Honouring Chinese-Canadians

 Explorations of Chinese-Canadian History & Identity: Then & Now

Chinese Canadians are one of the largest ethnic groups in the country. Despite their importance to the Canadian economy, including the historic construction of the CPR, many European Canadians were hostile to Chinese immigration, and a prohibitive head tax restricted immigration from 1885 to 1923. From 1923 to 1947, the Chinese were excluded altogether from immigrating to Canada. While 1 July is celebrated as Canada Day, some Chinese Canadians refer to that date as "National Humiliation Day." This is because the Chinese were the only ethnic group ever to be excluded from emigrating to Canada.
​For more, check out The Canadian Encyclopedia's feature on Chinese-Canadians
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© Government of Canada/Library and Archives Canada

LOST YEARS is an award-winning epic documentary touching upon 150 years of the Chinese diaspora in Canada, USA, New Zealand and Australia, covering four generations of racism as revealed through the journey and family story of Kenda Gee. Kenda, a Chinese Canadian, travels with his father to China to retrace the steps of his great-grandfather, exactly a century ago, and grandfather, who sailed to Canada in the summer of 1921. For thousands of Chinese immigrants that year, it was a journey of hope that turned into a nightmare when they were confronted with racism and the head tax, depriving them of their rights as citizens.

New B.C. Book Unearths Chinese Labourers’ Secret Role in First World War
by Ng Weng Hoong on November 27th, 2013 at 10:56 AM

Members of the Chinese Labour Corps unload sacks of oats dockside in Boulogne, France, during the First World War.

For Andrea Yu, being away from her homeland helped her feel more a part of it when she returned

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Anna Yin is Mississauga’s first Poet Laureate (2015-2016) and Ontario representative for the League of Canadian Poets (2013-2016). She has authored six books of poetry and her poems have appeared at ARC Poetry, New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio, World Journal etc. Anna won many awards including the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, two MARTY Literary Arts Awards and 2013 Professional Achievement Award from CPAC. Her poem “Still Life” was part of Poetry in Transit featured on buses across Canada in 2013. She read her poetry on Parliament Hill and has been featured at 2015 Austin International Poetry Festival and 2016 Edmonton Poetry Festival. Anna has been interviewed by CBC Radio, Rogers TV and Talent Vision TV, The Toronto Star and China Daily several times. She was a finalist for Canada’s Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award in 2011 and in 2012, and is proud to be twice a “Living book” for the Living Library at the Mississauga Campus of University of Toronto.  Read more of Anna's story via her Passages to Canada profile

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Still Life by Anna Yin

​A painting of fruit hangs
on the wall of our living room.
Morning sun seldom comes here.
Moon offers a drowsy face.
Awake at midnight,
I find my silhouette drifting
on the waiting apples.
I mourn for them,
no better than their succulenceon a kitchen plate--
Either they face the knife
or wait to decay.

For Li Qing ZhaoI by Anna Yin

​I cup your shadow
​with blue fire;
across the ocean,
the wind tastes more salty.
The white is whiter,
and whiter…
the cold is colder,
and colder…
In the early autumn,
I fail to explain to those
who read your poems in accents.
They chase me with questions―
how we Chinese women,
footsteps no sound,
hairbun so high,
shy away from strangers.
Well, clouds are overhead.
I catch ink drops
on my skin―
a trace of moon.
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Passages to Canada: Explore other personal stories of Chinese immigration to Canada

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​Graduation portrait of Agnes Chan, Class of 1923

Agnes Chan, the first Chinese Canadian student to graduate from the Women’s College Hospital School of Nursing, was awarded prizes for highest standing in theory and obstetrical nursing.
​​Date: 1923. Credit: The Miss Margaret Robins Archives of Women’s College Hospital, Photograph collection, L-03117.
courtesy of VirtualMuseum.ca