. War is your normal. Yet still life carries on….And you dream.
No matter how terrifying the bombs of war are, dreams can be indestructible. Based on the author's observations in refugee camps and orphanages in Kabul, this picture book records a story about how Afghan girls and female teachers established a mobile library, finding possibilities for education and continuing to dream of a future life amidst war and poverty.
《Josie Dances》 Text: Denise Lajimodiere Illustration: Angela Erdrich
The library also has a large collection of picture books about Indigenous peoples (Canadians use "First Nation" to refer to them). For example, this one describes an Ojibwe girl preparing for next year's powwow celebration. In this grand Indigenous celebration, people wear traditional clothing and dance.
Denise Lajimodiere, an Indigenous dancer and the author of this book, describes in the story a little girl's feelings as she prepares her dance steps and attire for the upcoming powwow. Through the process of the women elders in her family preparing each piece of clothing and the little girl practicing her dance steps bit by bit (along with the flight of eagles), we see the joy of cultural transmission.
Reading such stories, we are moved by the deep connection to nature embedded in the blood of Indigenous peoples—something lost in modern cities, and perhaps the solution to the dilemmas we face today.
In the libraries of this country with a relatively short immigration history, I have seen people's efforts to trace back to even older roots.
