Chinese

Population
According to the 2001 Census, the Chinese population in Canada is 1,094,700. In Toronto it is 435,685, and in Ontario it is 518,550.

Of the 1990s immigrants who spoke a non-official language, about one-third reported Chinese as the most common language spoken at home in 2001. About 25% of Chinese were born in Canada.

Chinese are the largest visible minority group in Canada. In 2001, their population surpassed one million for the first time. A total of 1,094,700 individuals identified themselves as Chinese, up from 860,100 in 1996. They accounted for 3.5% of the total national population and 26% of the visible minority population.

Chinese comprised the largest proportion of the visible minority population in British Columbia (44%), Alberta (30%) and Saskatchewan (29%). Ontario had the highest number of Chinese (518,550), but they comprised the second highest proportion (22%) of the visible minorities in that province, behind South Asians (26%).

The first major wave of Chinese immigration to Canada occurred during the late 1800s when Chinese labourers arrived in western Canada to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. For decades following its completion, Chinese immigration was discouraged. Until the 1960s, restrictions on immigration kept the Chinese population in Canada fairly small. Since then, however, waves of Chinese immigrants, largely from Hong Kong (SAR) and the People’s Republic of China, have made Chinese one of Canada’s fastest growing visible minority populations. Between 1996 and 2001, the number of Chinese increased 20%.

Immigration
The first Chinese immigrants came to Canada in 1858 from California for the gold rush in British Columbia. Later in the 1880's Chinese men immigrated to Canada to be used as labourers to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. When the CPR was completed the Canadian government passed the first of many anti-Chinese laws. The law imposed a head tax of $50 on every Chinese immigrant. The amount of the head tax was continually raised until the early twentieth century; it reached $500 in 1903. Between 1900 and 1903 alone the tax increased from $100 to $500.

In 1923 the federal government decided to ban Chinese immigration by passing the Chinese Immigration Act (also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act). The act excluded almost all Chinese immigrants from coming to Canada. The limited groups that could enter were diplomats, children born in Canada to parents of Chinese race or descent, merchants and students. Also, the Chinese living in Canada were denied many of their civil liberties while this act was in effect. For example the Chinese did not gain the right to vote in Federal elections until after the Act was repealed after the second world war in 1947. The exclusion meant that many families were separated. The Act and the Head Tax created a bachelor society as there were many more Chinese men than women living in Canada. This slowed the growth of the Chinese population in Canada.

As a result of the head tax and the exclusion act there has been a lawsuit launched against the Canadian government by the Chinese Canadian National Council, asking for redress against those who endured 62 years of institutional racism directed at the Chinese community. The lawsuit asks for compensation for individuals who had to pay the head tax and for those who were separated from their families as a result of the exclusion act.

Riots
There were two serious riots in Vancouver, one in 1887 and the other in 1907. They were aimed at vandalizing the area of the city where the Chinese lived to intimidate the Chinese to prevent them from competing for the same jobs as white workers. See www.direct.ca/news/cchi/chin02.shtml for more information.

Languages
There are many different dialects of Chinese spoken but the two main ones spoken in Canada are Cantonese and Mandarin.

Religion
Most Chinese are Buddhist but many are also Christians.

Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year is a 15 day celebration that starts with the new moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon, which is called the Lantern Festival. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are a time for family.
There is a Chinese zodiac where each year is represented by a different animal that the people born in that year are said to have characteristics of.

Prominent Figures

• Canada's current Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson
  
• Senator Jean Lumb
  
• Dr. Tak Mak, renowned geneticist at the Hospital for Sick Children.
  
• David See-Chai Lum, appointed lieutenant-governor of British Columbia in 1988. First Canadian of Chinese origin to be lieutenant-governor.
  
• Vivienne Pay, became first Chinese-Canadian senator in 1998
  
• Bob Wong, became first Chinese-Canadian cabinet minister, serving in the Ontario Liberal government of the late '80s
  
• Douglas Jung, became the first Chinese-Canadian Member of Parliament in 1957
  

Links
Chinese Canadian National Council
302 Spadina Ave., Suite 507, Toronto, M5T 2E7
Executive Director: Yuenhing Tse
Toronto Chapter, 416-596-0833
www.ccnc.ca

Federation of Chinese-Canadians in Scarborough
P.O. Box 27112,
4190 Finch Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario,
M1S 4T7, Canada
416-605-4564
www.interlog.com/~fcss

www.asian.ca
www.educ.uvic.ca/chinese_new_year.html
www.asian.ca/redress/index.html
www.direct.ca/news/cchi/chin02.shtml