On reflection, on resilience

Reflections on Eating Bitterness: The Canadian Journey from Exclusion to Inclusion exhibition
by Christine Cheung

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Growing up in Calgary in the ‘80s, I had a hint from Canadian historical ads on TV that Chinese Canadians built the Canadian Pacific Railway (1881-85), but I didn’t really feel connected to these workers. 

Despite being born and raised in Canada, I thought being Chinese Canadian was a relatively new thing, although I was aware of being different. My elementary teacher once remarked, “Wow, we have six Chinese kids in our class of thirty!” Perhaps there was a sense of shame around both my class and my race.  There was a disconnect between these bachelor Chinese men who built the railways, without their family and children, and the newer wave of Chinese Canadians in the ‘70s, who were mostly arriving from Hong Kong, like my father. He and my mother, who is from Taiwan, emigrated to Canada in the hope of a better life.

Unbeknownst to many, including my teacher and parents, Won Alex Cumyow, a Chinese Canadian public servant and community worker actually voted for the first time in 1890 in British Columbia. However, provincial voting legislation in 1895 stripped Chinese (as well as Japanese and First Nations) peoples’ voting rights in elections in B.C. 

After the railway was finished in 1885, the Canadian government implemented a head tax on the workers in an attempt to slow down immigration. This tax demanded that they pay $50 in 1885. It was raised to $100 in 1900, and later $500 (the equivalent of two years’ salary at the time) in 1903. Eventually, between 1923 and 1947, Chinese were barred from entering the country, creating long separations between family members and creating a mostly bachelor society.  It was called The Chinese Immigration Act, 1885 (also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act). It had no precedent. This law specifically targeted people of Chinese heritage. 

The story of the Chinese Exclusion Act is unique to Chinese Canadians, but the story of the resistance and resilience of Chinese Canadians is applicable to everyone, including all Canadians. This type of discrimination could happen again. Without this movement, I would not have been able to have been born and raised in Canada.  Without people like the elementary school teacher Vivian Jung, journalist and labour activist Wong Foon Sien, community activist Jean Lum; and civil rights advocate and Second World War veteran and politician Donald Jung, Canada would probably look very different than it does now – there would be far, far fewer Chinese Canadians.  I owe my current freedom, as a Canadian citizen and as an artist, not only to my parents, grandparents and ancestors, but also to the Chinese Canadians who fought vigilantly for these exclusionary laws to be dismantled. I believe all Canadians benefit from our multicultural society. Their story can be recognized in all of us, and has paved the way to our present and future life and place in society. 

There is a paradox in labelling.  How can we acknowledge our past and move forward without being constrained by oppression or trauma? It was such a long hard battle for so many – including many Chinese Canadians who fought in the Canadian Armed Forces – to even be seen as Canadian, to be recognized as part of the country. But regardless of what labels were attached to them, they were more than willing to contribute, without any promise of credit or reward, like the Chinese Canadian veterans. This sense of humbleness can be an admirable trait, but conversely, can be seen as a detriment in attaining leadership roles within the current Canadian systems. These effects continue to be felt today and to what extent have we internalized racism?

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There were many who overcame occupational restrictions and who were leaders in their community (though these leaders did not work in isolation). For example, Joseph Hope, 1896 – 1960, a civil rights lawyer who fought for the right of Chinese Canadian veterans to serve in the military, and worked with the Chinese Canadian Club in Victoria to overcome segregation. The club itself called themselves “Chinese Canadian” as a positive affirmation.  These actions were happening parallel to the civil rights movement in the US.

The brave action of this one individual would spark further and lasting action within the community.  Hope gave a speech that inspired Kew Dock Yip, the first Chinese Canadian to be called to the Bar. Yip worked together with his friend, Jewish lawyer Irving Himmel, and together, along with the community, in 1947 they successfully lobbied for the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. 

