Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The podcast hosts, Julie and Kevin, discuss the recent rise in racism against Asian communities, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. They share personal experiences of discrimination and attacks on Asian individuals. They then shift the focus to Chinese Canadians and their history of facing racism and exclusion in Canada. They discuss the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese Head Tax, and the struggles Chinese Canadians endured. They also mention the importance of learning and acknowledging these histories in order to resist the narrative imposed on marginalized communities. The hosts talk about the formation of the Chinese-Canadian identity and the movement for redress payment for the injustices faced by Chinese Canadians. They highlight the need for recognition and compensation for the discrimination and hardships endured by the Chinese community in Canada. The past few years have been very difficult for our community and for me personally. I am the host of this episode called Podcast Julie. And I am co-host Kevin. I am a Chinese-American, though I was born in America. I spent 14 years in China until 2019. I was born in China and studied high school in the U.S. So we were both in the U.S. while the recent violent and unrelenting racism picked up at the start of COVID. It's not that any of the issues were new. We were always there, but it felt like the floodgates had reopened. So Kevin, what was it like for you during the COVID period and what was your observation on the attack on Asian communities? When I was in the U.S., I feel like a colonized subject in a colonist's world. I was 14 when I first experienced racism when an old white pizza clerk was mocking my mom's English. That made it clear to me that we are not welcome here. For the next four years, I always had a fear of going to restaurants in the U.S. During COVID, there was an Italian-American woman living downstairs who would shout, My father fought for this country and I got nothing. I had to live under a basement owned by Chinese and their viruses. God, that's awful. Personally, I remember that Asian woman was pushed into the New York subway all the time and coming from China, standing in the subway, hiding from the people and staying away from the rail. Then we realized and come to terms with the impact of racial identity in a country like America. This is only one example. There was this really deep pain and most important addition from all of these traumas and this negotiation of denying identity loss, the really hard-to-place but persistent discomfort. All of these things were real. Following the shooting that killed six Asian women in Atlanta spa, it felt like people were carving their hearts open so that we could finally see each other. In this episode, I want to talk about some of the forgotten members of our community, Chinese Canadians. We were a game across the sea. And the plan was to be free. And we made the sacrifice. And you made us pay the price. Twenty million in bloody headsacks. We demand that you give it all back. No, we want what is ours. You, we want to be dressed for the headsacks blues. There is this idea that Canada is this white nation that has a British and French history and everyone else beyond that is external, add on. But this is not the case. Chinese Canadians have a really long history, one that stems back before Canada has even existed. Still though they were made to feel foreign and had not earned a space, there are generations who came before whose struggle and activism and community building has allowed them the position they hold today. And there is something real that we owe these people. Whose history we do not learn and also this deep sense of comfort in knowing that there is a very firm heritage for us and them to fall back into. Knowing these histories can help us resist the narrative that people try to write over. Gold Rush in Canada began in 1858 in British Columbia, which is also known as the BC. This was about 10 years after the California Gold Rush, so they are mainly from southern China or California. 13 years after BC joined the confederation, at this point, Chinese people made up over 15% of the population, which shows Chinese people were already a big part of history even before the Canada we know today exists. BC joined the promise and the promise that there is going to be a railway connecting BC to the rest of Canada. 15,000 Chinese laborers had come in throughout the time of this construction. Over 10% of these laborers had died. While they were working, there were less than half of the white workers made and always assigned the most dangerous projects. The last bike ceremony, an important day in Canada history, and not one Chinese worker was in the commemoration picture. Not just the railway, but during the Gold Rush, Chinese workers could only work in abandoned mines and live in Chinese camps because of how racist white workers are. And there are incidents where white workers burn an entire Chinese worker camp with no compensation. Quote-unquote unhealthy, dirty, taking money out of the economy, damaging white workers' rights. 1885, the exact year the railway finished, Canada imposed a head tax on all Chinese immigrants, starting at $50, and over the course of 83 years, this racist and populist piece of legislation was in place, went up to $500, which is the equivalent of a two-year salary. The hatred for Chinese people was intense. As shown as the 1907 anti-Asian riot in Vancouver, Chinatown were attacked by white Canadians holding signs that keep Canada white, over 10,000 of them, which is a third of Vancouver population, attacked every building with Chinese people and some Japanese people. They were angry that Asians were rolling in wealth while the white man suffered. After $23 million of high taxes paid by the Chinese, the policy changed in 1923 to the Chinese Exclusion Act. This policy banned all people of Chinese origin from entering the country. Less than 100 people were allowed in during this policy. All people in Canada of Chinese origin needed to get their documents from the Department of Immigration and Colonization, though having this paper did not grant citizenship. From 1885 to 1947, there was a lonely time for the Chinese community in Canada. Wife and husband separated, as well