Culture and Religion

It is often assumed that, since the Chinese came from countries where the language and culture are different from those in Canada, their religion and customs would reflect patterns distinct from Western practice. In reality, it is difficult to establish to what extent so-called traditional Chinese religions and customs are to be found in the Chinese-Canadian community, for even in mainland China and Hong Kong, where most of the recent immigrants have originated, many traditional cultural aspects have undergone radical changes. In Hong Kong, for instance, traditional Chinese festivals such as the Lunar New Year (Chun Jie), the Ching Ming Festival (Qing Ming Jie), and the Dragon Boat Festival (Duan Wu Jie) are celebrated along with Christmas, New Year, and Easter. Many different religions are practised in Hong Kong; about half a million, or 10 percent of the population, are Christian, and Hong Kong has 350 Chinese temples.

Statistics from the 1991 census of Canada show that 59 percent of Chinese Canadians reported no religious affiliation and 29 percent belonged to the Christian religion. About 12 percent said that they were Buddhist. The sizable number of Chinese in Canada who declared Buddhism as their religion probably reflects its historical importance in China. At the same time, the large percentage of Chinese belonging to the Christian faith may result from the impact that Christianity has had in places such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, and to a lesser extent mainland China, as well as the churches’ activities in Canada. The Methodist Church established a mission among the Chinese in Victoria as early as 1885, and in the following decade the Anglican and Presbyterian churches followed suit. These groups organized other activities in order to convert the population. The Methodist Church opened a home in Victoria in the 1880s to assist Chinese prostitutes. The churches also provided educational programs for the Chinese; the most popular were the evening English classes, which attracted many thousands of adults over the years. The Chinese in Canada celebrate the Western festivals; in addition, many observe the Lunar New Year. Since it is not an official holiday in this country, celebrations are limited, except in large cities such as Vancouver and Toronto, where public events are usually staged.

The language patterns of Chinese Canadians also reflect the predominance of the first generation. Among those of Chinese ethnic origin in the 1986 census, 73 percent reported Chinese as their first language. However, of those born outside Canada, the proportion was over 83, as compared with only 47 percent among those born in the country. Chinese was also reported as the language most often used at home among 78 percent of the foreign-born, while only 41 percent of the native-born stated that they used Chinese at home. Of the 586,645 individuals of Chinese single origin reported in the 1991 census, 76 percent (447,095) gave Chinese as their first language. These statistics suggest that the community is experiencing a language loss in that it has not been able to retain Chinese as the first language or the one most often spoken at home. The loss tends to be more severe among those born in Canada than among foreign-born Chinese. In terms of the ability to speak the official languages of Canada, the 1986 census indicates that Chinese Canadians were predominantly anglophones; 75 percent of the foreign-born and 82 per cent of the native-born spoke English. Nevertheless, almost 20 percent of Chinese born outside Canada and 8.2 percent of those born in Canada spoke neither one of the two official languages.

The Chinese community in Canadian cities has been well served by Chinese newspapers since the first decade of the twentieth century. Several were published in Vancouver at one time or another; of these, the longest-running daily was, Hua ying jat bo (1906–1910), later called Tai hon kong bo (The Chinese Times; Vancouver, 1907–92). Other dailies, weeklies, and monthlies followed in later years: Hsin ming kuo pao (The New Republic; Victoria and Vancouver, 1958–1988); Hua pu tsa chih (Chinatown News; Vancouver, 1953–); and the daily Ch’iao sheng jih pao (The Chinese Voice; Vancouver, 1953–88).

Several Chinese newspapers also appeared in Toronto, including two dailies, Hung chung shi pao(The Chinese Times, 1929–1956) and the Shing wah yat po (Shing wah Daily News; Toronto, 1922–1989), which began as a daily but after 1983, appeared as a monthly.