I believe in the importance of mentorship in connecting communities, to see a diversity of people reflected in positions of power.  I first met Teresa Woo-Paw, a social worker turned activist then politician, and currently the founder and Chair of the Action Chinese Canadians Together Foundation (ACCT), in 2006.  I have been lucky to have worked with her intermittently for over fifteen years and she has helped to bring me into the fold of numerous community projects, including an educational campaign about the Chinese Head Tax. We worked together on educational and cultural projects, with a focus towards the history of Chinese Canadians and anti-racism. Teresa was one of the key figures in commemorating this history at the Senate. Her leadership for the project came through as her family was impacted by the Chinese Exclusion Act. 

On June 23, 2023, there was a commemoration of the centennial for the Chinese Exclusion Act at the Senate in Ottawa. For this important event, curator Jiaqi Wu, from the office of Senator Yuen Pau Woo, created an initial, visually impactful exhibition featuring two head certificates in large panel form, and other displays at the Senate. ACCT Foundation, Teresa and the project advisory committee members believe an educational exhibition that tells the broader story of Chinese Canadian community before and since the Chinese Exclusion Act with a focus on the much less known resistance and resilience of the community would create greater impacts than just focus on the institutional facts of the law. This exhibition brought together community members, academia, and artists – myself included – through long creative journey to create the exhibition. 

The challenge in creating the exhibition Eating Bitterness: The Canadian Journey from Exclusion to Inclusion was to develop a temporary travelling exhibition which tells the story of the Chinese Exclusion Act in an original, more hopeful way. At the same time, we wanted to raise awareness of the barriers that are faced by the Chinese Canadian community and other communities that need to be overcome. 

As part of ACCT, alongside Teresa Woo-Paw, Areum Kim, Iris Li, Kenneth Leung, Justin Poy and his team, historian Timothy Stanley, Dr. Matt Patterson and myself, along with countless others, set out to create an additional exhibition to round out the story. We brainstormed various angles, and learned a lot from Stanley, who reminded us that Vancouver and BC would not exist as we know it today without the work of these Chinese Canadian workers. He also pointed out how the communities inspired each other to overcome the draconian head tax laws. 

The team came up with the metaphor of “Eating Bitterness” which is derived from a Chinese proverb about resilience: ‘eating’ bitterness – as in experiencing adversity – often results in strength. We wanted to show the resilience of the community and the acts that individuals and groups have accomplished over the years despite fierce discrimination. 

It was also important for us to acknowledge that Canadians live on the borrowed land of the First Nations, who still have to deal with divisive Canadian laws. We were also careful to create a timeline which reflected the journey of other groups, such as the Japanese internment camps during the Second World War or the discriminatory dismantling of Africville in Halifax in the 1970s. These were necessary in showing a historical context for our collective struggle for inclusion. 

Without the destruction and injustices, none of us would be in the Canada that we know today. Yet in acknowledging the traumas of the past, we can attempt to repair them and encourage more empathy towards others. 

One individual whose story we captured was Vivian Jung, a Chinese Canadian elementary school teacher. In one image, she stands smiling proudly among her students, most of them white, against the backdrop of the school. 

Many know of the courageous story of African-American Rosa Parks, who refused to sit at the back of the bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, USA in 1955. But before Rosa Parks, Canada had its own story of resistance and kinship in response to the Chinese Exclusion Act.  

Jung had to overcome many hurdles. In order to become a school teacher, she had to get her swimming certificate, but because of her race, she was forbidden from entering the swimming pool. This was at the Vancouver Outdoor Crystal Garden Pool, owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway at the time. When she was refused entry to the pool, white bystanders, including her instructor and classmates, also refused to enter in protest, and this led to the demolition of these laws. 

With the help of white allyship, these laws of segregation were overcome. In 1950, Vivian Jung became an educator and was finally permitted to teach by the Vancouver School Board, overcoming segregation and occupational barriers.

