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Onderdonk engaged these Chinese labour contractors who engaged Chinese workers willing to accept only ]1 a day while white, black and native workers were paid three times that amount. Chinese railway workers were hired for 200 miles of the Canadian Pacific Railway considered to be among the more difficult segments of the projected railway, notably the area that goes through the ].<ref>''In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia'', J. Morton, 1974]</ref> Onderdonk engaged these Chinese labour contractors who engaged Chinese workers willing to accept only ]1 a day while white, black and native workers were paid three times that amount. Chinese railway workers were hired for 200 miles of the Canadian Pacific Railway considered to be among the more difficult segments of the projected railway, notably the area that goes through the ].<ref>''In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia'', J. Morton, 1974]</ref>


==Settlement in the late 1800s== ===Settlement in the late 1800s===
In 1884 ], ], and ] had the largest Chinese populations. At that time ] was majority Chinese, and there were also Chinese in ] and ].<ref name=LimIPacEntryp18>Lim, Imogene L. "Pacific Entry, Pacific Century: Chinatowns and Chinese Canadian History" (Chapter 2). In: Lee, Josephine D., Imogene L. Lim, and Yuko Matsukawa (editors). ''Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History''. ], 2002. ISBN 1439901201, 9781439901205. Start: . CITED: p. .</ref> In 1884 ], ], and ] had the largest Chinese populations. At that time ] was majority Chinese, and there were also Chinese in ] and ].<ref name=LimIPacEntryp18>Lim, Imogene L. "Pacific Entry, Pacific Century: Chinatowns and Chinese Canadian History" (Chapter 2). In: Lee, Josephine D., Imogene L. Lim, and Yuko Matsukawa (editors). ''Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History''. ], 2002. ISBN 1439901201, 9781439901205. Start: . CITED: p. .</ref>


Revision as of 05:37, 26 December 2014

The history of Chinese Canadians in British Columbia began with the first recorded visit by Chinese people to North America in 1788. Some 30-40 men were employed as shipwrights at Nootka Sound in what is now British Columbia, to build the first European-type vessel in the Pacific Northwest, named the North West America. Large-scale immigration of Chinese began seventy years later with the advent of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858. During the gold rush, settlements of Chinese grew in Victoria and New Westminster and the "capital of the Cariboo" Barkerville and numerous other towns. and throughout the colony's Interior, where many communities were dominantly Chinese. In the 1880s, Chinese labour was contracted to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Following this many Chinese began to move eastward, establishing Chinatowns in several of the larger Canadian cities.


History

The first Chinese known to have been in British Columbia were a group of labourers brought in to build a ship at Nootka Sound, the Northwest America, who were sent back to China afterwards (though some traditions of the Nuu-chah-nulth say some remained and married, and that they had seen Chinese people before). The next Chinese arrived with the massive and sudden migration of 30,000 gold-seekers and merchants from San Francisco and the California goldfields with the Fraser Gold Rush of 1858, forming the nucleus of Victoria's Chinatown and leading to the establishment of others at New Westminster, Yale and Lillooet, though most Chinese gold-seekers were not in the newly emerged towns but busy prospecting and working the goldfields. Estimates indicate that about 1/3 of the non-native population of the Fraser goldfields was Chinese. As more and more gold fields were found, Chinese spread out all over the colony, and confrontations at Rock Creek and Wild Horse Creek with mostly-American miners, but the colonial government intervened on the side of the Chinese (other similar situations were fairly rare, until the railway era).

Chinese miners were notable in many of the gold rushes in the coming decades, including the remote Omineca and Peace River Gold Rushes of the 1860s Cassiar Gold Rush of the 1870s. While Chinese were driven from the Similkameen Gold Rush in the 1880s, the Cayoosh Gold Rush at Lillooet in that same decade was entirely Chinese. In most goldfield towns there were no distinct Chinatowns, and in many towns and gold camps, Chinese miners and merchants were often the majority so the term "Chinatown" is inapt for them. Barkerville had an "official" Chinatown but Chinese dominated the population in the town's whole area, and many whites lived in the "official" Chinatown; nearby Richfield was near-entirely Chinese, as were many of the towns in the Cariboo goldfields. As the more impatient white miners moved on, Chinese took over their diggings, often pulling out more due to more advanced placer-mining techniques, and also obtained ranches and farms and Chinese retailers were often the mainstay of commerce in the waning goldfield towns. In Victoria, the first tax register for that city indicates that of the ten richest men in the city, eight were Chinese (with the Governor and James Dunsmuir only ahead of them on the list).