Today, both Vancouver and Toronto are served by three major Chinese newspapers which operate as subsidiaries of major newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Sing Tao Daily has been publishing in Toronto since 1975, and in Vancouver since 1983. The World Journal, another daily, has been circulating in Toronto and Vancouver since 1976. Since 1993, Ming Pao Daily News, has been the dominant Chinese newspaper in Toronto and Vancouver. These newspapers claimed a total daily circulation of over 100,000 in Toronto, and 70,000 in Vancouver. They are widely available elsewhere by mail order, and cities such as Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Edmonton also have their own local Chinese-language newspapers.

Other types of Chinese media have become established in Canadian cities by the mid-1990s. Vancouver has two Chinese radio stations, as well as two Chinese televison stations operated by Fairchild Television (100 hours a week) and Talentvision. (120 hours a week). Toronto has five Chinese radio stations, and two televison stations run either by Fairchild Television (120 hours a week) or by CFMT and Channel 47 (at least 2 to 3 hours a day). Some of the programs operated by Fairchild Television are also aired in other cities such as Edmonton and Calgary.

Chinese-Canadian art and culture have displayed features of traditional Chinese art forms as well as influences of Canadian experiences. The arrival of large numbers of post-war immigrants and the growth of native-born Chinese-Canadians have increased the pool of Chinese-Canadian writers and artists, some of whom are well-trained in both Chinese and Canadian art and culture. The expansion of international trade and exchanges have also brought more contacts between the east and the west, and traditional Chinese arts such as calligraphy and painting are becoming much more accessible in Canadian cities. Some community organizations and cultural centres now offer instructions and sponsor exhibitions of calligraphy and painting by local and international artists.

In the visual arts the work of Chinese Canadians ranges from traditional painting, printmaking, seal carving, and calligraphy to abstract images, sculpture, installations, and video. Ying Wong, who was born and trained in China, is the author of books on Chinese calligraphy and bird and flower painting. The Vancouver artist Chung Hung is well known for his large public sculptures in a modern idiom. In 1983 the newly established Chinese-Canadian Visual Arts Society of Vancouver organized the first large-scale exhibit of Chinese-Canadian artists in the city. Titled Insight ‘83 and including the work of fifty artists ranging from the traditional to the contemporary, it was intended to show the contributions of members of the community to Canadian art. It included the work of fashion designers Simon Chang and Alfred Sung. In the group exhibition Self Not Whole, sponsored by the Chinese Cultural Centre of Vancouver in 1991, six artists – Ana Chang, Diana Li, Mary Sui-Yee Wong, Paul Wong, Kiki Yee, Sharyn Yuen – used a variety of media to explore the issue of Chinese-Canadian identity and experiences.

Music and opera societies were formed in early Chinese communities in Canada. As early as the 1870s, three opera clubs in Victoria were devoted to the production of Cantonese opera – a folk tradition popular in Guangdong province where many early Chinese immigrants originated. Dealing with subjects of Chinese mythology, folk history, and popular stories, much of Cantonese opera is sung in traditional southern Chinese tunes accompanied by Chinese instruments. Thus, the production of Chinese opera also meant the development of Chinese music clubs in early Chinese communities. Other opera societies were later formed in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.

Folk dance groups developed in Canada after World War II, when less restrictive immigration laws allowed the communities to expand, and artists trained in dance traditions began entering the country. Like opera, folk dances have a wide repertoire and tell stories from mythology, history, and daily life. Some dance groups have expanded the theme much beyond the confines of traditional stories and staged elaborate dramas based on Canadian experiences; for example, a production called “The Golden Mountain,” put on in Vancouver in 1984, presented the story of Chinese immigration to Canada.