In one particularly pertinent image, one which led to the writing of this article, two young men are seen posing together carrying a Chinese flag. On the flag is the title: “Too Asian?” 

It was featured in an article titled “Too Asian?” in the 2010 Canadian Guide to Universities and caused a widespread backlash over its racist implications. The title implied that universities could be ‘too Asian’, clearly suggesting xenophobia and promoted stereotypes of Asian students. It dishearteningly suggested that even after all the years of resistance, Chinese Canadians are still foreigners and always would be, no matter how much they integrated. The main message seemed to be that Canada could be multicultural, as long as the majority was white.  

What makes someone Canadian? With this exhibition, we wanted to connect the exclusion law – which ended less than eighty years ago – and its impact on our perception of what it means to be Canadian today. 

The exhibition has been shown at Borealis Gallery (at the Alberta Legislature), Calgary City Hall Atrium, and the Chinese Cultural Centre of Toronto. For the first time this summer, I was able to see the exhibition in person at the Victoria Chinatown Museum. I had gone to this museum in the past some years before. I remember how busy it was and how enthusiastic and welcoming the volunteers were. Victoria’s Chinatown, with its narrow streets, is famous in Canada for being the first and oldest Chinatown, attracting a buzz of visitors daily in the summer.  I felt this was an excellent choice of venue and was glad for the chance to help the Victoria team install the show. 

Experiencing the exhibition firsthand helped me to concretize all the months of hard work, the countless online meetings and care that had gone into creating this show. Together, John Adams, his colleague and I worked together to finish installing the exhibition in Victoria. I was struck that they took so much care with this troubling period of history, even though they were not Chinese Canadian themselves. Putting up each panel together, and witnessing people read and interact with the history made it a physical, tangible experience, which I was honoured and proud to be a part of. 

Creating this exhibition changed me in the sense that it broadened my sense of various individuals who have contributed to Canadian history that have helped to make Canadians more inclusive. These included well known figures, but many were also everyday people, including my many ACCT colleagues and everyone who helped to make the project happen. An important element of the project was to also invite our visitors to participate and tell their stories, in recognition that we are all a part of the Canadian story. Thanks to those who have come before us, we have the freedom to choose how we identify ourselves. 

Currently, these issues are again on the rise and as nationalism increases around the world, as workers continue to be exploited, resistance is more important than ever. Resistance means actually taking oneself out of victimhood and stepping forward in an attempt to mould the future. How do we remember the past? How we think of it shapes the present. This was the reason our team was careful to focus on resistance and its impacts, rather than the law only.  

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As an artist, I ask myself about the difficulties in the world in the present day and what inclusion could look like. Who belongs and who doesn’t? Can we accept uncertainty? What are we not allowed to say today? How do we self-censor ourselves? What kinds of laws affect our present-day life and perceptions? The story of resistance is important in highlighting that laws can affect people and their place in society. Do we still have the freedom to resist? How can we be good allies to each other? 

In her essay, “We who are free, are we free,” Helene Cixous, a Jewish-French writer wrote, “Do we need a camp, a prison, a war, to free us from our indifference to ourselves and from our fear of others? So that we do not forget our good fortune?”  

This story goes beyond nationality and hints at the larger questions of our humanity. It is about humans overcoming painful circumstances, being able to help each other and to acknowledge difficult histories, in order to grow, perhaps, even beyond borders. I am grateful to be a part of this exhibition and would thank like to thank ACCT and everyone who made it possible.  We are still on the journey to inclusion and we all have a role to play.

[Editor’s Note: Eating Bitterness: The Canadian Journey from Exclusion to Inclusion is currently on display at the Victoria Chinatown Museum until October 26.]

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Christine Cheung is a Canadian artist, curator, and cultural worker who divides her time between Berlin and Calgary/Vancouver. Her work spans painting, performance, sculpture, writing, and video and has been shown internationally. She currently teaches Experimental Studio with Pratt Berlin.

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster