By Bill Siggins
For intelligent Canadians, racism is an abhorrent concept. It is
incomprehensible to us today that our grandfathers would have
accepted and practised it. With its recent apology to Chinese head
tax-payers, it appears that Canada has finally driven the last nail
into the coffin of institutionalized racism.
While welcoming white European settlers by the thousand, our
grandfathers consciously excluded Chinese people. The question we
ask when we think of the necessity for justice in modern society is
why it has taken so long to right these past wrongs?
The Chinese Exclusion Act, one of Canada's most brutal and
overtly racist laws, was passed barely 80 years ago. Now, five
decades after its abolition, Canada has finally atoned for the ugly
sins committed against Chinese immigrants. The apology to those who
arrived prior to the law's passage those who were counted as so
many sheep and forced to pay a head tax is not only long overdue,
it is just in time, considering the age of the people who were so
transgressed.
Reflecting on this history, the story of the Ma family is worthy
of review in order to understand the human cost of Canada's past
racist policies.
Mr Ma arrived in Canada as a very young teenager in 1912.
Somehow, someone managed to pay his head tax. His surname was
immediately anglicized to Mark and he began his career in laundries
and restaurants. At a time when Europeans were being enticed with
free acreage to settle in the so-called land of milk and honey, Mr
Ma was out of sight and out of mind. He had no rights and no
standing in Canada; he merely served a purpose to wash other
people's dirty laundry.
Decades earlier, Canada's first prime minister faced a barrage
of criticism because he allowed Chinese to enter to work on the
construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. While thousands of
coolie laborers were killed, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald
retorted to his critics in the House of Commons that, "just as a
farmer borrows a plough and returns it, Canada will do the same
with the Chinamen."
Mr Ma knew nothing of these political machinations. His world
would have been all work and all men. As he continued to move
eastward, he would have stopped in towns where there already was a
single Chinese kitchen and single Chinese laundry. All along the
route he would have only encountered other Chinese men toiling away
in dark back rooms.
Mr Ma lived in an isolated, bachelor society, as there were no
Chinese women and strict laws against the mixing of the races.
Canada's policies restricting the entry of Asians bordered on
fratricide. There were no women, so there were no wives, no mothers
and no families. The vast majority of Chinese who did not return to
China died in an unwelcoming land without descendants likely the
worst Asian curse.
Mr Ma was an exception and extremely lucky. By the time he was
in his early 30s, after 20 years in Canada, he sent for a bride.
The problem for him now though wasn't financial. The head tax had
been abolished because it wasn't working not because it was unfair
or racist. It was replaced by an even more draconian measure, the
notorious Chinese Exclusion Act, which simply forbade Chinese
people from entering Canada, no matter how much money they had or
how great their willingness to contribute.
In 1932, the soon-to-be Mrs Ma arrived by ship in Vancouver
carrying the documents of one of the few Chinese women who had
gained residency in Canada. This woman actually died in China, and
Mrs Ma was trying to pose as her even though she was much younger.
She spent a week in jail as the Canadian authorities investigated
her case. It took a hefty bribe to get her out of jail and into her
new life.
Settling on the bald Canadian prairie in the tiny farm town of
Yorkton, Saskatchewan thousands of kilometers from the coast the Ma
family flourished. They had five children and opened a thriving
restaurant. All of them grew up in the 1950s and 60s being
different but not exactly excluded. The five of them all married
white spouses and their children are a glorious and beautiful mix
of two races.
The Ma patriarch and matriarch have now both passed away, and
one wonders how they would examine their lives. They suffered many
indignities, had only each other to communicate with, and had lost
most of their culture, their history, and even their name. None of
the Mark children learned to speak Chinese and only one
granddaughter has ever returned to the ancestral village.
Like many Canadians who honor the struggles of their settler
forbearers, today's Chinese immigrants to Canada have a lot to be
thankful for. The newly arrived educated Chinese are not barred by
their race, but thousands of others still toil in Chinatowns and
are locked in a language outside the mainstream.
After World War II, the fear of committing hypocrisy forced a
sea change in the Canadian mentality. The war against the Nazis
forced the West to undo its own racist policies.
Canadian soldiers' sacrifices allowed me to bring two Chinese a
wife and daughter to Canada for the simple and all-important reason
that I loved them. Fifteen years later, we're back in China feeling
like citizens of the world.
They say atonement is good for the soul as it takes openness,
transparency and humility. It's a requirement if justice is to
succeed. Intelligent Canadians want more of it. And they hope that
the world, including China, can learn from it.
The author is the producer of the Canadian television
documentary "Mr and Mrs Mark go to Yorkton.?He currently works as
an editor for the Xinhua News Agency.
(China Daily July 7, 2006)
