Push Factors: Life in South China
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Local Chinatown:These three building -the Lung Kong Kung Shaw Society (left), the Chinese Empire Reform Society (middle), and the Tam Kung Temple (right, demolished 1912) -in Victoria's Chinatown are made distinct by their balconies, a style imported from warm southern China. 
Building Canada by Bonnie Shemie
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Cartooning History: Canada's Stories in Graphic Novels (Alyson E. King)
Brief intro. to the genre:
The Concept:
The Art:
- Graphic texts = fully developed, non-fiction narratives told through panels of sequential art
- No superheroes or powers or saving the world in these stories
- Challenge the traditional stories of Canadian history -those that focus on straightforward narratives of progress, modernization, and nation-building
- They bring to light the stories of those who are often relegated to the margins of Canadian history
- They tackle political issues or the structures that produce social inequities
The Art:
- Comic art forces the creator to boil the historical narrative down to its key components in ways that emphasize ideas
- Many artists use caricature, not for comic effect, but to exaggerate the essence of the person or event that is portrayed
- The characters are portrayed visually to evoke the essence of their personalities and the period
- When one reads a graphic narrative, it is necessary to read beyond the surface story. In a graphic narrative, the words and images are inseparable.
- The way the panels are laid out on the page, the way fonts and font sizes are used, the way spaces are created between the panels, the number of panels per page, etc. are all conventions to help shape the narrative.
- The space between panels (the gutters) is usually interpreted as the passage of time (or distance). The reader must make the connections across the gutter to determine how much time has passed and what has occurred during the period of time.
Documentaries
Split Families |
In the Shadow of Gold Mountain (optional documentary) |
