Gold Mountain (Cantonese: Gāmsāan, 金山) is a historical name for either San Francisco, the State of California, or broadly the western regions of North America, including British Columbia, Canada. After gold was found in the Sierra Nevada in 1848, thousands of Cantonese from Toisan City in Guangdong Province (Historically known as Canton) began to migrate to California in search of gold and riches during the California Gold Rush.
Chinese people historically referred to California and British Columbia as Gold Mountain, as evidenced by maps and returned Overseas Chinese. However, as a gold rush subsequently occurred in Australia, Bendigo in the then-colony of Victoria was referred to as "New Gold Mountain" (Cantonese: Sān Gāmsāan, 新金山), and California became known as Old Gold Mountain (Cantonese: Gāu Gāmsāan, 舊金山); although "Old Gold Mountain" now specifically refers to San Francisco.
As considerable time has passed since the 1850s California Gold Rush, foreign Cantonese speakers from Modern China don't refer to California as Gold Mountain anymore, but rather Gāazāu (加州); only the California Cantonese maintain the historic Gold Mountain name for California.
History
The name "Gold Mountain" was initially applied to California. Ships full of immigrants docked in San Francisco to disembark passengers, initially bound for the gold fields, but later to remain in the growing Chinese settlement in San Francisco. In the latter part of the 19th century, however, British Columbia also came to be referred to as "Gold Mountain" following the discovery of gold in the Fraser Canyon in the 1857 and the subsequent group of Chinese from San Francisco arriving by boat in June 1858, and further Chinese settlers coming from California and directly from China later on to British Columbia (which they also referred to as "The Colonies of T'ang" i.e. China). The term thus broadened to mean "Western North America". The gold seekers in British Columbia first went to the Chinatown in Victoria, on the Colony of Vancouver Island, to obtain supplies. Victoria was the dominant political and economic centre before the economic ascendancy of Vancouver (which has its own Chinatown), and remains the official seat of political power in British Columbia today.
Following the California Gold Rush, Australian gold rushes began in 1851, making Australia the 'New Gold Mountain', also refers to Melbourne; Sydney became 'Sydney Gold Mountain' (Cantonese: Syūtlèi Gāmsāan, 雪梨 金山).
See also
- California Cantonese
- Chinese migration
- History of Chinese immigration to Canada
- Altai Mountains (Jin Shan)
References
- Huping Ling (1998). Surviving on the Gold Mountain A History of Chinese American Women and Their Lives. United States of America: University of California Press. pp. 17, 18.
- 唐番地/In the Colonies of Tang: Historical Archaeology of Chinese Communities in the North Cariboo District, British Columbia (1860s–1940s) / by Ying-ying Chen. c2001.
- Gold Mountain
- The Taishanese World
- Mapping Empires: Colonial Cartographies of Land and Sea: 7th International Symposium of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography, 2018 (ISBN 978-3-030-23446-1/ISBN 978-3-030-23447-8)
- Hasley, Karen J.: "Gold Mountain" (Denver, CO: Outskirts Press, 2012) a work of fiction describing this time in history
External links
- "Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America" by David H.T. Wong. 2012.
- Overview of Chinese immigrants during California Gold Rush
- "Gold Mountain" from The Concubine's Children by Denise Chong. Accessed: 2006-04-09.
- "Chinese transformed 'Gold Mountain'" by Stephen Magagnini, San Francisco Chronicle, January 18, 1998. Accessed: 2006-04-09.
- Chinese and Westward Expansion from The Chinese in California, 1850-1925. University of California, Berkeley/Library of Congress. Accessed: 2006-04-09.
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