In 2014 the British Columbia government crafting an apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act, the head tax, and other government actions that negatively impacted ethnic Chinese. In order to determine the exact wording of this apology, the BC government plans to hold seven meetings with ethnic Chinese persons in the province.

Chinese merchants from New Westminster were among the first to set up shop in Gastown, the townsite that sprang up next to the Hastings Mill property which was the historical kernel of what would become the City of Vancouver. Some were on Water Street but most early Chinese businesses (mostly bordellos and opium dens) were along what is now the 100 block of West Hastings Street. The use of Chinese labour in the clearing of the West End led to the winter riots of 1885 which saw Chinese residents flee to a refuge in a creek ravine around the then-southeast end of False Creek, thereafter known as China Creek. It was not until the 1890s that Chinese businesses began to relocate back into the growing city, along Dupont Street (now East Pender Street), forming the nucleus of Chinatown. Until around 1980, Toronto's ethnic Chinese population became the largest in Canada then, Vancouver had the largest ethnic Chinese population in Canada.

The gold rush era

A group of Chinese persons sent Ah Hong to survey the Fraser area after hearing that gold had been discovered there. Ah Hong verified that the gold rush was happening and stated this upon his May 1858 return. The Chinese first appeared in large numbers in the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1858 as part of the huge migration from California during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in the newly declared Mainland Colony. Around a third of the sudden, massive immigration were Chinese. Although the first wave arrived in May from California, news of rush eventually attracted many Chinese from China itself.

Omineca Miner Ah Hoo at Germansens Landing in 1913. Many Chinese remained in the province's Interior and North long after the gold rushes. Some towns such as Stanley were predominantly Chinese for many years, while in the Fraser Canyon and even more remote areas such as the Omineca, Chinese miners stayed on to mine claims in wilderness areas.

In the goldfields, Chinese mining techniques and knowledge turned out to be better in many ways to those of others, including hydraulic techniques, the use of "rockers", and a technique whereby blankets were used as filter for alluvial sand and then burned, with the gold melting into lumps in the fire. In the Fraser Canyon, Chinese miners stayed on long after all others had left for the Cariboo Gold Rush or other goldfields elsewhere in BC or the United States and continued both hydraulic and farming, owned the majority of land in the Fraser and Thompson Canyons for many years afterwards. At Barkerville, in the Cariboo, over half the town's population was estimated to be Chinese, and several other towns including Richfield, Stanley, Van Winkle, Quesnellemouthe (modern Quesnel), Antler, and Quesnelle Forks had significant Chinatowns (Lillooet's lasting until the 1930s) and there was no shortage of successful Chinese miners.

Non-Chinese were upset because the Chinese were willing to work for wages lower than wages than others. Non-Chinese pointed out that ethnic Chinese were not contributing anything to the area while they were taking resources from it.

In 1871 there were about 3,000 ethnic Chinese in the province. That year, the provincial government passed a law forbidding Chinese from engaging in provincial public works.

The places of origin of the Chinese immigrants were not recorded on Canadian census records. Most immigrants to British Columbia in the late 1800s were from Guangdong.

Immigration for the railway

Chinese labourers working on the Canadian Pacific Railway mile sections of the Canadian Pacific Railway from the Pacific to Craigellachie in the Eagle Pass in British Columbia. The railway from Vancouver to Craigellachie consisted of 28 such sections, 2% of which were constructed by workers of European origin.

When British Columbia agreed to join Confederation in 1871, one of the conditions was that the Dominion government build a railway linking B.C. with eastern Canada within 10 years. British Columbia politicians and their electorate agitated for an immigration program from the British Isles to provide this railway labour, but Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, betraying the wishes of his constituency, Victoria, by insisting the project cut costs by employing Chinese to build the railway, and summarized the situation this way to Parliament in 1882: "It is simply a question of alternatives: either you must have this labour or you can't have the railway." (British Columbia politicians had wanted a settlement-immigration plan for workers from the British Isles, but Canadian politicians and investors said it would be too expensive).

