The Chinese Experience in BC

A Story of Racial Intolerance

Conditions in China

Living conditions in China were not so great during the 1800’s

Large populations meant food shortages

Land was hard to get, so many peasants would never get to own their own farm

One province in Southern China was more populated and suffered higher poverty rates than others….

This province was called Guangdong.

Many Chinese that come to BC will come from Guangdong.

Off to “Gold Mountain”

The California Gold Rush and the Fraser River Gold Rush set off an incredible scramble of miners who wanted to

“get rich quick”.

Many were Chinese hoping to improve their poverty-stricken life in China.

Most of the Chinese workers who came to North America were single-males.

Wives and children stayed in China.

The men hoped to get rich, and then return to China.

Conditions in the ships were horrible:

- Bad food- Sea sickness- Crowded quarters- Slow ships- High disease rates

Often the Chinese passenger was told that the ship ride would be free!

After arriving in North America they were given a high bill for the ship ticket and told they had to pay it off!

Discrimination in the Gold Fields

White miners were becoming resentful that Chinese immigrants would “take over” the gold fields and “steal” “their” gold.

Courts passed laws making it illegal for a “China Man” to stake a claim and dig for gold.

Chinese were only allowed to dig or pan for gold in places white miners had already abandoned.

If they were lucky, they might find a small amount of gold dust or nuggets the white miners missed.

"The Heathen Chinese Prospecting”

Other Chinese worked for low wages doing all the hard work for white miners.

Gold Rushes End

Like all gold rushes, by the 1860’s most of the gold in California and the Fraser River ran out.

What would the Chinese do next?

Building the CPR

The Canadian government had a huge vision of joining Canada by an transcontinental railroad from the east to west coast.

Many thousands of Chinese workers flocked to get the work…for ½ the pay of a white worker!

Chinese workers provided the back-breaking, physical labour needed to complete the railroad.

They also got picked to do the most dangerous work like hanging over baskets to drill dynamite into a cliff or packing liquid dynamite…nitroglycerine!

Working Conditions

Again, working conditions were horrible…

- poor food- poor housing- worked all day swinging picks,

& shovels- workers were charged for

room and food- poor medical care

“ There is a dead Chinaman for every mile of the CPR

Railroad”

Railroad is Completed

In November 1885, the last spike was put into the CPR.

As long as Canada needed Chinese labour, they were tolerated…now the work was completed?????

Targets of Hatred

Because Chinese were so different in:-culture- food- clothing- language- religion- appearance

They became easy targets for white hatred.

Chinatowns

Due to white racism against Chinese, Chinese were not allowed to move into white neighbourhoods.

Chinatowns were created as a place where they could live and be separated from the whites.

Chinese Quarters,Victoria, 1886

Chinatown, Vancouver

By 1880, Victoria's Chinatown formed the largest Chinese

community in all of Canada.

• Chinatown was a network of streets, alleyways and courtyards separate from the rest of Victoria. 

• "The Chinese ... considered it their home, where they could follow their customs, speak their dialects, and find pleasure, comfort, and companionship." The Forbidden City within Victoria, David Chuenyan Lai

Many Chinese became store owners

Fan Tan Alley

Fan Tan Alley was purposely built so narrow to make it harder for city police to raid the houses for gambling or opium smoking.

While police stacked up at the alley entrance, Chinese could escape using secret passages.

Opium Dens

Opium dens became a place where a Chinese worker could escape their dreary, exhausting lives.

City police would use opium dens to constantly raid Chinatowns and harass the residents…a show of power.

Chinese Laundries

One of the only jobs whites allowed Chinese to hold was that of laundry workers…( before machines, all laundry was handwashed and dried!)

Harling Point: Chinese Cemetery

In the 1870’s, a Chinese man died.

The community organized a funeral and began a procession to Victoria’s first cemetery…Ross Bay Cemetery.

A crowd of white protestors met the Chinese funeral party.

“Stop right where you are” said a white protestor.

The man took out a rifle and aimed it at the Chinese.

“You are not going to bury a Chinaman in a white cemetery”

Even in death…white racists could not be buried next to an Asian!

So, the next day the Chinese community pooled their money and bought a plot of land in Oak Bay next to the ocean.

It is called Harling Point…and it became Victoria’s Chinese cemetery.

Legalized Racism

By the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, white Canadian workers began pressing the government to stop allowing Asians into Canada.

They accused Asians of “stealing white jobs”.

The government responded by creating a $50 “head tax” on all Asian immigrants.

$50 dollars may not sound like a lot today, but back then was quite a barrier when you only made $1 a day.

The government only made this tax apply for Asians…so it is a classic case of discrimination against one group.

They also limited Asian immigrants based on a formula : 1 immigrant for every 100 tonnes the vessel weighed.

Result = fewer Asian immigrants

Number ofPersons

7,000

1,000

5,000

Year

1890 19141900

3,000

#15

Anti-Chinese Quotes

“My next fight will be to get Canada to pass an Anti-Chinese Exclusion Law. At present she is being made the dumping ground

for Asiatic pests who are afterwards smuggled into our

country.” Denis Kearney

“Will he get a place for his oldest boy? He can not. His

girl? Why, the Chinaman is in her place too!”

(This refers to Chinese people taking jobs from whites.)

“The Chinese are crowding the Caucasian race out of many

avenues of employment. Thousands of good citizens

are unable to obtain a livelihood owing to this

cause."

“The dead Chinese in Los Angeles were hanging at three places near the

heart of the downtown business section of the city; from the wooden awning over the sidewalk in front of

a carriage shop”

An eyewitness to an anti-Chinese riot in 1871

•For Chinese men, not only were there not Chinese

women here, but they also had laws that forbid interracial marriage between Chinese and

whites.

Anti-Chinese Cartoons

Newspapers all over North America put out racist cartoons trying to present a negative picture of Chinese.

They portrayed Chinese in stereotypical ways designed to create fear and resentment.

“Paleface afraid you crowd him out, like he

did to me”

Iron Chink = a machine used in canneries to remove the head, fins and guts of fish (derogatory, brought in to replace Chinese workers who cleaned Pacific salmon before canning).