(Question from east to west) Ding Guo: How do Chinese Canadians find their place in the gap between East and West?
China News Service, Toronto, September 8th, title: How do Chinese Canadians find their place in the gap between East and West?
China News Agency reporter Yu Ruidong
Canada is an important city where overseas Chinese live together.
However, since the first overseas Chinese moved here more than a hundred years ago, the Chinese still face the difficulty of integration.
How should Chinese Canadians find their place in the current "crack" between the East and the West, and how to improve their social visibility, and how to speak up and strive for a better social status?
Ding Guo, the founding president of the Chinese Canadian Association of Hundreds and a senior media person, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service on "Question of East and West", "giving the pulse" to the positioning and development of the Canadian Chinese community.
The summary of the interview record is as follows:
Reporter from China News Service: Do you think that the Chinese community in Canada and North America as a whole has insufficient integration or even marginalization? What's the reason?
Ding Guo: For more than 100 years, the problem of the marginalization of Chinese in Canadian society has always existed.
There are three main reasons why this problem continues to this day.
First, the historical cognition of Canadian society does not regard the Chinese as part of the mainstream historical narrative.
More than a hundred years ago, the Chinese were regarded as cheap foreign labor.
But in fact, judging from the history of the founding of British Columbia (BC for short), the Chinese are part of the history of the founding of the province and part of the history of the founding of Canada.
Many Chinese did not realize the importance of their status in the early days, but this does not mean that their status does not exist.
Whether it is the construction of the Pacific Railway, the gold rush, or the capital accumulation and economic development of BC, this can be clearly demonstrated.
The issue of historical perception in Canadian society has not changed. Even European immigrants who came to Canada for only four months dare to say "go back to China" to the Chinese who have settled here for several generations.
In addition to the history of the Chinese, Canada’s historical narrative of the aboriginals is also wrong. This can be seen from the tragedy of the aboriginal boarding school. They believe that the aboriginals are “barbarians” who need to be “enlightened”, which has caused many tragedies. .
Canadian society does not regard the Chinese as the masters of BC in the historical narrative, and this problem has not been resolved for more than 100 years.
My new book and long-standing article propose to correct this historical narrative, including promoting the establishment of a Chinese History Museum.
The history of BC has a multicultural background. The Chinese and aboriginals have helped each other in history, setting a model of peaceful coexistence between different ethnic groups, and the degree of harmony with each other far exceeds that of the British and French ethnic groups that have always distrusted each other and even had wars.
Second, the reasons of the Chinese themselves.
The early Chinese did not realize their status as the founder of BC and the founder of Canada. Later Chinese still regarded themselves as "passengers", unable to integrate into the local society, forgetting the sense of responsibility and participation, and lacked the sense of ownership.
Observing the law, paying taxes, and voting are the three basic obligations of citizens, but the turnout rate of Chinese citizens is low.
Insufficient awareness of their own status has contributed to marginalization and even discrimination.
In this regard, we need to reflect.
Third, from a realistic point of view, with the changes in the international situation, especially the intensification of confrontation between some Western countries and China, Canadian society has confused the relationship between overseas Chinese and China. Some people regard the Chinese as part of China or with the Chinese government. People with connections have caused racial discrimination and the marginalization of the Chinese have become more serious.
The Chinese community "pays the bill" for the deterioration of Sino-Western relations and has become a "scapegoat."
Data map: Chinatown in the Central District of Toronto, Canada.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yu Ruidong
Reporter from China News Service: In recent years, the Western world has increasingly criticized and condemned China, which has made some Chinese in Canada feel that they are in a "crack". How to adjust and change this feeling?
Ding Guo: The important thing is to do your own thing.
The world situation is not controllable by ordinary people. You must have a normal mentality.
Being a Canadian Chinese, but not fully participating in Canada, this is an important issue.
As Canadian citizens, we can vote on state affairs including foreign policy.
But we still have to recognize that we are only a small part of Canadian citizens.
In fact, the degree to which you can exert influence depends on how much you participate.
Therefore, it is necessary to establish confidence in the positioning of the Chinese in Canada.
With historical status and self-confidence, the "victim mentality" will decrease.
The "victim mentality" sometimes exaggerates the hostility of the outside world and reduces the perception of one's own responsibility.
Self-positioning is a "double-edged sword."
On the one hand, it brings confidence in positioning, on the other hand, it also brings challenges.
This challenge is what the Chinese as the protagonists of Canada should do. It is problematic to hide from the side and not participate at all.
China News Agency reporter: You have said many times that the Chinese community in Canada needs to increase social visibility. How to understand this concept?
Ding Guo: At the political level, Chinese people must fulfill their responsibilities and obligations as Canadian citizens, that is, voting and participating in politics.
In terms of socio-economic status, there is a problem with the economic power of the Chinese and the proportion of the Chinese in the Canadian economic structure.
It is a pity that the Chinese did not actively rely on their own economic strength to enter the backbone of the Canadian economy.
In some other areas overseas, although the Chinese have entered the backbone of the economy, they are "second-class citizens" politically. Because there is no institutional guarantee, the Chinese cannot become soldiers, policemen, etc.