In 1880, Andrew Onderdonk, an American who was one of the main Canadian Pacific Railway construction contractors in British Columbia, originally enlisted Chinese labourers from California. When most of these deserted the railway workings for the goldfields, Onderdonk and his agents signed several agreements with Chinese contractors in China's Guangdong province, Taiwan and also via Chinese companies in Victoria. Through those contracts more than 5000 labourers were sent as "guest workers" from China by ship. Onderdonk also recruited over 7000 Chinese railway workers from California. These two groups of workers were the main force for the building of Onderdonk's seven per cent of the railway's mileage. As was the case with non-Chinese workers, some of them fell ill during construction or died while planting explosives or in other construction accidents, but many deserted the rail workings for the province's various goldfields. By the end of 1881, the first group of Chinese labourers, which was previously numbered at 5000, had less than 1500 remaining as a large number had deserted for the goldfields away from the rail line Onderdonk needed more workers, so he directly contracted Chinese businessmen in Victoria, California and China to send many more workers to Canada.

Onderdonk engaged these Chinese labour contractors who engaged Chinese workers willing to accept only $1 a day while white, black and native workers were paid three times that amount. Chinese railway workers were hired for 200 miles of the Canadian Pacific Railway considered to be among the more difficult segments of the projected railway, notably the area that goes through the Fraser Canyon.

Settlement in the late 1800s

In 1884 Nanaimo, New Westminster, and Victoria had the largest Chinese populations. At that time Quesnelle Forks was majority Chinese, and there were also Chinese in Cumberland and Yale.

In addition to the railroad business, Chinese in the late 19th century British Columbia also worked in market gardens, coal mines, sawmills, and salmon canneries. Most Chinese at the time lived among other Chinese.

In 1881 4,350 ethnic Chinese lived in British Columbia, making up 99.2% of the ethnic Chinese in all of Canada. Around 1881 Chinese settlement in British Columbia had a 28 male to 1 female ratio. The gender disparity was not as high in New Westminster and Victoria, but in there was a more severe gender disparity in the Fraser and Thompson canyons, Barkerville, Cassiar, Nanaimo, and market gardens in the vicinity of Victoria.

In the late 1800s the British Columbian government supported efforts by the Canadian federal government to charge a head tax. The purpose of the tax was to discourage ethnic Chinese from immigrating to Canada.

Demographics

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

In 2006, according to Statistics Canada data, the numbers of visible minority Chinese in Greater Vancouver included 168,210 in the city of Vancouver proper, 75,730 in Richmond, 60,765 in Burnaby, 20,205 in Surrey, 19,580 in Coquitlam, 5,835 in Delta, 3,770 in New Westminster, and 3,360 in West Vancouver.

Place of origin

As of 2011 most ethnic Chinese immigrants to British Columbia go to Vancouver, and of the overall provincial ethnic Chinese immigration most originate from Mainland China. Historically immigrants came from Hong Kong and to a lesser, extent, Taiwan. The Mainland Chinese government prohibits dual citizenship, while the Hong Kong government allows its permanent residents to also hold citizenships of western countries. David Ley, author of Millionaire Migrants and a professor of UBC, stated that this meant that previously Hongkongers had more of an incentive to come to Vancouver compared to Mainlanders.

In the period 1996-2001, according to Canadian census data, the number of persons from Mainland China arriving to Vancouver eclipsed the numbers of Hongkongers; the number of Hongkongers present in Vancouver declined between 1996 and 2006. In 2006 there were 137,245 Mainlander immigrants present in Vancouver, while there were 75,780 Hongkonger immigrantss in the same city that year. The Hongkonger immigrant number had declined 12% between 1996 and 2006 with almost all of the decline occurring from 2001 to 2006. From 1996 to 2006, Ian Young of the South China Morning Post wrote "the fall in the number of such immigrants present in the city suggests" that 29,325 Hongkongers left Vancouver while according to the census data 18,890 Hongkongers arrived. Meanwhile the Mainlander population increased 88% between 1996 and 2006. In 2012 7,872 Mainland Chinese arrived in Vancouver while 286 Hongkongers arrived in the same city. According to Ley, the demographics of immigrants changed because "everyone who wanted a passport got one."

Occupations

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2014)

In 2013 Young wrote that "Anecdotal evidence suggests mainland Chinese wives commonly stay in Vancouver to provide a citizenship toehold for their absentee husbands."

Language

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

Historically Cantonese was the primary language of British Columbia's Chinese community. By 2012 Mandarin was displacing Cantonese in Greater Vancouver. Cantonese and Mandarin are commonly spoken in Richmond.