Although examples of literary writing exist from the early days of settlement, it has been with the growth of a Canadian-born generation of Chinese Canadians that a distinctive body of literature written in English language has emerged. Some of these writers came to public attention with the anthology Inalienable Rice (1979), which brought together the work of Chinese and Japanese Canadians in a small edition. More widely available is the collection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry titled Many-Mouthed Birds: Contemporary Writing by Chinese Canadians (1991), edited by Bennett Lee and Jim Wong-Chu. Although submissions were invited in both Chinese and English, the editors eventually chose only those written in English because they felt that the gulf between Chinese and Western literary traditions could not be bridged in translation. Most of the contributors are young, emerging writers who were born in Canada. In various ways they draw on their cultural background and the wider experiences as Chinese Canadians. A common theme is the question of identity, both personal and collective, explored through the past. They see their work as a way of breaking through the “wall of silence and invisibility” that has surrounded them.

Some of the writers represented in Many-Mouthed Birds were already well known. Fred Wah, a poet and teacher born in Saskatchewan, has published many volumes of poetry. His collection Waiting for Saskatchewan won the Governor General’s Award for poetry in 1985. Paul Yee is the author of a number of award-winning books for adults and children, including Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver (1988). He was also the curator of the 1986 multimedia exhibition, Saltwater City (Ham Sui Fow), that documented a hundred years of the Chinese community in Vancouver. Evelyn Lau’s autobiography, Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid (1989), written from the vantage point of a defiant teenager, provides valuable insights into the life and thoughts of a daughter of a Chinese immigrant family. She has since published several volumes of poetry, short stories, and the novel Other Women (1996). Sky Lee’s first novel, Disappearing Moon Cafe, won the Vancouver Book Award for 1990 and was short-listed for a Governor General’s Award. Finally, Denise Chong has completed her first book, The Concubine’s Children: Portrait of a Family Divided (1994), and Wayson Choy has published a novel, The Jade Peony (1995).

Canadian broadcast and print journalism has in particular been enriched by writers of Chinese background. Adrienne Clarkson, who served as the Ontario’s agent general in Paris during the 1980s, is a widely known television figure and has established herself as an accomplished journalist, novelist, and publisher. Jan Wong, former Beijing correspondent for the Globe and Mail, is a third-generation Canadian who wrote a widely acclaimed account of her years as a student in China in the 1970s, entitled Red China Blues (1996). The Hong Kong-born journalist Der Hoi-Yin was for several years the national business correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s television news program.

In the field of contemporary music, the classical composer, pianist, and teacher Alexina Louie is perhaps the best known Canadian of Chinese descent. While teaching in California, she studied aspects of eastern music, including the Chinese tradition, and some of her compositions fuse elements from these sources with Western music in the modern idiom. In 1986 the Canadian Music Council named Louie composer of the year. Hope Lee, also a composer, pianist, and teacher, was born in Taiwan and received her musical education in Canada. Her compositions have been described as “complex atonal music that avoids traditional forms,” but some of them have been inspired by Chinese music, poetry, and history. Lee has also become an accomplished performer on the ch’in, a traditional stringed instrument. Ka Nin (Francis) Chan has drawn on his Chinese heritage for many of his compositions, although he makes use of contemporary techniques, such as combining voice, bowed percussion, and synthesizer. Other accomplished musical performers who have lived or still live and work in Canada are Samuel Wong from Hong Kong, the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; the pianist Lee Kum Sing from Sumatra; and popular singer, lyricist, and video jockey, Sook-Yin Lee.

Several Canadian film-makers have drawn on their Chinese heritage in some of their work. Toronto-born Keith Lock’s A Brighter Moon (1986) was nominated for a Gemini Award, and his feature film Small Pleasures was chosen to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1993. Mina Shum’s first feature film, Double Happiness (1994) tells the story of a young Chinese Canadian struggling to be an actress. In 1995 it was chosen to open the Berlin film festival. Richard Fung’s work, which includes Orientation: Gay and Lesbian Asians (1985) and The Way to My Father’s Village (1988), has also drawn critical comment. A remarkable figure in the performing arts is Dock Yip. Born in Vancouver, he became the first Asian Canadian called to the bar. He was very active in the Chinese community during the 1940s and worked for the repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act. At the age of eighty, he began another career as an actor, playing a Tong leader in the film The Year of the Dragon (1985).