Chinese Canadian

1. Population of Canada: 32,320,000 (October 2005 est.) 30,007,894 (2001 Census)

2. Percent of Chinese Descent: 3.69% or one million plus: Statistics Canada 2001 Census

3. Frequency of language spoken at home: Statistics Canada 2001 Census

Language	Frequency of language spoken at home
Cantonese	345,730
Mandarin	110,710
Hakka	3,565
Chinese, n.o.s.	392,950

4. Ethnic Chinese Canadian: is a person of Chinese descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada.

5. First-generation Chinese immigrants: The composition of First generation Chinese immigrants evolved with time:

a. Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) workers: In 19^th century, Chinese from Fujian and Guangdong Provinces arrived in Canada as laborers to help building the cross Canada railway while leaving their wives and children behind. These first generation immigrants worked under discriminatory conditions. They received low wages and sometimes being asked to perform dangerous tasks.

b. Restaurant and laundry businesses: When the CPR construction was completed, these Chinese immigrants began to set up their own business in China town, isolating themselves from the rest of the Canadian society because of their language barrier or of not being able to get employment in the main stream society. Many of them could not afford to pay the infamous Head Tax to bring their families from back home to Canada. The head tax was established after the passage of the Chinese Immigration Act which stipulated that any Chinese person immigrating to Canada must pay a substantial amount of tax upon entering the country. In 1923, immigration from China was completely banned when the government under William Lyon Mackenzie King enacted the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. The Chinese exclusion act was abolished in 1947 when Canada signed the United Nations Charter of Human Rights. In the same year, the Chinese Canadians were granted the voting right on the ground of Human Rights.

c. Educated Chinese Immigrants as war refugees: In 1940s, there was another new wave of Chinese who arrived in Canada as war refugees. These people tended to have higher education and were wealthy enough to pay their passage to Canada to escape the turmoil in China.

d. Undergraduate or graduate students: Since 1950s, many wealthy Hong Kong families sent their children to the U.S. or Canada for undergraduate studies. However, there were very few Taiwanese who could afford or could have special connection to get permissions to go abroad. The only way to pursue advanced study in western countries for most Taiwanese university graduates at the time was to apply for scholarship from Graduate Schools of host countries. Many of these students who studied in Canada eventually obtained their citizenships and settled in Canada.

e. Immigrants from South East Asia: In 1960s, serious anti-Chinese riots erupted in South East Asia that triggered some Indo Chinese families to move to Canada and the U.S. After the Vietnam War in 1975, many of the Indo Chinese fled communist rule in small boats, some of them perished without even reaching the shores of neighboring countries. Canada was one of the countries that accepted some of these refugees in the late 1970s.

f. Wealthy Chinese immigrants: In 1990s after several decades of economic growth in Taiwan and Hong Kong, many wealthy families arrived in Canada or the U.S. as investment immigrants. The motives of some of these people to immigrate were to have their children educated in Canada. They often traveled back and forth to conduct their business back home after settling their wives and children in monstrous mansions in Canada.

6. Canadian Born Chinese (CBC): The Canadian born Chinese are children or descendants of Chinese Canadians. Unlike first generation Chinese immigrants who speak Mandarin or other Chinese dialects, many CBCs speak very little Chinese or none at all. Although some well educated Canadian born Chinese are knowledgeable about their parental culture because of their intellectual curiosity or a desire to know their roots, others are ignorant about their origin and shared very few of their parents’ values. They are sometimes called bananas (Yellow outside but White inside).

7. Professional Trainings of CBC: Despite diverse regional identities among people of Chinese origin, ethnic Chinese especially first generation immigrants, revere high education in general. In ancient China, the imperial examination system could be traced back to the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.). The imperial examinations were actually public service examinations based on which high ranking officials were appointed. The system was believed to be the finest of its time, because any male person could potentially become rich and powerful through education and examinations, regardless of one’s social status, wealth or religion. Because of this tradition, many Chinese immigrants strongly believe that the passport to financial security of their children in this new world would be to push their children through the highest education that they could possibly attain. Most Chinese immigrants encourage their children to study medicine, engineering, science, law, commerce or any areas that are likely to secure an employment upon graduation. In fact, most Canadian born Chinese, particularly from educated families, did very well in their professional areas after long years of educational trainings and professional accreditations.

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian-born_Chinese

2. http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Chinese_Canadian

3. http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Overseas_Chinese

4. http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/E/E-boatpeopl.asp

1. http://dmoz.org/Society/Ethnicity/Asian/Eastern/Chinese/Chinese_Canadian/

2. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/home/index.cfm