Institutions

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

In 1884 the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA; Chinese: 中華會館; pinyin: Zhōng​huá Huì​guǎn) was formed in Victoria. The original purpose was to collect support for the Chinese effort in the First Sino-Japanese War. The organization initially acted as an unofficial consulate of the Chinese government; the San Francisco consulate gave permission to Chinese businesspersons in Vancouver to establish the CCBA in the spring of that year. This function continued until the 1908 opening of the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa. The purpose of the CCBA became broader and it in general became a Chinese advocacy organization.

Prior to the 1960s many ethnic Chinese in Vancouver had established associations based on their clan origins and districts in addition to educational and recreational organizations. Douglas Aitken of The Georgia Straight stated that the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA) was the most important organization operating in the Vancouver Chinatown in the first half of the 20th century. According to Aitken, the organization "lost most of its influence" in the 1970s but had regained influence by 2014. The organization operated the Chinese Benevolent Association Building in Chinatown; it was built in 1907.

In 1973 the Chinese Cultural Centre opened in the Vancouver Chinatown.

In 1973 the organization SUCCESS was founded to provide social services for ethnic Chinese.

Commerce

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

The tax registers of the City of Victoria show that Chinese businessmen were, after the Governor and coal-baron Robert Dunsmuir, the wealthiest men in the new city. Many of these were labour-contractors, a sector which would grow exponentially in the railway era, and opium merchants.

Chinese-catering businesses in Richmond

Many Chinese malls which contain businesses catering to Chinese speakers are located in Richmond.

Media

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

The Vancouver Sun operates Taiyangbao (simplified Chinese: 太阳报; traditional Chinese: 太陽報; pinyin: Tàiyáng Bào), a Mandarin-language newspaper.

The Truth Monthly (traditional Chinese: 真理報; simplified Chinese: 真理报; pinyin: Zhēnlǐ Bào), a Christian newspaper, is in Vancouver.

Politics

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

By 1985 the City of Vancouver had an ethnic Chinese alderman.

In 2001 the Richmond Canadian Voters submitted three candidates for the Vancouver City Council, including two ethnic Chinese, but none of them won seats. Yee wrote that the public perceived the party as being "Chinese" "due to its leadership and conservative positions on group homes and liberal public education".

In 2013 a petition arguing that Chinese-only signs were a problem in Richmond was submitted to the city council. The City Council responded by ignoring the petition.

By 2014 the group Putting Canada First, which criticizes having Chinese-language signs in Greater Vancouver, was established. That year, its spokesperson, North Vancouver resident Brad Saltzberg, wrote a letter arguing against having Chinese language signs to the city council of West Vancouver. The Mayor of West Vancouver, Michael Smith, criticized the movement.

According to boundaries drawn in 1984, there were two Vancouver-area ridings with over 20% of their populations each being Chinese: Vancouver East, which was 23.9% Chinese, and Vancouver Kingsway, which was 24.6% Chinese. That year, Vancouver South was 17.8% Chinese and Vancouver Quadra was 11.2% Chinese. In 1988 the ridings were redrawn. The Vancouver East Chinese population was 25.4%, making it the only riding that was over 20% Chinese. The Chinese population of Vancouver South was 19.7%.

Education

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

The Victoria Chinese Public School (CPS; Chinese: 域多利華僑公立學校; pinyin: Yùduō​lì Huá​qiáo Gōng​lì​xué​xiào) in Victoria was established as the Imperial Chinese School (Chinese: 大清公立學校; pinyin: Dà​ Qīng Gōng​lì​xué​xiào) in 1909. Xu Jianzhen, the Consul-General of China in San Francisco, had officially opened the school. The Victoria School Board had a policy denying enrollment to China-born pupils that was enacted in 1908 and other schools for China-born students were overcrowded. In 1913 the school began offering classes during the daytime for ethnic Chinese students according to an agreement with the Victoria School Board, and it officially changed its name at the same time. The new daytime classes served students who were segregated in public schools.

Education in Greater Vancouver

Henry Yu, a University of British Columbia history professor quoted in the Vancouver Sun, stated in 2007 that significant ethnic Chinese populations are located in all Greater Vancouver school districts.