In Canada, the system guarantees that the Chinese can participate in politics fairly, but the Chinese have not actively participated in it.
The number of Chinese Canadians in government offices is out of proportion to the population.
But we did not reflect on this issue. For example, in social service fields such as firefighters and police, the Chinese did not do enough.
And this is precisely an important manifestation of social visibility.
In addition, Chinese Canadians have made insufficient contributions to social donations and hospital donations.
For example, in the fundraising of the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation in North Vancouver, Chinese donations accounted for less than 1%, which is far lower than the proportion of Chinese in the local population. This is because the Chinese do not regard charitable donations as an investment in the next generation.
The Chinese leave a lot of property to their children, but they may still be discriminated against in this society in the future.
This discrimination may even become institutional discrimination.
Therefore, the social visibility of Chinese Canadians is not high, not only because they have not participated in politics, but also because they have insufficient social visibility in terms of social contribution and neighbor relations.
This also leads to a bad case among the Chinese, which will be enlarged and grouped.
We must oppose racial discrimination and unfair treatment, but we must also review whether we can do more and better.
Data map: The Toronto Chinese Association of Canada organized a demonstration by car on the periphery of the Ontario Provincial Assembly to oppose racism and call for an end to hatred of Asians.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yu Ruidong
China News Agency reporter: "Canada's Chinese Gene", which you co-authored with Zhang Kangqing and Zhang Yiyuan, was published on the 150th anniversary of Canada's National Day in 2017. Recently, the English version of the book (by Ding Guo and Zhang Kangqing) was also released. Why is there a "Chinese gene" in Canada?
Ding Guo: "China" here is not a political concept.
"Canada's Chinese Gene" is about the historical positioning of the Chinese.
In Canada, there are Chinese genes in the construction of BC.
European immigrants have played an important role in the construction of Canada's system.
But the Chinese also played a major role in the construction of the Pacific Railway, the gold rush, and especially the establishment of a province in BC.
Canada’s past federal leaders also admitted that without the Chinese, it would be difficult to build the Pacific Railway successfully.
Therefore, it can be said that Chinese genes exist in the history of the Canadian Federation.
At the same time, this gene comes from multiple cultures.
Multiculturalism in Canada did not start when the multicultural policy was announced in 1971.
In the process of establishing a province in BC, the diverse cultures of different ethnic groups have played a role and shaped history.
As emphasized earlier, the relationship between the Chinese and the indigenous people can become a model of ethnic coexistence today.
This model has appeared in the early history of BC.
All these indicate that there are Chinese genes in the history of Canada and BC.
China News Agency reporter: Now Canada has entered the election campaign period again. How should the Chinese speak up better and fight for their status better?
Ding Guo: Voting is an important factor. Chinese people cannot stay out of the election.
But voting should be autonomous. It should not follow the trend of voting and people's opinions. It should be based on understanding and knowledge, and it takes time to understand candidates and political parties.
In fact, every election is the best opportunity for civic education.
This is something that you can't learn from the materials memorized during naturalization. Everyone has to work hard to understand and participate.
On the basis of voting, we encourage more outstanding Chinese in the community to participate in the election. The era of simply "Chinese people choose Chinese" has passed.
Sometimes a poorly qualified candidate will destroy the overall image of the Chinese community.
It has been more than half a century since Zheng Tianhua was elected as Canada's first Chinese member of the House of Representatives.
We can't just be satisfied that there are Chinese faces in the Canadian Parliament. Now we have to consider how Chinese participate in the process of national and economic construction.
The Chinese have unique views that European immigrants do not possess. In this era of rapid change, Chinese wisdom should be brought into play in the mainstream society of Canada or in the process of governing the country, provinces, and cities.
Data map: Chinatown Spring Festival Parade held in Chinatown, Vancouver, Canada.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yu Ruidong
China News Service: In addition to the Chinese and Asians who need to make more efforts, how to promote the white mainstream society to make changes?
Ding Guo: On the one hand, we must deal with racial discrimination head-on.
Canada’s mainstream value system has zero tolerance for any racial discrimination.
On the other hand, it must be solved through practical education.
Many people have misunderstandings about history, leading to prejudice against the Chinese. This needs to be resolved through education.
The important reason why I vigorously promote the construction of the Chinese History Museum is the educational function of the museum.
Of course, this is not a matter of one or two days. It may take one, two, or three generations of work, but it must be done.
Today, BC is still the place with the highest proportion of crimes against Asians. This is worthy of our vigilance, because this is the place where Chinese emigrated to Canada and the place where Chinese Canadians participate in politics.
(over)
About the interviewee:
Ding Guo, a senior Chinese media political commentator, and the founding president of the Canadian Chinese-American 100 Association. He has won the Canadian Jack Webster Journalism Award, the first prize in the academic category of overseas Chinese writing, and various literary and journalism writing awards. He studied for a master's and doctoral degree at Rikkyo University in Japan, and then immigrated to Canada in the early 1990s. He is currently a news producer and program host of Canadian Multicultural Television Station, a visiting professor at Shanghai Normal University; a columnist for many magazines and newspapers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and has published a variety of books such as commentaries and immigration history.