The Last Half Century of Chinese Overseas

12. Becoming ‘Chinese Canadian’: The Genesis of a Cultural Category

12 Becoming 'Chinese Canadian': The Genesis of a Cultural Category Wing Chung Ng In the study of the Chinese diaspora, important changes in terminology have taken place in the last two decades. In Chinese, the character Huaqiao (Chinese sojourners) was once used generally to refer [0 all ethnic Chinese outside China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In his earlier work, Professor Wang Gungwu has located the historical origin of the term at around the turn of the nineteenth century, at a time when Qing government officials and other political activists sought to promote an intense identification with China among the Chinese overseas. I The term was a political and ideological construction that rightly belonged to that era of rising Ch inese nationalism; it does not describe the anitudes and outlooks of many ethnic Chinese throughout the world today. Its limitation being so apparenr, two more neorral terms have become current: Huaren (Ch inese persons) and Hllayi (Chinese descendants) both denote the Chinese background of the person without signifying any cultural and politica l orientation of this individual. However, as argued by Professor Wang more recently, even these two terms may not be usable in certain contexts where Chineseness is no longer considered part of a new identity.! A parallel development has occurred in English-language expressions, but surprisingly it has not drawn much attention and no comparable exposition has been offered by scholars so far. With particular reference to the ethnic Chinese in North America and in some Soorheast Asian countries under strong American influence such as the Philippines, we now speak of their Chinese minorities commonly as 'Chinese Americans', 204 Wing Chllng Ng 'Chinese Canadians', and 'Chinese Filipinos'. This use of hyphenated or amalgamated designations has important social and culrural implications, for it implies that the local Chinese population is here to stay, in spite of its perceived foreign origin. It also means that the perceived cultural differences between the ethnic Chinese and the host society have been reconciled to a certain extent so that being Chinese is no longer that foreign. Obviously, the usage of these hyphenated labels could not have happened without some fundamental changes in the attitudes and assumptions abou t ethnic and dominant cultu res and about their relationship on the part of the Chinese as well as non-Chinese.J This chapter seeks to understand the rise of one such amalgamated identity, the 'Chinese Canadian', around the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its emergence was a recent development in the identity formation of the ethnic Chinese in Canada. As a cultural construct, a 'Chinese Canadian' identity has never been fixed or monolithic. I will write about its different articulations by various generations of Chinese immigrants and their localborn descendants elsewhere because the process of competitive cultural representation or negotiation really deserves in-depth analysis. This chapter will concenrrate on the question of historical origin. Referring specifically to the Chinese in Vancouver who formed the largest settlement in the country up to that time, the following discussion will identify the major factors that gave rise to a 'Chinese Canadian' category. Given the long history of racism against people of Chinese background in Canada, the resilience of Chinese ethnic culture and its orientation towards China, the construction of a 'Chinese Canadian' identity was a landmark in the history of the Chinese in this country. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND From the beginning of Chinese immigration and settlement in British Columbia in the late nineteenth century until the Second World War, the Chinese experience in Canada was primarily an encounter with racism. Racism suffused in personal prejudice and occasional mob violence, or, more systemically, in government legislation and public conventions. Altogether racism in its multiple forms and expressions denied the Chinese access to resources and opportunities in the larger society, and it deprived them of their cultural pride. No matter as individuals or as a minority group, the Chinese fo und themselves inadmissible into Canadian society.4 With little chance of nurturing an identification with Canada, the large majority of Chinese immigrants ended up leaving their families in Becoming 'Chi,lese Canadian', TI/(! Genesis ofa CIIltural Category 205 the home villages. Tnese migrants tried to maintain their ties to the homeland through remittances and periodic visits. After the turn of the century, an upsurge of Huaqiao patriotism added to these strands of family ties and to their cultural and emotional attachment to their native place. Successive, and sometimes contending...