Vancouver School Board (VSB) schools are all integrated, with many school populations now predominantly Chinese-ethnic in composition. Private schools are also integrated, whether privately chartered or Catholic church-run. Chinese-language courses are available in most schools, and are popular with non-Chinese students, although regular curriculum instruction is in English. The VSB has basic courses in Cantonese.

In 1998 a group of parents of Chinese origins asked the VSB to establish a new school. The school board opted not to establish the school. The requested school would have used school uniforms, assigned more homework than other public schools, and, in the words of Paul Yee, author of Saltwater City: Story of Vancouver's Chinese Community, "bring in discipline" and "back-to-basics subjects".

As of 2012 there are Chinese-language schools in Vancouver that teach both the Mandarin and Cantonese languages. In the 1980s and 1990s Cantonese was, in almost all Chinese-language schools in the city, the only variety taught.

The University of British Columbia has a continuing studies Mandarin program. Vancouver Community College has introductory Cantonese courses. Langara College has continuing studies Cantonese classes for adults and Mandarin classes for children.

Religion

Buddhist temple in Richmond

As of 2011 over 100,000 of the ethnic Chinese in Greater Vancouver were Christians, making up about 24% of the total population. 14% of the total population of Greater Vancouver ethnic Chinese stated that they were Buddhist.

Greater Vancouver has Chinese Protestant and Chinese Catholic churches. As of 2013 there are about 120 Chinese churches in the area. Of the Protestant churches there are over 110 in the area. Church services are held in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin.

There are over 26 Chinese Christian organizations in Greater Vancouver. They include theological organizations, radio stations, magazines, and newspapers.

Douglass Todd of the Vancouver Sun wrote that LGBT "may be the most distressing" of the sociocultural issues involving Chinese Cristians in the area. In 2014 the Vancouver School Board had proposed a transgender rights program. In response, several Chinese-Canadian Christian groups and organizations, including Truth Monthly, protested the proposal. There were also Chinese Christian efforts to discontinue Burnaby Public Schools anti-homophobia programs. Justin K. H. Tse (simplified Chinese: 谢坚恒; traditional Chinese: 謝堅恆; pinyin: Xiè Jiānhéng), who wrote a master's degree thesis on wrote a PhD thesis on Chinese Christian public engagement in Vancouver and two other cities, argued that not all Chinese Christians have politically conservative beliefs.

Geography

As of 2002 the only sizeable Chinatowns in the entire province were in Vancouver and Victoria.

Greater Vancouver and Lower Mainland

Vancouver Chinatown

As of 2011 there are over 450,000 ethnic Chinese in Greater Vancouver. Vancouver received the title of being, outside of Asia, the "most Asian city" due to its large ethnic Chinese population. Vancouver had ethnic Chinese residents when the city was founded in 1886. According to Graham E. Johnson, the author of "Hong Kong Immigration and the Chinese Community in Vancouver," people with origins from Hong Kong "have been especially notable in the flow of international migrants to British Columbia which, for all intents and purposes, has meant the Vancouver region."

Richmond, in Greater Vancouver, had more ethnic Chinese residents than White residents in 2013. Ian Young of the South China Morning Post described Richmond as "the most Chinese city in North America."

Modern politics

In the 1980s a wave of Chinese from Hong Kong came to Vancouver. Levels of Chinese coming from Hong Kong declined after the Handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Vivienne Poy wrote that instances of antagonism towards ethnic Chinese and incidents of racial hatred targeting Chinese occurred by the late 1980s.

In 1992 Vancouver had the second largest ethnic Chinese population outside of China, with San Francisco having the largest such population.

By the 1990s white residents of some Vancouver neighborhoods criticized ethnic Chinese for demolishing older houses and building larger, newer houses in their place. Brian K. Ray, Greg Halseth, and Benjamin Johnson, authors of "The Changing ‘Face’ of the Suburbs: Issues of Ethnicity and Residential Change in Suburban Vancouver," wrote that many existing Whites perceived the ethnic Chinese and their new houses as being "an assault on traditional meanings associated with suburbia."

In 2006 there were 396,000 ethnic Chinese in Vancouver.

By 2012 most Chinese arriving in Hong Kong were from the Mainland, with some Chinese coming from Taiwan.

A 2013 study by Dan Hiebert of the University of British Columbia predicted that by 2031 the Chinese population of Vancouver would be 809,000.

