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It's Asian Heritage Month! Here's some Chinese Canadian History

For me, every day, week, month, year is about celebrating Asian heritage and Asian pride. Especially in these times we’re living in. Times where we, as an Asian community, as a Chinese community, are experiencing so much racism from the world because of the pandemic. At this point, I don’t even know if it’s because of the pandemic anymore or if people’s regular racism is just coming out. The anti-Asian racism has always been there. Racism and colonialism itself has been engrained into our societies. And of course, I’m a person who thinks too much, and all the time, so I tend to spiral and come to the conclusion that everything sucks. Or that somehow, some way, I have to fix it all myself. That is not realistic. So what I feel like I can do is to inform a little bit. Educate a little bit. Have conversations. But all of this, is not up to me alone. I can do half the work, but you need to meet me there.


Of course, I’m not at all an expert in anything. I only have my own experiences and bits and pieces of academic things I’ve read or learned here and there. That said, here are some of those bits and pieces. I won’t give you a whole works cited page to go along with this (partly because I would really have to go dig up my sources because apparently I’m bad at organizing my docs) but Google is our friend so feel free and PLEASE look these things up for more information. I am hardly the end all be all source of research. These are things that I have just been learning, and I've barely scratched the surface. I still have a long way to go before I can really comprehend all the history and really, where I come from.



Last year, I was writing a play (which I should revisit this year and work on again) that focused on a lot of these things - racism, COVID, conversations I've had about shared experiences with other BIPOC friends, etc. I, of course, included some “learning” and research into this play and had these writings sitting in a document, so I figured, I should just share this information right now. Here are 2 ways I’ve used this information - in a scene, and in a standard “educational” write up. I hope at least one of these helps you learn something you didn’t know before.


SCENE 6 - HISTORY HISTORY


ACTOR 2: There is a whole history behind our communities and who we are, a history that may not directly relate to our personal lineage, but relates to how we are able to do what we’re doing right now.


ACTOR 1: Even just being a Chinese woman born and raised in the Western world. There is a whole history that we don’t talk about. Why don’t we talk about it?

ACTOR 2: So throwing it back in history… Fun fact: Chinese people have been living in the “Western world”, United States specifically, for over 170 years.


ACTOR 1: A little history about Chinese immigration to Canada. People were attracted here because Canada was looking for labour workers to work on the railroad in the late 1800s.


ACTOR 5: Ultimately, by 1882, this resulted in 6,500 of the 9,000 railway workers being Chinese.


ACTOR 1: While working on the railway in BC, they were paid less than the white workers. The Chinese workers made $1 compared to the $1.50-$2.50 that the white workers made.


ACTOR 2: And in addition, they had to pay for their own food and clothing and gear, while the white workers did not. So ultimately, the Chinese workers made no money.


ACTOR 5: In 1878-1899 there were Racist, Anti-Asian Laws. This included a law preventing Asian people from voting because of their “lack of British instincts or British feelings”.


ACTOR 4: Between 1878 and 1899, the government passed 26 laws limiting what Chinese people could do, soon the number of racist laws and regulations exceeded 100.

ACTOR 2: There was also the act entitled: “An Act to Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration into Canada”. This was an anti- Chinese immigration law that was then followed by the head tax.

ACTOR 1: The head tax was a tax that was created to prevent Chinese immigration into Canada. It started at $50, then went up to $100, then up again to $500 in 1903. And for comparison, on average, a Chinese labourer would make $225 a year. So… how does that make any sense? Oh right, racism.

ACTOR 4: There was also the Asiatic Exclusion League that was founded in 1907 on the mission to “keep BC white”.

ACTOR 5: In September of 1907, a mob of people went to Chinatown and Japantown and destroyed the shops. But only 24 of 100 rioters were taken to court. Their light punishment was either jail for a maximum of 6 months or a fine of $105.


ACTOR 1: While Chinese people were expected to pay a $500 head tax to even get into the country.

ACTOR 2: But white people only had to pay a fifth of that for rioting and major destruction of property.

ACTOR 4: (sarcastically) Thanks to white privilege and colonialism.

CANADIAN HISTORY

As much as Vancouver has now become a region known to have many Asian people, it, and Canada as a whole are not excluded from racism, as we’ve learned this past year. So… a little history about Chinese immigration to Canada. People were attracted here because Canada was looking for labour workers to work on the railroad in the late 1800s. Ultimately, by 1882, this resulted in 6,500 of the 9,000 railway workers to be Chinese. Working on the railway in BC, they were also paid less than white workers ($1 to the $1.50-$2.50 that the white workers made) and they had to pay for their own food and clothing and gear, while the white workers did not.

The 1st Chinatown in Canada was in Victoria, BC with 1,577 Chinese people vs 2994 white people in Victoria.

In 1878-1899 there were Racist, Anti-Asian Laws. This included a law preventing Asian people from voting because of their “lack of British instincts or British feelings”. Between 1878 and 1899, the government passed 26 laws limiting what Chinese people could do, soon the number of racist laws and regulations exceeded 100. There was also the act entitled: “An Act to Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration into Canada”. This was an anti- Chinese immigration law that was then followed by the head tax. The head tax was a tax that was created to deter and prevent Chinese immigration into Canada. It started at $50, then in 1900 it went up to $100, then up again to $500 in 1903. And for comparison, on average, a Chinese labourer would make $225 a year.

There was also the Asiatic Exclusion League that was founded in 1907 on the mission to keep BC “white”. In September of 1907, a mode of people went to Chinatown and Japantown and vandalized the shops and smashed the windows. About 100 people participated and caused $2600 in damages. Only 24/100 of the rioters were taken to court and their light punishment was either jail for a maximum of 6 months or a fine of $105.

In 1922, the schools in Victoria BC tried to segregate the Chinese students from the white students but the Chinese people threatened to boycott their schools and instead open their own, this means that the Victoria school would lose money, so they gave in to having mixed classes.

Please take this month, this year, this summer to inform yourself a little bit more about the Asian community in general, and the Asian community in Canada. Or even just embrace Asian artists, whether Asian-Canadian or Asian-American or whatever!

Oh! And here is a link to a segment of the aforementioned little play I was working on: Sharing Experiences... and Lunch https://youtu.be/-lMllS8CIWY

This was presented as part of the Creatress Amplified series they ran last summer.


 
 
 

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