Guest Author - Caroline Baker
The beginning of the 1900's for Chinese-Canadians was mired with much racial hardships. As the end of the 1800's, the Canadian government instituted the Chinese Head Tax in hopes to slow down the flow of Chinese to their country. But as the Chinese continued to enter the country, fear grew that the expanding population would be soon challenging jobs of others in Canada.
Laws, such as the White Woman's Labour Law, were instituted in attempts to curb the growing success of the Chinese in Canada. This particular law prohibited a Chinese person from hiring a white woman to work for him. Being that most of the industries the Chinese men were allowed to work were related to domestic tasks, such as restaurants and laundry services, this limited the growth of their businesses.
Chinese that came to Canada during this time were mostly men who spent most of their time working off debts incurred from the Head Tax. Some returned back to China to marry and were forced to leave their wives behind because they couldn't afford to pay for her entry into the country.
Chinatowns became a growing sector in the poorest and least desirable areas of major cities. It is here that most of the Chinese who came to the country ended up residing. Over time, these areas gained a further negative reputation of hosting gangs and opium dens.
Eventually, in 1923, the Canadian government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to finally stop the influx Chinese all together from the country. Families, who had previously lived in separate continents because of the Head Tax, were resigned to be forever separated.
Sentiments towards Chinese did not improve during this period of time. Like its southern counterpart, the United States, Chinese were easy targets because of the color of their skin and distinguishing features. Anger and hatred were heightened as the environment during World War II created a fear towards anyone of Asian decent.
Still, that did not prevent over 500 Chinese from volunteering to serve in the Canadian military and help to bring victory during World War II. The Chinese banned together in the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, which helped to channel and focus the Chinese voice in the country in order to make impact and changes in a country where they had no rights.
Finally, in 1947 and under a great deal of pressure and in part because of the contribution they made during the war, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed. Chinese men were finally able to bring their families over, many with children that grew up without a father and wives that were strangers to them. Many of these men, already in their 40's, were taking the opportunity to start a family. This late start in having children or children that grew up estranged from their father still impacts Canadian-Chinese today.
While repealed, the ability to gain citizenship and thus access to the country was limited to spouses of existing citizens or their dependents. Children who were grown and married could not be considered dependents still, and thus were excluded from receiving citizenship.
This created a new subculture of Chinese-Canadians known as "paper sons". These were Chinese who purchased birth certificates (mostly from Hong Kong's black market) claiming them as children of Chinese-Canadian men. Some of these were done in an attempt to get around the law and into Canada. But others were in part because many of the rural areas in China didn’t require birth certificates, and thus no way other than through these markets to obtain any notary as to who your parenthood was.
It wasn't until nearly the 1970's that the atmosphere for Chinese-Canadians changed. By the, the world had changed a lot as well.
Part 1 - Early Chinese-Canadians
Part 3 - The 20th Century
