daphne bramham: beyond exclusion, canada's changed chinese reality
opinion: canada's law banning chinese immigration was unforgivable and must be remembered. but 100 years later, canada is no longer that country.
5 minute read
curator catherine clement in the chinese canadian museum exhibition commemorating 100 years since the passing of the 1923 chinese exclusion act.
nick procaylo
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since the first chinese arrived in the late 18th century, they have helped build our railways, washed our clothes, fed us and fought for canada even when they weren’t allowed to be citizens. today, canadians of chinese descent are among the leaders in every field from academe to business to politics. their success is both a grim and hopeful testament to the community’s resilience in the face of extraordinary, institutionalized racism.
one hundred years ago, ottawa deliberately chose the nation’s birthday — then known as dominion day — to enact the chinese immigration act. it’s better known as the exclusion act.
the canadian government banned an entire race and forced every person of chinese ancestry to register, including babies and others who were born here. the act’s provisions remained in force for 25 years.
the front-page headline on the victoria daily times on july 1, 1923, screamed: “must bar oriental completely to save b.c. for white race”. the border cities star was equally blunt: “chinese ‘humiliation day’ on july 1.”
both newspapers’ front pages have been blown up to nearly a storey high for the inaugural exhibition, the paper trail, at vancouver’s chinese canadian museum.
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the museum’s july 1 opening date was also deliberately chosen because it remains a day that dredges up many bad feelings especially for families who have been here the longest.
premier david eby described the exclusion act as “the most racist piece of legislation ever passed by our parliament.” speaking at the chinese canadian museum’s opening ceremony, he noted that the legislation had been “championed and pushed for primarily from british columbia.”
it’s a national shame that deserved to be apologized for — as it was in 2006 by then-prime minister stephen harper with the unanimous support of parliament.
it divided families, creating a generation of bachelors and ‘bachelor husbands’. once the railway was completed, the chinese laboured in mines, forests, fisheries, restaurants and plants, and lived in rooming houses, clan homes and dorm-style accommodations.
they stayed because back home, their families were suffering. the qing dynasty had collapsed and warlords battled over territory. there were also a series of famines between 1920 and 1943 that resulted in close to 10 million deaths.
while the chinese canadian museum focuses on the tragedy, the chinatown storytelling centre’s special exhibition — our journey continues: 100 years after the chinese immigration act — focuses on what happened to those who stayed, telling the stories of families with ancestors who lived through the exclusion period and their descendants who, “like all canadian settlers, pursued their dreams and turned grievance into success.”
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as vancouver mayor ken sim noted at the museum’s opening, it’s largely due to chinese labourers doing the most dangerous jobs for half the pay of others that the canadian pacific railway had been completed in 1881.
“if it had not been built when it was,” he said, “people in vancouver, british columbia and most of western canada would be singing the star-spangled banner.”
sim — the first mayor of chinese descent since vancouver’s 1886 founding — acknowledged the suffering inflicted by the exclusion act as well as the rise in anti-asian racism since covid-19.
but he focused on the importance of education, and celebrating the diaspora’s triumphs and resilience.
“we can’t legislate our way out of racism. we can’t even enforce our way out of it,” he said. “racism stems from ignorance and if we can educate people, we will become a more kind and loving society.”
but because we live in an open, democratic society where free speech is encouraged, we also need to guard against the misuse of history.
as the centenary of the exclusion act approached, china and its allies in canada latched on to it, conflating the registry of all people of chinese descent with a registry of lobbyists and others (including a plethora of former cabinet ministers and premiers) who work to promote the chinese government’s interests in canada.
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at a june 24 rally in ottawa organized to mark the exclusion act’s centenary — and, initially, to support a petition against the foreign agents’ registry — close to 40 uniformly dressed people proceeded in military formation to the march of the people’s liberation army.
among its lyrics are: “fearless, unyielding, heroically fight. until we exterminate all counter-revolutionaries. mao zedong’s flag is fluttering high!”
as a quick refresher, the people’s liberation army crushed the 1989 tiananmen square protests and stands ready to quell any future protests in hong kong.
coincidentally, the anniversary of hong kong reverting to chinese control is also july 1. both before 1997 and since, that has also had irrevocable implications for vancouver and canada because of a mass migration from what was once the freest place in asia to one where protest is banned, dissidents jailed and the free press silenced.
sadly, hong kong’s puppet government marked it by announcing a cash reward of $1 million hong kong dollars (cdn$127,600) each for information leading to the arrest of eight democracy activists who have fled to canada, the u.s., australia and britain.
meantime, canada is no longer the country it was 100 years ago or 156 years ago when it was formed.
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now, one-in-five canadians trace their ancestry to asia. most of canadians of chinese descent came long after the exclusion act’s repeal in 1943, long after 1948 when the ban on asians’ voting was lifted and years — if not decades — after the 1982 charter of rights and freedoms made clear that the legalized discrimination of the past would no longer be possible.
they include entrepreneurs who gained citizenship for a mere $250,000 investment in canada. they’re vietnamese ‘boat people’, persecuted tibetans and uyghurs who were all welcomed as refugees. among them are close to 2,000 folks from hong kong recently arrived under a special, fast-track entry for democracy activists fleeing persecution at home.
it’s important to acknowledge and tell the truth about the past.
but it’s also important that we devote sufficient time and space to celebrating our ability to change, how much we’ve achieved together and how much better we as a country can be in the future.
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