Endeavors of the Ottawa Chinese Immigrants during the Time of the Chinese Exclusion Act

By Jeff Wang ( 笑言)， Panel Speaker, Presented at Common House on 2017-05-09

I was honored being a panel speaker at the event to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act on May 9, 2017.  Senator Lillian Dyck, Senator Victor Oh and Senator Yuen Pau Woo co-hosted this event at Wellington Building of Parliament Hill. Below is my remarks at the event.

Background
In 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act was passed in order to further restrict Chinese immigration. “The legislation virtually restricted all Chinese immigration to Canada by narrowly defining the acceptable categories of Chinese immigrants.”Although described as “narrowly”, in fact this act almost completely closed the door to Chinese immigration to Canada.

Eight years ago in 1915, the Chinese Consul Yang Shuwen (杨书雯) presented to the Canadian government a “gentlemen’s agreement”, similar to the Canada-Japan gentlemen’s agreement, yet it was not taken seriously or intentionally ignored due to China’s poverty and low international status at the time.

During the summer 1922, the Canadian government was negotiating a new treaty with China. With the encouragement of the Chinese Consul-General Zhou Qilian (周启濂), the Chinese communities across Canada organized a petition to the Canadian government requesting the new Canada-China treaty to accommodate Chinese immigrants’ sentiments.

“Humiliation Day”
The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed into law on July 1st, 1923, coinciding with the Dominion Day of Canadian Confederation. The Chinese communities referred to this day as “Humiliation Day” and refused to participate in the Dominion Day celebrations for many years to come.

Story of Joe’s Family – The last lucky person
Mr. Bill Joe is well known in the Ottawa Chinese community not only because of his success in business, but also because of his legendary family history in Ottawa. Bill’s father Shung Joe (周相) opened Joe’s Laundry & Cleaners at Slater Street sometime between 1915 and 1916. In 1919, Joe went back to China and married Kai-voon Zhang (张启云). However, she could not return to Canada with him and had to remain in Guangdong because the voyage was quite expensive. After a great effort, Mrs. Joe was able to arrive in Ottawa in 1922 just before the act took effect, thus became the last lucky Chinese.

The Beechwood Cemetery and the Chinese Benevolent Association
During the 1920s, as long as it was affordable, the Chinese wished to have their bodies sent back to China after they passed away. When the Chinese Exclusion Act was in force, the Chinese families decreased in number. More and more Chinese died without money to have their bodies carried back to China or even buried locally. The Ottawa Chinese gathered together and helped each other with joint efforts. In 1925, the brothers Hum, Shung Joe and Sue Wong, together with some others, raised funds to designate an area as the Chinese section at the Beechwood Cemetery. Twelve years later in 1937, after the outbreak of the war in China against the Japanese invasion, civilian transportation was cut off across the Pacific Ocean, the Ottawa Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association made a second major purchase of another 50 lots at Beechwood.

In 1993, the Ottawa Chinese community raised funds and erected a memorial pavilion Huaiyuan Ting (怀远亭) at Beechwood.

When I visited the cemetery in 2015, there were about a hundred Chinese graves. In the Chinese tradition, people are buried in small mounds with a standing tombstone at the front. These graves were, however, underground and all tombstones were set flat on the ground. The tombstones were so close each other that I mistook them as stepping stones at first glance.

Supporting the War against Japan
Of all the periods in the history of the Canadian Chinese immigrants, 1937 to 1947 was the most exciting and momentous decade, when the Chinese communities in Canada achieved the greatest solidarity they had ever demonstrated.

Fund raising activities were widely organized in Ottawa and the surrounding areas. In 1940, the Chinese government issued state-owned bonds (民国公债券), which Ottawa Chinese responded positively. In 2015, Mrs. Susan Lee and Mr. Bill Joe showed me the bonds that they kept until today.

On November 18, 1941, the Chinese Government formally signed an agreement with the Canadian government to elevate the diplomatic relations between the two countries from the consular level to the ambassador level. Mr. Liu Shih Shun (刘师舜) was appointed as the first Chinese ambassador to Canada. He worked very hard to build a positive image of China by giving public speeches and meeting Canadians at all levels.

Stories about the Flying Tigers
Apart from various fund raisings, some Chinese directly returned to China to join the Chinese army in the frontline. Some of them lost their lives in the battle fields for their motherland.

A Chinese Canadian, Dan Wong, married Mary Fong from Ottawa and ran a business between Montreal and Ottawa. Around 1943, he bought an airplane with his own hard-earned money and flew back to China to join the Flying Tigers of the Chinese Air Force in fighting against the Japanese invaders. Albert, together with Cederic Mah, his brothers-in-law, also joined the Flying Tigers and left behind many stories, especially about the famous “hump route”, according to the memoir written by Joe Hum, a former president of the Ottawa Chinese Community Association.

The First Lady of China visited Canada
On February 17, 1943, the First Lady of the Republic of China, Mrs. Chiang, also known as Madame Song Meiling, was invited by the US President Franklin Roosevelt to visit the White House. Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King made a special trip to New York and invited her to visit Canada. On June 14 of the same year, Mrs. Chiang travelled from New York to Ottawa for a three-day visit. She gave a speech at Canada’s Parliament Hill.

Repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act
During the Second World War, Canada and China became allies. This ameliorated the Chinese Canadians’ support for both Canada and China. This wartime joint effort significantly improved the other Canadians’ attitudes towards the Chinese Canadians.

Back in the 1880s, the Chinese laborers made great contribution to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). In the subsequent decades, although Chinese were restricted to work in a limited number of business and services, their important contributions still gained the recognition from other Canadians. The Chinese in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and other places repeatedly pleaded to the federal government to repeal the prejudiced act. On May 14, 1947, the Canadian government finally repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act. Huge celebrations took place in the Chinese communities across Canada. Thousands of Chinese family reunion ensued in the following years. Twenty four years of families kept apart finally ended. Nowadays, after the great efforts made by generations of the Chinese immigrants in Canada, the Chinese have gained the same legal rights as all other Canadians do. We shall be grateful to the pioneering Chinese immigrants and we shall also be grateful to those Canadians who have supported this redress movement.