By 2013 wealthy Mainland Chinese investors were buying property in Vancouver. Some existing members of the Vancouver community, including ethnic Chinese, criticized the new investors, arguing that they were driving up housing prices. Ayesha Bhatty of the BBC wrote that "experts say there's little evidence to back up the fears."

In 2014 the City of Vancouver enacted a grant program to preserve Chinese society buildings in the Vancouver Chinatown and in the adjacent Downtown Eastside areas.

Geography

The Yaohan Food Court in Richmond

Ethnic Chinese are located throughout Vancouver. 40% of the residents of a large portion of Southeast Vancouver are ethnic Chinese. The Granville and 49th area within South Vancouver also has a Chinese population. Henry Yu, a University of British Columbia history professor, stated in 2007 that significant ethnic Chinese populations are located in all Greater Vancouver neighbourhoods. The Vancouver Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in Canada.

In 1981 the vast majority of ethnic Chinese in Greater Vancouver lived in the Vancouver city limits. At the time Chinese were concentrated in eastern Vancouver, around Chinatown. By the mid-1990s ethnic Chinese had moved to Kerrisdale and Shaughnessy. In those communities ethnic Chinese built large modern-style housing in place of Neo-Tudor and other style houses from the early 20th century.

Richmond has a high concentration of ethnic Chinese. Ethnic Chinese make up 80% of the residents of the Golden Village area, focussed along No. 3 Road, which contains many Chinese businesses. Douglas Todd of the Vancouver Sun wrote "Richmond remains the most striking bastion of Chinese culture". In 1997 the newly-immigrated ethnic Chinese in Richmond were stereotyped as being, in the words of Ray, Halseth, and Johnson, "wealthy 'yacht people'". Richmond had few Chinese in 1981, with most census tracts having fewer than 5% of their populations being ethnic Chinese and with no census tract having over 10% of its population be ethnic Chinese. By 1986 the proportion of Chinese in Richmond was increasing; in 1986 the city's 8,000 ethnic Chinese persons made up 8.3% of Richmond's total population and 9% of the Vancouver area's Chinese Canadians. By 1991, 16.4% of Richmond's population was Chinese Canadian and 11% was Chinese immigrants. In 1997 Ray, Halseth, and Johnson wrote that "it appears that" new ethnic Chinese immigrants were bypassing Vancouver and moving directly to Richmond.

Areas of northern Coquitlam also have ethnic Chinese. The Halifax Street and Kensington Street area of North Burnaby has a Chinese community.

Terminology

See also: Nicknames of Vancouver
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2014)

Chinese Vancouverites and Chinese British Columbians coined the term "Saltwater City" for Vancouver, and the term Gold Mountain, normally used for and coined in relation to the California goldfields, is also used for British Columbia. The Chinese Benevolent Association's records in Barkerville used "the Colonies of T'ang " in their documents and correspondence.

"Hongcouver"

The city is sometimes called "Hongcouver", by international media due to the size of the Chinese population; the term is no longer used locally and is regarded as derogatory. The nickname "Hongcouver" refers to the large numbers of ethnic Chinese in Vancouver. The nickname originated from the attraction of Hong Kong immigrants. The Government of British Columbia used tax incentives to attract Hong Kongers.

John Belshaw, author of Becoming British Columbia: A Population History, wrote that Vancouver's "bitter elite" created the term. Beginning in fall of 1988, and through the early 1990s some Greater Vancouver businesses sold T-shirts with the word "Hongcouver" on them. Use of the word by Vancouverites increased as more and more ethnic Chinese moved in.

David Ley, author of Millionaire Migrants: Trans-Pacific Life Lines, described it as an "imagined" term bringing an "exaggerated cariacature" that was "fabricated" by media in North America and Hong Kong. Ley argued that "The motivation for presenting this entity was in part satirical, possibly on occasion racist". Miro Cernetig of the Vancouver Sun wrote that the term Hongcouver was "an era's impolitic catch-phrase for the xenophobia and palpable occidental unease in Vancouver at the prospect of a profound upheaval in society." Nathaniel M. Lewis, author of "Urban Demographics and Identities," described the term as "derogatory." Anu Sahota of the CBC described it as an "offensive term". Katie King, the author of Networked Reenactments: Stories Transdisciplinary Knowledges Tell, wrote that Vancouver was "lampooned in economic racist terms" through the word "Hongcouver".

Ley argued that there was also "insight" in the term "Hongcouver". Linda Solomon Wood of the Vancouver Observer stated that Hongcouver was one of several affectionate terms for Vancouver.