as parents and their children. During this period of time, Chinese people lived in Chinatown and did jobs like hand In Chinatown, people developed a strong kinship. In fact, they did meetings and classes and helped each other to write letters home. The communities were very well established and organized during this period for support. This was very necessary for the environment, working demanding jobs like laundries. Chinese men collected clothes from white people like beggars, on foot even in the winter, walking miles and miles, climbing on the outside of the staircase covered with snow. Climbing high buildings with heavy baggage. Racist kids gave them a hard time and taunt them by throwing snowballs with rocks inside, or they would take the bag away if you want to put it down. Well, all of this was only worth 50 cents. After World War II, the Chinese veterans demanded equal rights as Canadians. Since Canada faced the pressure of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and China being an ally during the war, the Canadian government ended the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1947 and Chinese Canadians could finally get citizenship. Though good things were happening, I still have to mention the tremendous amount of anti-Orientalism that was taking place. The Prime Minister at the time, William Leon Mackenzie King said, quote, This quote reminds me of Trump, who said, quote, I agree. They both invoke a kind of nativism and xenophobia to immigrants. Yes. The quote from King shows how Chinese Canadians were not the equals, as their white counterparts would both have the same legal status. It is still an issue today. During the late 19th century, King's role was pivotal. His policy and public statements reflect the broader populist sentiment that viewed the preservation of a homogenous national identity as paramount, even at the cost of Chinese Canadians' basic human rights and dignity. This period of Canadian populism was fundamentally characterized by its external nature, aiming to exclude rather than include, particularly targeting the Chinese community. This exclusionary stance was not merely a social phenomenon, but institutionalized through policies like the Chinese Hat Tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act. These measures were designed to create and enforce a clear declamation between us and them, with the Chinese community being firmly placed outside the imagined national community. This external populism sought to define Canadian identity in narrow, racially homogenous terms, explicitly excluding those who did not fit this prescribed narrative, thereby leaving a lasting impact on the fabric of Canadian society and its approach to diversity and inclusion. Here is a scenario that would make a great many people in this country angry and resentful. Suppose your son or daughter wanted to be an engineer or a doctor or a pharmacist. Suppose he had high marks in high school and that you could pay the tuition, but he still couldn't get into university in his chosen course because a foreign student was taking his place. Well, that is exactly what is happening in this country. That was when CTV released a program called Campus Giveaway in 1979, which talked about how Chinese students were stealing the spots from white Canadian students. The whole clip only showcased Chinese faces, making a statement that if they look Chinese, they must be foreign, and have the impression that only international students are from China. Even though most of the international students were Americans, every Chinese student showcased in those clips were Canadian citizens. After this, there were movements all across Canada having protests that pressured CTV to admit that the program was racist. This was the watershed moment where the community came together across Canada and the identity of being Chinese-Canadian was born. The Chinese-Canadian Council was founded after this, and they were a considerable force in the Chinese-Canadian movement after the next decade. In 1987, the U.S. Congress offered redress payment to the Japanese-Americans incarcerated during World War II. This helped push the movement in Canada, hoping that the Canadian government would compensate Chinese-Canadians who went through the Exclusion Era. This process for Chinese redress payment took more than 30 years. There was this idea that the victims were being greedy and selfish for asking for compensation. Therefore, they were gaslighted into thinking that what they had been through was not dehumanizing, and they were being not grateful. Over this 30-year-long period, a lot of the high taxpayers passed away. By the time this apology finally came, only 49 high taxpayers received compensation. By dragging this apology, the Canadian government could save so much money because thousands of high taxpayers could not be alive to receive their apology. I cannot believe the generational trauma that they have to go through, seeing their relatives struggle, and seeing the government being so dismissive and unwilling to give an apology while the victims pass away. The government spent $15.7 million on the redress movement, which is way less than the $23 million collected from the high tax, excluding the 100 years of inflation. This is the perfect example on how the Canadian government profited off of racism. In more recent times, during the pandemic, there was a significant spike in anti-Asian hate crimes. There was an over 300% increase in police-reported hate crimes, and more than half of the crimes in 2020 were because of race. Did you know that Vancouver is the Asian hate crime stated by Bloomberg? No, I did not. The media only covers the hate crime committed in America. However, I did not expect that a country that has the reputation of being inclusive has such a high state of Asian hate crime as well. There is a new type of violence and anger towards the Chinese-Canadian community. Because the Chinese stereotype is changed, they used to believe that the Chinese were dirty, unhealthy, and underclassmen, instead of now being elites that are dripping in wealth. Yes, yet another attempt to pin people against each other. It is our responsibility to make sure that what our community went through is not to be forgotten and has a positive impact. We should not take for granted our current position and continue their legacy.