Lewis stated that "Hongcouver" was not as commonly used as it had been in the 1990s. In 2007 Cernetig also stated that it was no longer commonly used in the city. That year, Sahota stated that "Hongcouver" "persists today".

Ian Young, a correspondent of the South China Morning Post (SCMP), titled his blog about the Hong Konger population in Vancouver "Hongcouver".

Research

Works about the Chinese community in Vancouver include Wing Chung Ng's The Chinese in Vancouver 1945-80: The Pursuit of Identity and Power and Paul Yee, Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver. Patricia E. Roy, the author of The Triumph of Citizenship: The Japanese and Chinese in Canada, 1941-67, wrote that Yee's book is more popular compared to Ng's book. The Chinese in Vancouver, 1945-80 discusses the post-World War II intra-Chinese politics in Vancouver. This book uses sources in both English and Chinese. In addition, several Chinese resident in Vancouver contributed articles to a book edited by Edgar Wickberg, From China to Canada: A History of the Chinese Communities in Canada.

Notable residents

References

British Columbia:

Vancouver:

Notes

  1. Claiming the Land, Dan Marshall, UBC Ph.D Thesis, 2002 (unpubl.)
  2. McGowan's War, Donald J. Hauka, New Star Books, Vancouver (2000) ISBN 1-55420-001-6
  3. The Resettlement of British Columbia, Cole Harris
  4. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974
  5. ^ Hoekstra, Gordon. "B.C. apology for Chinese head tax should include cash, advocate says." Vancouver Sun. January 12, 2014. Retrieved on December 26, 2014.
  6. [Early Vancouver, Vol I, Maj. J.S. "Skit" Mathews, Vancouver Archives publ. 1939
  7. From Milltown to Metropolis, Alan Morley
  8. Ng, p. 7.
  9. ^ Lai, "The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Victoria," p. 53.
  10. Claiming the Land, Dan Marshall, University of British Columbia, Ph.D Thesis, 2002 (unpublished)
  11. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974]
  12. ^ Pierre Berton, The Last Spike'. Doubleday Canada, December 22, 2010. Unabridged edition. ISBN 038567354X, 9780385673549, pp 194
  13. Claiming the Land, Dan Marshall, University of British Columbia, Ph.D Thesis, 2002 (unpublished)
  14. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974]
  15. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974]
  16. Mark S. Wade, The Cariboo Road, publ. The Haunted Bookshop, Victoria BC, 1979, 239pp. ASIN: B0000EEN1W
  17. Robin Skelton, They Call It Cariboo, Sono Nis Press (December 1980), 237pp. ISBN 0-919462-84-7, ISBN 978-0-919462-84-7.
  18. Pierre Berton, The Last Spike'. Doubleday Canada, December 22, 2010. Unabridged edition. ISBN 038567354X, 9780385673549, pp 194-195
  19. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974]
  20. ^ Lim, Imogene L. "Pacific Entry, Pacific Century: Chinatowns and Chinese Canadian History" (Chapter 2). In: Lee, Josephine D., Imogene L. Lim, and Yuko Matsukawa (editors). Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History. Temple University Press. ISBN 1439901201, 9781439901205. Start: 15. CITED: p. 17.
  21. ^ Harris, Cole. The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change. University of British Columbia Press, Nov 1, 2011. ISBN 0774842563, 9780774842563. p. 143.
  22. Pierre Berton, The Last Spike'. Doubleday Canada, December 22, 2010. Unabridged edition. ISBN 038567354X, 9780385673549, pp 195-196
  23. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974]
  24. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974]
  25. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, J. Morton, 1974]
  26. ^ Lim, Imogene L. "Pacific Entry, Pacific Century: Chinatowns and Chinese Canadian History" (Chapter 2). In: Lee, Josephine D., Imogene L. Lim, and Yuko Matsukawa (editors). Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History. Temple University Press, 2002. ISBN 1439901201, 9781439901205. Start: 15. CITED: p. 18. Cite error: The named reference "LimIPacEntryp18" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  27. ^ Harris, Cole. The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change. University of British Columbia Press, Nov 1, 2011. ISBN 0774842563, 9780774842563. p. 145.
  28. Harris, Cole. The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change. University of British Columbia Press, Nov 1, 2011. ISBN 0774842563, 9780774842563. p. 143, 145.
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